Major League Baseball has finally started experimenting with robot umpires, but it might be a while until we see them in regular season games.
During 2025 spring training, MLB has adopted the Automated Ball-Strike system minor league teams have been using. So far, it seems to have been a success, with only minor interruptions to gameplay.
The ABS, or Automated Ball-Strike system, is a pitch-calling system that utilizes Hawk-Eye technology to track pitches on their path to the plate. The system is capable of pinpointing where the ball was in relation to the strike zone as it crosses the plate. It is similar to the line-calling system used in tennis.
The minor leagues have been using ABS since 2022, mostly with a challenge system in place. In that system, the home plate umpire calls balls and strikes, but each team can challenge three pitches per game. The hitter, pitcher or catcher can initiate a challenge immediately after the call is made. Once the challenge is called for, the umpire stops the game and announces the challenge, and the pitch’s tracking is shown on a screen to reveal the correct call.
If the challenging team is successful, they retain their challenge. If their challenge fails, they lose it.
The system helps create more consistent and accurate calls behind the plate, while making umpire errors more rare. Though some complain removing the human element of an umpire calling balls and strikes is a bad thing.
Major League Baseball is experimenting with the ABS challenge system during spring training in 2025, but there are currently no plans to use it during the regular season. That said, it seems like the experiment has been well-received by fans and players alike, opening the door for it to be used in the future.
The fact that MLB is testing the system in spring training means the league is seriously considering its implementation. It could take another year or two for that to come to fruition, but the ball is certainly being moved in that direction.