Commissioner Rob Manfred shed a little light on the future of robot umpires in Major League Baseball on Thursday following the owners’ meetings in New York.
The introduction of the Automated Ball-Striking System (ABS) is on the horizon, but Manfred said several issues mean the technology won’t be on major league diamonds next season.
“We still have some technical issues,” Manfred said in a news conference Thursday. “We haven’t made as much progress this year in the minor leagues as we would have liked to at this point. I think it’s looking more and more likely that we won’t be able to make it to the ’25 season.”
Automated strike zones have been a part of minor league baseball since 2019.
Beginning in 2023, the Triple-A level will alternate between full ABS, in which the home plate umpire communicates calls through a headset, and a challenge system that allows players to challenge the home plate umpire’s calls through an automated strike zone.
Manfred said the latter system is likely to be the first to be implemented in major league baseball.
“The growing sentiment, based primarily on what we’re hearing from players, is that the challenge form, at least as a starting point, if it’s implemented in major league baseball, should be in the ABS format,” Manfred said.
The commissioner said he initially thought everyone would “wholeheartedly support” the idea of calling balls and strikes “right every time.”
But taking away the “skill” of a catcher’s framing could make players hesitant about a full-scale robotic ball-striking system, he said.
“Players think that it’s part of the art of baseball for a catcher to frame out,” Manfred said. “If it actually became less important, we might see a different type of player at that position.”
“Instead of a defensively focused framing catcher, you can envision a world where the catcher position becomes more of an offensive player. That changes players’ careers. It’s a real and legitimate concern that we need to think through thoroughly before jumping off that bridge.”
