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1 week ago
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Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season. Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026.
Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams have two challenges per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter – signaled with a tap of the helmet or cap – and a team retain their challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as graphics on outfield videoboards.
Adding robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.
ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system in June 2024, then used the challenge system in spring training this year.
Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges in spring training. In Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.
MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%. Each player will be measured in preseason to endure their height is accurate when being assessed by ABS.
The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete, although the practice is not universally popular.
“The idea that people get paid for cheating, for stealing strikes, for moving a pitch that’s not a strike into the zone to fool the official and make it a strike is beyond my comprehension,” former manager Bobby Valentine said.
Texas manager Bruce Bochy, a big league catcher from 1978-87, maintained old-school umpires such as Bruce Froemming and Billy Williams never would have accepted pitch framing. He said they would have told him: “‘If you do that again, you’ll never get a strike.’ I’m cutting out some words.”
MLB’s competition committee includes team executives as well as players such as Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Cal Raleigh, who leads the majors in home runs this season.
