MLB To Allow In-Game Pitcher-Catcher Listening Devices

It’s the latest piece of fashion to join MLB for the upcoming season.

To thwart the onslaught of sign-stealing—or at the very least sign-stealing allegations—MLB this season will permit pitchers and catchers to use newly tested signaling devices to call pitches.

Using a wrist pad with buttons on the catcher’s glove hand, PitchCom lets catchers assign pitch and location directly to an earpiece the pitcher is wearing.

As many as three other teammates will also be allowed to wear a listening device.

“I think it was great,” New York Yankees pitcher Luis Severino, who used the technology over the weekend, said. “I was a little doubtful at the beginning, but when we started using it, it was really good—with a man on second, too. I would definitely like to use it in my first [regular-season] start. You know what pitch you’re going to throw right away.”

Old habits die hard in baseball, so the league is still permitting the old-fashioned method with fingers.