Tick, tock, Manny Machado. Better watch that pitch clock.

Baseball’s new timing device made its big league debut on Friday during a limited schedule of spring training openers and wouldn’t you know it, it was Machado, the San Diego Padres’ All-Star slugger, not a pitcher, who was called for the first violation.

Machado found out the hard way that the pitch clock works both ways. He wasn’t fully in the batter’s box and alert to the Seattle Mariners lefty Robbie Ray as the 15-second clock wound under eight seconds in the bottom of the first inning. Umpire Ryan Blakney called time and signaled strike one against Machado, who finished second in last season’s NL MVP race.

While Machado was bemused, he wasn’t fazed, as he got the first of two singles.

“I might have to make a big adjustment. I might be 0-1 a lot this year, man,” Machado said. “It’s super fast. It’s definitely an adjustment period. Going down in the history books.”

The pitch clock is among several new rules designed to improve pace. Players will have 30 seconds to resume play between batters. Between pitches, pitchers have 15 seconds with nobody on and 20 seconds if there is a baserunner. The pitcher must start his delivery before the clock expires. After a pitch, the clock starts again when the pitcher has the ball back, the catcher and batter are in the circle around home plate, and play is otherwise ready to resume.

Batters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher with at least eight seconds on the clock. Batters can call time once per plate appearance, stopping the countdown.

When a pitcher doesn’t throw a pitch in time, the penalty is an automatic ball. When a batter isn’t ready in time, it’s an automatic strike.

Automated Ball-Strike System inevitable?

Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais spent parts of 11 seasons and nearly 800 games behind home plate as a catcher with four franchises, mostly in the 1990s.

During that era — one dominated by Hall of Famers Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez — the skills needed at backstop were clearly defined.

“Could you throw guys out, how did you do blocking the ball and could you hit with power?” Servais said. “That’s how the position was evaluated.”

A generation later, those attributes have been joined by a more subtle but equally significant skill: pitch framing. During baseball’s data revolution, the fine art of making borderline pitches look like strikes was found to be a game-changing craft — one that could be as impactful as Piazza’s power or Rodriguez’s arm.

The calculus, though, could be about to change, along with an equation that’s included the human element for nearly 150 years.

While pitch clocks, bigger bases and other rules changes debut this year at the major-league level, the Automated Ball-Strike System will receive its biggest experiment yet at Triple-A. ABS will be used four days per week to call every pitch at baseball’s highest minor league level. On the other three days, umpires will traditionally call balls and strikes with a challenge system in place — teams will be able to appeal a handful of calls to the so-called robo-zone each game.

To many, ABS has begun to feel inevitable. Umpires have already agreed to allow it at the major league level when it is ready. Which means that within a season or two, everything around home plate could change.

“It’s going to be here,” Servais said.