Pardon me for yelling at clouds, but:
Over the past 20 years, most teams have started valuing the Three Slow Outcomes: walks, strikeouts, and homers. It's worked well for the teams that have adopted it, which is now pretty much all of them.
But all three of these outcomes slow things down, either directly or indirectly. None of them even result in a fielder actually doing anything, or any single player running; much less the hitter, baserunners and fielders all sprinting at the same time. Just more standing around, and occasionally a hitter doing some jogging.
This whole offensive approach/defensive counter strategy contributes a lot to the slow pace of games, and even to other issues that fans complain about.
Walks and Ks take a lot of pitches, and with every batter swinging for the fences all the time, pitchers have to nibble a lot more, as if you miss over the heart of the plate, you're a lot more likely to give up a home run than in the past, and less likely to just give up a single.
Most hitters now want to try to lay off pitches that aren't crushable for homers, while most pitchers now throw as hard as they can and try to not miss in the zone, because it's much more damaging now to miss or to throw at less than 100% effort.
It seems like a typical at-bat now goes something like ball, ball, strike, ball, foul, foul-- that can take up to 3 or 4 minutes, and nothing has actually happened.
Compared to baseball of the '70s and 80's, when batters would often swing earlier in the count and swing more for contact, with pitchers working quicker. (It was the style at the time, so they tied onions to their belts!)
So it was more common back then to have quicker at-bats-- a pitch or two, then some action would actually happen. Even if the action was just a routine groundout, at least the game moved along faster, with more actual activity for fans to see.
There's an additional change over the past couple decades that has made games longer and slower that hardly anyone talks about: way more foul balls.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/foul-balls-are-the-pace-of-play-problem-nobodys-talking-about/
More fouls means more pitches with no action, at-bats that take longer, and more pitches in general. All generally making things worse. I have no idea what could be done to cut down on the number of fouls. I think it's just an unintended result of the way the game is played now. And getting away from the 3 Slow Outcomes approach could lead to fewer fouls.
The current HR-K-BB emphasis affects everything-- hitting, baserunning, defense and pitching.
When everyone in the lineup is capable of hitting a bomb at any time, pitchers have to pitch differently. They can't afford to pace themselves, and can't afford to miss in the heart of the zone. Teams want pitchers who throw as hard as possible, to get more strikeouts and hopefully be able to get away with less damage when they do miss over the plate. Baserunners don't steal much or take many risks, because it's bad strategy in a power-heavy environment. Since every hitter is swinging for the fences no matter what, defenses can play extreme over-shifts and take away hits.
I think the game would be better, faster paced, and more interesting if there was more of a balance of strategies and ways to win. I'm not talking about going back to the dead-ball 1960s, but finding a way to reward teams that have lineups more balanced with slap hitters and base stealers along with a few big power guys. Home runs are exciting, but so are triples, and stolen bases, and great catches, and runners gunned down at the plate, and suicide squeeze plays.
The Three Slow Outcomes strategy works best in the current state of the game, so teams are not going to change unless there are sound competitive reasons to change. So maybe baseball can come up with some way to incentivize teams that make more contact, swing earlier in the count, and take more risks on the bases. Those things all tend to happen more in an environment where home runs are less frequent. But that's the complete opposite direction that baseball has moved in recent years.
What could be done to move away from the homer-K-BB emphasis, without huge changes, or negative unintended consequences? Who knows. I'd hope that baseball would recognize this and think about it. I'm not encouraged though.
Here are some things I wish they would think about to try to make the game better and more exciting:
Sure seemed like the baseball was "juiced" last year, so maybe stop doing that, okay? Nobody wants a dead ball with no home runs, but going back to a ball like they had a few years ago could lead to a better "balance of power" which could help to positively impact multiple problems that a lot of people complain about: slow pace, little action, extreme shifts, pitchers not throwing deep in games or throwing that many innings, lots of innings pitched by middle relievers, etc.
Maybe think about gradually limiting the number of pitchers a team can carry, so that individual pitchers would have to pitch more innings. You couldn't do this overnight obviously, but doing it gradually, combined with a less lively ball, could lead to pitchers being able to pace themselves, pitch deeper into games, and not get crushed. The best pitchers in the game could throw more innings, and the worst ones less.
Maybe try expanding the strike zone a bit, so working the count is not as helpful, and hitters swing earlier and more often and make more contact.
Obviously, find a way to prevent sign stealing, like a buzzer system that the catcher and fielders could use, so they don't need to give 3 sets of signals on every single pitch.
And like I said before, work with the umpires to get them to enforce the rules already on the books. No stepping out. 12 seconds to pitch. Find a way to get the umps to enforce it.