A pitch clock is coming to Major League Baseball.

Under the new rules, pitchers have 15 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty and 20 seconds with runners on.

One of the chief criticisms or concerns with a pitch clock is player health. Will pitch clocks put pitchers in a position to be injured with less rest time?

MLB Network is airing a feature about the new rules on Thursday night and on it Theo Epstein said the data shows that pitchers will stay healthier.

"Based on the data that we saw, pitchers actually stayed slightly more healthy operating under the pitch timer than they did without it," Epstein said. "Yes, you can't take 30 seconds between every pitch to maximize your recovery, but maybe that means you don't pitch at max effort every single pitch, the way we've seen a trend developing over recent years.

"So pitchers operate a little bit more quickly, but more aggressive in the zone, more efficient hitters swinging the bat more too."

Essentially what Epstein is saying is that pitchers would aim to throw as hard as possible each pitch knowing they have unlimited rest time. That put them in position to injure themselves by virtue of how much they extended themselves with each pitch.

Under the pitch clock, pitchers will need to work faster and won't be in position to over exert themselves on each pitch.

The data is based on over 8,000 minor league games.

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