George Springer was never much of a base stealer. Even in his mid-20s, when he was a center fielder, perennial All-Star, and World Series MVP, Springer only once stole as many as 10 bases in a season. Twice, in his prime, he was caught stealing more times than he was successful.Then, in 2023, MLB introduced the pitch clock.Springer, at 33 years old and with an average sprint speed at its lowest mark in five years, suddenly started stealing bases at more than double his usual rate. That year, he stole 20 for the first time in his career. Then he stole 16 bases the next year, and 18 the year after that.“Guys can time the clock,” Springer said. “Guys can time the pitcher.”That’s base stealing in the Pitch Clock Era.Since the 2023 rule changes meant to speed up the game on the mound, baseball has unmistakably turned back the clock on the bases. Stolen bases, once treated as a reckless relic of the uneducated past, are at levels not seen since the freewheeling 1980s. There were more stolen bases in 2024 than any season since 1916.But the increase has not been fueled by the audacity of a few elite sprinters. The real surge is in the upper-middle class of baserunners who aren’t necessarily burners but have enough speed to take a bag, and have become more confident and comfortable running against a pitcher who’s up against the clock. The rule changes have not brought back the gaudy stolen bases totals of Lou Brock or Vince Coleman, but they have significantly increased the frequency with which runners break for second base, creating more double-digit base stealers than ever before in the live ball era.Think Dave Henderson, not Rickey Henderson.“When we were talking about it as an organization back in ’23, our fear was never the top-end baserunners,” Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen said. “They were going to steal their bases regardless. It was always the guys who would get their five or six. They might be more aggressive now and get into that 10 or 15 range just because now, advantage is tilted toward them.”Four much-discussed rule changes were introduced in 2023: the pitch clock, a restriction on infield shifts, slightly larger bases, and a limit on disengagements (pitchers can step off or pickoff only twice in an at-bat; if they don’t get a runner out on a third pickoff attempt, the runner is awarded the next base).In conversations with The Athletic, people in and around the game dismissed the larger bases as a factor in the stolen base surge and pointed to the pitch clock, more than the pickoff limits, as the best explanation for the increased thievery.The clock, players say, shifted the sense of pressure and control. A runner’s timing used to be at the mercy of the pitcher, who could hold the ball and vary his delivery to build uncertainty. Now, the pitcher’s timing — and his attention — is at the mercy of the clock, and as those 18 seconds tick, pressure builds not on the runner, but on the pitcher, who becomes more predictable when working within such a limit. Base runners can better pick up on tendencies and time their jumps, replacing hesitancy with certainty as they decide whether to break for second base.“With the clock and the restrictions on picks, guys just fall into patterns,” Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story said. “I think that’s where you see the floor come up a little bit.”