MLB will use challenge system for balls and strikes throughout 2026 season

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 can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signalled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5 per cent of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3 this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

Big league umpires call roughly 94 per cent of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

"Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that's acceptable to players," commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today."

ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that's year Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to triple-A in 2022.

At triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half