MLB will trial an expansion to PitchCom this upcoming spring training that lets pitchers attach a remote to their belts for signaling pitch calls to catchers. Catchers were able to press buttons on a wrist-worn device last MLB season for pitchers to hear pitch requests via a bone-conduction earpiece inside their hat, but the added remote would enable two-way electronic communication via the pitcher and catcher.
Lindsey Adler of the Wall Street Journal reported news of MLB’s upcoming PitchCom remote experiment, which was confirmed in a tweet from PitchCom. MLB has not yet approved PitchCom’s pitcher transmitter for regular season games. PitchCom’s big-league debut saw voluntary adoption from all 30 clubs last season, with PitchCom co-founder John Hankins telling SBJ that between 90% and 95% of MLB pitchers were using the system by September.
“We’re excited to see how pitchers and clubs use this new capability next spring. This essentially allows a 2-way conversation between pitcher and catcher on strategy without any talking,” PitchCom, a small company in Arizona, wrote on Twitter.
MLB first tested PitchCom in 2021 during Low-A minor league games to combat sign stealing and help improve pace of play. Next spring training’s PitchCom experiment to let pitchers call pitches to catchers will come as MLB is also introducing a new pitch clock for its 2023 season.
