What Is a Balk in Baseball? I Broke Down 865 MLB Balks

A balk is an illegal move by the pitcher while there's at least one runner on base. The umpire calls it, the play is dead, and every runner moves up one base for free. The batter stays at the plate. The rulebook's own definition is one sentence long: "an illegal act by the pitcher with a runner or runners on base, entitling all runners to advance one base."

The rule exists to keep pitchers from faking out baserunners. And it's a lot rarer than the arguments make it seem. I went through MLB's official play-by-play for every regular-season game from 2022 through 2026 and found 865 balks. That works out to about one every 14 games. 148 of them pushed a run across the plate.

I played baseball growing up, and Steve coached baseball as an adult, including some of my teams. It's also a rule where the call can come on a motion most people in the stands never see. So here's the rule, the 13 ways to commit one, the newer "disengagement" balk, and what the numbers say.

The Balk Rule in Plain English

Balks live in Rule 6.02(a) of the 2026 Official Baseball Rules. The rule only applies when someone is on base. The comment under it says umpires should remember that "the purpose of the balk rule is to prevent the pitcher from deliberately deceiving the base runner," and when there's doubt, "the 'intent' of the pitcher should govern."

That's the whole idea. A runner on first is watching the pitcher for a tell. If the pitcher could start his delivery and then spin and throw to first, or fake a throw and then pitch, the runner could never take a lead. The balk rule forces the pitcher to commit: once his motion says "I'm pitching," he has to pitch, and once it says "I'm throwing to a base," he has to step that way.

Here are all 13 actions in the rule, in plain English:

A couple of these surprise people. Dropping the ball is a balk even if it just slips, because the rule says "accidentally or intentionally." And a pitcher is allowed to fake a throw to second base; the comment on 6.02(a)(3) spells that out. What he can't do anymore is fake to third and throw to first. Per MLB.com, that move was legal for more than 100 years before it became a balk in the 2013 season.

The stop in No. 13 is the one with the most history behind it (more on that below). Rule 5.07(a)(2) says a pitcher coming out of the stretch must hold the ball in both hands in front of his body and "come to a complete stop," and it tells umpires that pitchers "are constantly attempting to 'beat the rule.'"

What Happens After a Balk

The penalty is short: "The ball is dead, and each runner shall advance one base without liability to be put out." Runners move up. The batter keeps his count. Nobody can be thrown out on the play.

There's one big exception. If the pitcher balks but still throws the pitch, and the batter reaches first anyway (on a hit, an error, a walk, a hit batter or otherwise) while every runner moves up at least one base, the play stands and the balk is ignored. So if a pitcher balks and the hitter crushes a home run on that pitch, the home run counts.

A few other details from the rulebook that come up:

• No runners, no balk. With the bases empty, an illegal pitch is just called a ball, under Rule 6.02(b).

• Runners can take extra bases at their own risk. If a pitcher balks and throws wild, runners can try to go farther than the one base they're awarded.

• A run that scores on a balk counts as earned. Rule 9.16(a) lists balks alongside hits and walks as ways a runner can score an earned run, so it goes on the pitcher's ERA (the usual error rules still apply).

• It's not a stolen base. Rule 9.07 says a runner who moves up on a balk doesn't get credit for a steal.

The New Balk: Disengagement Violations

Since the 2023 season, there's a second way to get called for a balk, and it has nothing to do with deception. It came in with the pitch timer.

Per MLB's glossary entry on the pitch timer, pitchers get two "disengagements" per plate appearance. A disengagement is a pickoff attempt or a step off the rubber. The limit resets if a runner advances. If a pitcher tries a third pickoff and doesn't get the out, the runner automatically moves up a base. MLB's balk glossary page says it plainly: "A third disengagement, or a disengagement violation, would result in a balk." Mound visits, injury timeouts and offensive team timeouts don't count against the limit.

In MLB's play-by-play these show up as "Disengagement Violation" instead of "Balk," but they count in the official balk totals. When I added them to the regular balks, my numbers matched the league totals exactly for every season.

They're a real chunk of the total now:

So roughly one balk in six since 2023 is a pitcher running out of pickoff throws, not a pitcher doing anything sneaky. Only 9 of those 117 brought in a run.

How Often MLB Umpires Call a Balk

Here's every season since 2019, using the league totals on Baseball-Reference's MLB pitching page and game counts from the MLB Stats API:

Two things jump out. The 2022 season had 122 balks, the fewest of any full MLB season since 1973. Then in 2023 the number jumped 70%, to 208. Disengagement violations only explain 26 of that jump. Regular balks went from 122 to 182 on their own.

I can't tell you from the data why regular balks spiked. The pitch timer and the pickoff limits arrived the same year, but the play-by-play doesn't say which rule each balk broke, so I'm not going to pretend I know the cause. What I can tell you is that the number has come down every year since: 208, 197, 181, 157.

From my play-by-play pull of all 865 balks from 2022 through 2026:

• 148 (17.1%) scored a run. That's a runner on third walking home.

