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In baseball, the term mound visit refers to a break in the game when a manager or coach from a team dugout comes up to the pitching mound. These intervals are generally used for making pitching changes and discussing strategy. However, they are also ploys for breaking the momentum of the opposing team or delaying the game so that a reliever gets more time to warm up in the bullpen.
Any manager, coach or player visit to the mound counts as a mound visit, as per MLB.com. Exceptions are granted if a person goes up to the mound to clean cleats in rainy weather, to check on a potential injury, and if an offensive substitution has been announced for the opposing team. The rules regarding mound visits have been tweaked regularly over the past few years.
There was no limit on the number and duration of mound visits until the 2016 season, when the MLB introduced a 30-second rule for every trip. The time was counted from the moment the coach or manager stepped inside the pitching mound until he stepped out from the 18-foot circle. They could leave the area temporarily to make a substitution and re-enter it without being counted as two visits.
Until 2017, the only rule limiting the number of visits required the team to change the pitcher if he was visited a second time during the same inning. In 2018, MLB implemented a rule that limited each team to six mound visits (except those for making a pitching substitution) per nine innings. The next year, the limit was brought down to just five for every nine-inning game.
The MLB further curtailed the number at the start of the 2024 season to four per nine innings. However, a team would be granted an extra mound visit if the defensive team had run out of them by the end of the eighth inning. Teams continue to receive an additional trip to the mound for each extra inning played.
Three-batter minimum rule also tweaked along with mound visit
At the end of the 2019 season, MLB introduced a rule that requires pitchers to either face a minimum of three batters in an appearance or pitch to the end of a half-inning, with exceptions for injuries and illnesses.
As per the rule, a pitcher can be brought on to face just one batter if it leads to the end of a half-inning. However, if he comes out again, he must face two more batters to complete his set of three.
This rule was also tweaked at the start of the 2024 season. It now states that barring injury, if a pitcher starts to warm up on the mound, he must face at least one batter (in addition to meeting the requirements of the three-batter minimum rule).
As per MLB, there were 23 instances during the 2023 season in which a pitcher had warmed up on the mound but didn't face a batter.
