Alex Cobb. John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: Giants pitcher gifts Marlins star free base with too many pickoff tries

The third time was not the charm for San Francisco Giants pitcher Alex Cobb when it came to trying to pick off Miami Marlins speedster Jazz Chisholm on Wednesday.

While much of the talk on the bevy of MLB rule changes this year has focused on the pitch clock (and to a lesser extent, the infield shift ban), Cobb and Chisholm combined to show one of the other new additions to the game in the bottom of the third inning. Per the Giants-Marlins box score, Cobb was charged with a "disengagement violation" on the play.

Cobb's preoccupation with the 2022 All-Star made sense, as Chisholm had 23 steals in 2021 and 12 last year, despite playing in only 60 games. The 25-year-old (who has moved from second base to centerfield this season) entered Wednesday with five stolen bases in 17 games and has only been caught once.

After Chisholm advanced into scoring position, Cobb was able to get out of the jam by inducing a flyout from Garrett Cooper.

The expectation coming into 2023 was that the limited number of pickoffs would lead to more stolen bases across MLB and that has certainly been the case thus far. Coming into play on Wednesday, Cedric Mullins of the Baltimore Orioles and Nico Hoerner of the Chicago Cubs were tied for the league lead in steals with nine, while a whopping 15 players had already recorded at least five thefts.

There are still nearly two weeks remaining in the first full month of the regular season.

During the entire 2022 campaign, there were only 12 players who had 25 or more steals. If their health cooperates, dozens of the game's fastest baserunners could put up some big-time numbers in 2023.

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