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Major League Baseball has introduced a number of sweeping changes over the past few years, but I’d argue none of them have had the kind of impact the game will undergo when we reach the seemingly inevitable point where robot umpires replace their human counterparts—a reality that seems to be on the near horizon based on what Rob Manfred recently had to say.
Rob Manfred has spent close to a decade serving as the commissioner of the MLB, and while his tenure has been marred by plenty of controversies, it’s also featured some welcome tweaks that I think most fans would agree have changed the sport for the better.
The most obvious improvement is the introduction of the pitch clock that dramatically increased the pace of play, as the average game now lasts for around two hours and 40 minutes as opposed to the more than three hours fans previously had to set aside before it was rolled out.
However, one of the most frustrating aspects of baseball is still alive and well courtesy of the incredibly fallible umpires who are still the ultimate authority when it comes to calling balls and strikes.
However, the tides have slowly been turned courtesy of the automated balls and strikes (ABS) system at the center of the trial experiment that was rolled out at the AAA level in 2023, and all signs have pointed to the MLB embracing those “robot umpires” with open arms in the not-so-distant future.
According to ESPN, Manfred provided some insight into a tentative timeline for the adoption of ABS technology while speaking with the media ahead of the All-Star Game on Tuesday, as he had this to say when asked about how it plans to roll robot umps out:
“We need ’25 to do the spring training test if we can get these issues resolved, which will make ’26 a viable possibility.
Is that going to be the year? I’m not going to be flat-footed on that issue.”
Manfred added one of the biggest remaining hurdles is “technical issues surrounding the definition of the strike zone,” and the outlet notes the MLB Umpires Association will likely have plenty of thoughts on that matter as it gears up to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (the current one expires at the end of the 2024 campaign).
As things currently stand, it appears the robot umpires will be used to supplement the calls of their human counterparts as opposed to eliminating their role behind the plate, although it seems like that job would become the textbook definition of redundant if the technological kinks can be worked out.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out.