The Big Lead

Rob Manfred says MLB umpires prefer full 'robo-umps' to ABS challenge system: report

By J.P. Hoornstra

The scoreboard at LECOM Park displays a message about a pitch call being challenged. Major League Baseball is testing an Automated Ball-Stike (ABS) challenge system at select spring training parks. The system allows players to challenge a limited number of ball/stike calls during a game. Calls can be overturned if the pitch tracking technology shows an umpire got a call wrong.
The scoreboard at LECOM Park displays a message about a pitch call being challenged. Major League Baseball is testing an Automated Ball-Stike (ABS) challenge system at select spring training parks. The system allows players to challenge a limited number of ball/stike calls during a game. Calls can be overturned if the pitch tracking technology shows an umpire got a call wrong. / Mike Lang / Sarasota Herald-Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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When Major League Baseball introduced the "ABS" (automatic balls/strikes) challenge system to spring training games this year, it was seen as a compromise: between umpires, who have traditionally had full autonomy over the strike zone, and those who would prefer MLB's Hawk-Eye tracking system be in charge of calling balls and strikes.

Minor League Baseball has experimented with both the ABS challenge system and the so-called autonomic "Robo-Umps." For commissioner Rob Manfred to introduce either system in the regular season at the major league level, he would need the approval of both the umpires' union and the MLB Players' Association.

Umpires were generally perceived to be prefer the challenge system to ceding full autonomy to a computer. Not so, says Manfred.

"I think that (the umpires) were more receptive to using (ABS) on every pitch, because nobody knows what (the home plate umpire) would have called" instead of the computer, the commissioner told the New York Times.

The surprising revelation in Manfred's Q-and-A with Michael Schmidt came on the heels of the first test of the "challenge system" in spring training. The players — not the umps — preferred the challenge system to the full ABS, Manfred said.

"The problem with the challenge system is it points out when you’re wrong," he told Schmidt. "And I think nobody likes to be shown, in front of 48,000 people, they just missed the pitch."

What does this mean for the future of "robo-umps"? The answer likely hinges on what consensus the players reach on this issue, perhaps during collective bargaining. The current CBA expires after the 2026 season.

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