Robot umpires not likely for MLB call-up in 2024, Manfred says - ESPN

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.

MLB adopted a pitch clock this year along with restrictions on defensive shifts, pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts and larger bases.

As baseball begins to embrace automation, we find ourselves asking: Is this all really worth it? Jeff Passan has seen ABS in action in the minor leagues this season, and he explains why this shift is about more than just balls and strikes — and if human error in baseball might not be the bug we think it is after all. Listen now!

The average time of a nine-inning game has dropped to 2 hours, 38 minutes from 3 hours, 5 minutes through a similar number of games last year. The .248 big league batting average is up from .243 for the full 2022