• 227 (26.2%) moved more than one runner. With runners on first and second, a balk moves both.

• Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt had the most, 11 each across those five seasons.

Who Balks the Most

The team list over the same five seasons, from the MLB Stats API's official team totals:

As a Yankees fan I wasn't thrilled to see my team third. The biggest chunk came in 2023, when Yankees pitchers were called for 15 balks. They had 4 in 2026. At the other end, the Seattle Mariners had 16 over all five seasons.

The all-time records are a different universe:

Carlton's 90 is the all-time mark per MLB.com and the MLB Stats API leaderboard. Bob Welch is second on that career list with 45, half of Carlton's total.

1988: The Year of the Balk

Look at the history and one season breaks the chart. MLB pitchers were called for 356 balks in 1987, then 924 in 1988, then 407 in 1989.

According to Sports Illustrated's look back at that season, the league redefined the "complete stop" for 1988 as "a single complete and discernible stop, with both feet on the ground." Umpires enforced it hard. Oakland's Dave Stewart was called for 16 balks, which is still the record, and teammate Bob Welch had 13. The A's had 76 as a team. SI says it wasn't until May 26 that MLB played a game without a balk, and the rule was changed back before the 1989 season.

The 1963 spike was an earlier version of the same thing. SABR's game story on Bob Shaw explains that the Dodgers, with Maury Wills stealing 104 bases in 1962, lobbied for stricter enforcement of a full one-second pause in the set position. NL umpires had called 48 balks in all of 1962, and the league passed its old single-season record of 76 before the end of April 1963. On May 4, Shaw was called for five balks against the Cubs, four of them with Billy Williams on base. Williams went around the bases in the third inning on a walk and three balks. Three days later, the commissioner and both league presidents agreed to drop the one-second pause.

Balks have been in the rules since 1898, per MLB. But the number called has always depended a lot on what umpires are told to look for.

Three Balks in One At-Bat

You don't need a crackdown for things to get strange. On September 27, 2022, Marlins reliever Richard Bleier was called for three balks in a single at-bat against Pete Alonso at Citi Field. CBS Sports wrote that Jeff McNeil went from first to second, second to third and third to home on the three calls, all made by first-base umpire John Tumpane. Bleier had never balked before in his seven-year career. CBS added that he was the first pitcher with three balks in one inning since Jim Gott of the Pirates on August 8, 1988.

And MLB.com's balk guide has my favorite one: a balk in the 1961 All-Star Game, when the wind at Candlestick Park tipped Stu Miller off the mound.

Quick Answers

What happens on a balk? The ball is dead and every runner moves up one base. The batter keeps his count. If the batter reaches first and every runner advances at least a base on the same pitch, the play stands instead.

Can there be a balk with nobody on base? No. With the bases empty, an illegal pitch is called a ball.

Is a disengagement violation a balk? Yes. Since 2023, a third unsuccessful pickoff attempt or step-off in a plate appearance is a balk, and it counts in a pitcher's balk total.

Is a run scored on a balk earned? Yes, under the normal earned-run rules. Balks are listed with hits and walks in Rule 9.16(a).

Who has the most balks in MLB history? Steve Carlton, with 90. Dave Stewart has the single-season record, 16 in 1988.

Final Thoughts

A balk is the rulebook making the pitcher commit. Once his body says he's pitching, he pitches. Once it says he's throwing to a base, he steps there and throws. Break that and every runner gets a free base. In the 2026 season, MLB umpires called 157 of them, about one every 15 or 16 games, and 22 of those were pitchers who simply ran out of pickoff throws.

How I got the numbers: I used MLB's public Stats API play-by-play for every final regular-season game from 2022 through 2026, and counted every event the API tags as a balk or a disengagement violation. My season counts match MLB's official league totals exactly (122, 208, 197, 181 and 157). Team totals come from the Stats API's team pitching stats. Historical season totals come from Baseball-Reference, and the records come from the Stats API's leaderboards, MLB.com, Sports Illustrated and SABR. The play-by-play doesn't say which of the 13 rules each balk broke, so I didn't try to break them down that way.

If you want more baseball rules and numbers, here's the infield fly rule, how long a baseball game lasts and how the pitch clock changed baseball. Balks don't show up in WHIP, but the runs they let in do count in ERA. For the people making the call, here's how much MLB umpires make. And I did the same kind of breakdown for a safety in football and icing in hockey.

Sources:

• MLB: 2026 Official Baseball Rules

• MLB.com Glossary: Balk & Disengagement Violation

• MLB.com Glossary: Pitch Timer

• MLB.com: What is a balk in baseball? A definitive guide

• MLB Stats API: game play-by-play

• Baseball-Reference: MLB pitching year-by-year averages

• Sports Illustrated: Remember 1988's Year of the Balk? The A's Certainly Do

• SABR: May 4, 1963: Braves' Bob Shaw sets NL/AL record with 5 balks

• CBS Sports: Marlins' Richard Bleier becomes first pitcher called for three balks in one inning since 1988