When the electronic ball-strike system comes to the big leagues sometime in the next few years, it won't be used to call every pitch. Major League Baseball made that clear on Tuesday, when it sent a memo to all 30 teams, informing them that starting next week, the electronic ball-strike technology will transition to the challenge system only in Triple-A games.
The memo was originally obtained and reported on by ESPN .
The automated ball-strike system, known as ABS, has been used in Triple A since the start of last season. But as part of that experiment, the technology was used to call every pitch in just three games a week. The other three games a week used the challenge system.
but as Athletic As reported last summer, minor-league players, coaches and staff expressed their deep unhappiness with the way full-time ABS worked. And last month, commissioner Rob Manfred signaled a change by saying he was in favor of using a challenge system that results in only a handful of ball-strike challenges per game.
Speaking at the quarterly owners meeting, the commissioner said that “the guys that have played with it have a greater preference for the challenge system than ABS calling every pitch. And that has certainly changed our thinking about what direction we can go.”
The league then surveyed players and staff in Triple A this offseason. In its memo to clubs, the league said 61 percent of those surveyed preferred the challenge system, while only 11 percent supported using ABS on every pitch. Another 28 percent supported having all balls and strikes called by a human umpire.
MLB also surveyed spectators at Triple-A games. It found that twice as many fans preferred the challenge system as those who favored full-time ABS.
So starting next week, the league will use Triple-A games to try to determine what type of challenge system works best. In the Pacific Coast League, teams will still get three challenges per game, as they do now — and will retain their challenge if they are correct. In the International League, however, clubs will only get two challenges per game — but will retain their challenge if they are correct.
In its memo, MLB said the International League reduction was essentially an experiment to determine if fewer challenges “could reduce the frequency of high-challenge games.” About 40 percent of Triple-A games have seen more than six challenges. In surveys, 89 percent of fans said they prefer no more than six — and 53 percent said three or four is ideal.
However, baseball will continue to experiment with full-time ABS at lower levels in the minor leagues. In a memo sent to minor-league teams and departments, MLB said the Low-A Florida State League will continue to use electronic ball-strike technology full-time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, as it has for the past several years. Friday through Sunday, it will use the league challenge system. Florida State League teams will still receive three challenges per game.
At the owners meeting, Manfred said it was now unlikely that MLB would be ready to use any kind of electronic ball-strike technology until next season. However, industry sources have reported that Athletic The league's goal is to overcome the technical challenges of ABS in time to have the system implemented across the major leagues by 2026 if all goes well.
However, Tuesday's memo made it clear that even if these robot umpires do arrive in 2026, it's almost certain they will only be used to correct the most egregious mistakes — via a challenge system that would be similar to the one currently used for instant replay.
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(Photo of an umpire wearing ABS system equipment at a Low-A game in 2022: Thomas Bender / Herald-Tribune / USA Today)