Major League Baseball (MLB) has confirmed that robot umpires will be introduced at home plate from the 2026 season. The technology, known as the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), has been tested in minor league games, spring training, and was recently used during the 2025 All-Star Game.
The decision marks one of the sport’s most significant technological advancements, aiming to enhance fairness and accuracy in pitch calling.
How the automated system works
The ABS is designed to help determine whether a pitch is a ball or a strike. Traditionally, this call has been made solely by the home plate umpire, but players and fans often contest their judgments. The strike zone itself varies depending on a player’s stance and size, which can add further difficulty for umpires making split-second decisions.
Under the new rules, ABS will not fully replace human umpires. Instead, it will be activated only when a player challenges a call. Each team will be given two challenges per game, which can be initiated only by the pitcher, catcher, or batter. If a challenge is upheld, the team does not lose that challenge. According to MLB, the review process takes around 15 seconds.
To ensure accuracy, MLB has said it will certify each player’s official height so that the strike zone is correctly measured. The technology relies on 12 Hawk-Eye cameras positioned around the field, connected to a T-Mobile private 5G network. Hawk-Eye is already widely used in sports such as tennis to track whether a ball lands inside or outside the lines and in football to measure distance and downs.
Balancing technology and tradition
The decision to use ABS in a challenge format reflects the league’s effort to strike a balance between technology and tradition. Rather than automating every pitch, the system will intervene only when necessary.
Rob Manfred, the MLB commissioner, said that player preference played a key role in shaping the decision. “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,” he explained.
Reactions to the system may vary depending on the player’s role and the game situation. For example, a batter facing a full count with bases loaded may view a challenge differently than in a less critical scenario. The Athletic noted that responses could depend on the context of the play, highlighting how strategy may evolve as the system becomes more familiar with it.
What it could mean for the game
The wider question for baseball is how such precise technology will influence the experience of the sport. For some, the reduction in missed calls could make the game fairer and more consistent. For others, the unpredictability of human judgment has always been part of baseball’s character, occasionally frustrating but also adding drama.
Observers point out that all players benefit from and suffer from questionable calls in roughly equal measure, raising the question of whether eliminating them will make the game more or less engaging. The upcoming season will be the first real test of how ABS is received by players, managers, and fans alike.
MLB has also released statistics from the spring training trials, though it has not yet detailed what those numbers reveal about accuracy rates or player satisfaction. What is clear, however, is that the 2026 season will mark a turning point in how America’s national pastime embraces technology.
