Why pitch tipping is going to be the most talked-about term in 2026

A decade ago, during the 2015 postseason, the Kansas City Royals were marching toward a championship when one of their advance scouts noticed a pitcher’s tip from an upcoming playoff opponent. He couldn’t get that information to Royals hitters fast enough.

“A pitcher was using a black glove and our advance scout picked up light reflecting off that glove,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo recalled recently. “The deal was this: If you see the light reflecting off the glove, it’s his breaking ball. If you don’t see any light, it’s his fastball. Because it’s how he turned his glove at the right angle.

“We scored a bunch of runs because of it.”

In the years since, pitch tipping has become even more prominent in the game. It often seemed to be the story of the 2025 MLB playoffs, coming up in series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, and the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.

The issue came to a head in the World Series when Blue Jays and Dodgers base coaches were asked to stop wandering so far out of the box — perhaps to gain better viewing angles on the pitcher’s hands and gloves while looking to help their hitters in any way possible.

That warning in the 2025 World Series carried over to this season as MLB is enforcing a new rule requiring the base coaches to stay in their box before the pitch is thrown. It’s a good indication of how much time and energy teams are devoting to this issue, combining their staffing with advanced technology in an attempt to pick up the slightest patterns — from their opponents and own pitchers alike..

“There is a lot of paranoia about what the base coaches are doing,” Athletics GM David Forst said. “This is one of the instances where reality is perception.”

What front offices care about even more is making sure their own pitchers don’t tip. Tips can come in so many forms, with many involving the position of a pitcher’s glove and what he’s doing with his fingers. But there are countless ways to tip a pitch.

“One guy, you can tell by his mouth, whether it was open or closed,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Open was one kind of pitch. Closed was another. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious. Everyone can see it.”

ESPN set out to find out what teams are saying about pitch tipping — and how big a deal it is in this era of baseball.

“It’s a big part of the game,” Giants GM Zack Minasian said. “It’s not illegal. If you can see the grip, it’s fair game. It’s not policed like it was 20 years ago. Back then, you might get one high and tight to send a message.”

How much does pitch tipping matter?

Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer: “We had a pitcher last year whose foot was straight when he was going to the plate and had it turned just that much when he was going to first base. So they could just run whenever they wanted. It’s frustrating. We can’t do that.”

Angels GM Perry Minasian: “I’ve seen teams have pitches and not score any runs. It’s still hard to hit. In Texas, we felt like we had Randy Johnson’s pitches, and we were all excited — then we look up and there’s a lot of zeros on the scoreboard.”

Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young: “A former teammate told me I was tipping, but I threw seven shutout [innings] that night. … I got lucky that day, though I can’t remember how I was tipping.”

Perry Minasian: “All 30 of us are worried about all those things. You don’t want to give any opponent an advantage. The margins are so slim, the smallest advantage can tip the scales.”

What are your favorite anecdotes about pitch tipping?

Reds manager Terry Francona: “I wasn’t very good at it, but I knew when they were throwing over to first. I can’t tell you why. … There is so much video now. We want to make it as hard as possible.”

White Sox pitcher Sean Newcomb: “Mine was how fast I was chewing gum. I’d chew aggressively on a fastball then stop on breaking balls. Never knew it was an issue until a teammate told me.”

Padres manager Craig Stammen: “The Dodgers were always on top of that stuff. When they had a runner on second base, I spiked my curveball. I couldn’t hide my glove any better. So every pitch I had, I would try to spike it just to throw them off the scent a little bit. … We are going to spend time on it for sure.”

Zack Minasian: “When I was bat boy, a player would give me a tip to give to the first-base coach to tell the baserunner who then would relay it to the hitter. I was part of the game. That might have happened a couple times. I think I can tell that now.”

Giants manager Tony Vitello: “It was incredibly prevalent in college. SEC is big money. You start trickling down, some teams don’t have the manpower or the video power to dive into as much. The top teams are doing it.

“Guys [in MLB] let runners advance so they’re not on second base. When the game was on in the locker room in college and we saw that, we thought that was pretty wild. That wasn’t happening in college.”

How much of your day is spent on pitch tipping — either preventing your own pitchers’ or finding your opponents’?

Young: “We have a review process independent of outcome. Oftentimes they think they were tipping and we go look and it’s like, ‘No, you were throwing it down the middle.’ It’s a big part of modern-day baseball. It’s as much about prevention than finding out the other team’s tips.”

Forst: “It’s only natural, if the results are bad, you’ll dive more into it.”

Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen: “We spend a lot of time on the defensive pitch tipping with our pitchers. It’s a part of almost all our internal conversations, in one-on-ones with our pitchers. We have staff watching all the time. We’re not sure after a bad game how much is pitch tipping after a bad outing. We try to cross-check that with the other teams sometimes because making changes off of things that aren’t real can also lead you down a bad road.”

Newcomb: “It’s something you bake into your routine. What you do with your glove. What you do with your body. Pitch grips. It starts with playing catch every day so you are worrying about it on start day.

Picollo: “It’s a relentless pursuit. Some teams are better than others at it. We beefed up our efforts after 2023. We have multiple people on our staff, behind the scenes, info from our hitters. It’s an advantage. We can’t turn a blind eye to it.”

Schaeffer: “It needs to be a big part. In the past, it hasn’t been a huge part. This was a high focus in the offseason, bringing people in for this. All it takes is for one team to have a tip on one reliever in one inning and that’s the game. If our guys have a tip, we need to clean it up. It’s going to be a huge focus.”