Automated Ball-Strike System Gets Spring Training Trial Run

If you’re watching a game this spring, you may see a pitcher or batter double-tap their head during a game. But what does that mean? Welcome to the first-ever use of robot umpires and the automated ball-strike system (ABS) at the major league level.

The ABS is similar to what you see on television when you watch a game and the broadcast shows the exact location of a pitch. This system, using a hawk-eye camera, determines a strict set strike zone based on each batter’s height and will determine the exact spot of a pitch within that zone.

After a pitch is thrown, a pitcher or a batter may argue the call. You may see a pitcher double-tap their head to argue that a pitch was a strike when it was called a ball, or a batter may argue that a called strike is actually a ball.

While this system can ultimately be run on its own and eliminate umpires, it will not be used in place of them this year, nor will it be used for every pitch. However, it will technically always be active, in the sense that you see that the ABS system will be used upon the double-tap of the head by a pitcher or batter this spring. Once a challenge has been requested, fans will see it come onto the video board, and the announcer will state the exact ruling of the pitch, which if different, will override the call of the home plate umpire.

The ABS system will only be active at 13 spring training ballparks, covering 19 total home teams with shared facilities. So while not every stadium will use the system, every team will play in a game throughout spring training at a site that uses it.

Many players in camps are no strangers to this system. It was first instituted at the minor league level in 2019 in the Independent Atlantic League, later in the Florida State League during 2022 and then in Triple-A the last two seasons.

Spring training is as far as ABS will go this season, as it is a trial year at the major league level. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said, however, that he hopes to use ABS in regular season games as early as the 2026 season.

“I would be interested in having it in ’26,” Manfred said in November. “We do have a collective bargaining obligation there. That’s obviously a term and condition of employment. We’re going to have to work through that issue, as well.”

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