NEW YORK — Robot umpires likely won't be ready for a big league call-up next season. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says the automatic ball-strike system (ABS) being used in Triple-A is not likely to be used in the big leagues in 2024. «I think there's some sentiment among the group that we made had a lot of changes here,» Manfred said Thursday following an owners meeting. «We ought to let the dust settle, and there are clearly unresolved operational issues with respect to ABS.
Despite all the testing, we still have some things that are unresolved.» Defining a computerized strike zone is among the issues.
The independent Atlantic League tried the ABS system at its 2019 All-Star Game, and it was used in that's year Arizona Fall League of top prospects.
The ABS was used at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021 then moved up to Triple-A in 2022. At Triple-A this year, half the games use the robots for ball/strike calls and half have a human making decisions that are subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.