John Romano: Robot umps are on the way and Rays players seem happy with the idea

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Feb 24, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — First impression of baseball’s flirtation with an automated strike zone?

Bring it on!

Technically, it’s still in the experimentation stage this spring and won’t reach Major League ballparks before 2026 at the earliest, but this innovation should be getting close to no-brainer status. It’s quick. It’s not overly intrusive. It involves strategy, teamwork and risk-taking. And, surprisingly, it’s kind of fun.

If you haven’t been following along, baseball has been toying with Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) for years in the minor leagues. They tried using it full time. (Not so good.) And they tried a challenge system where each team can dispute two or three balls/strikes calls per game. (Perfect).

Get the challenge right, and you retain it. Get it wrong, and you lose it.

And, unlike instant replay challenges, it doesn’t require a minute or two of dead time while faceless arbiters in New York pore through video feeds to find conclusive evidence. With this system, an automated representation of the pitch is shown on the video scoreboard and everyone in the ballpark and on TV can see the result.

The average challenge lasted 17 seconds in Triple A last year.

“I think it’s cool for fans,” said Rays first base coach Michael Johns, who was managing at Durham in 2023 when the experiment began in Triple A. “Whenever they throw that thing up there (on the video board) you’re watching the pitch come in and you’re going, ‘Please don’t hit the square, please don’t hit the square.’ And then it lands in the strike zone and you hear everyone go, ‘Awwww.’

“And it all happens like boom, boom. A hitter asks for a challenge, the umpire turns around and within a few seconds it’s on the board. It’s really neat.”

It doesn’t remove the human element from umpires as much as safeguard against a potentially blatant error. But the challenges are rare enough that it does not disrupt the flow of the game and it makes players pick their spots when asking for a review.

For instance, a called third strike with two outs and nobody on in the third inning of a 0-0 game is not an ideal time to challenge. The hitter might be ticked off but the odds of giving up a run in that situation are not great which makes a challenge risky if you lose it.

The system requires pitchers, catchers and hitters to make a challenge immediately by tapping their heads. Managers cannot make a challenge, and players on the field cannot wait a few extra seconds to hear from somebody in the dugout with a video replay.

Challenges were successful just about half the time in Triple A last year.

“The big point we were preaching last year in Durham is we need selfless challenges,” said Rays outfielder Jake Mangum, who played under the system in the International League in 2023-24. “Since you don’t get a lot of challenges, you need to make sure it’s a situation that can turn the game around.”

So did players take heat for wasteful challenges?

“Oh, there was a lot of, ‘You messed up.’ That was part of getting used to it,” said Rays outfielder Kameron Misner, who spent the past two years at Durham. “But, yeah, there was a lot of ripping early in the season.”

There has been talk that the ABS is actually helping hitters and umpires better define the strike zone. Unlike MLB where some umpires are known to have slightly smaller or larger strike zones, the automated system provides a truer version of balls and strikes. The MLB strike zone tends to be more oval with umpires giving pitchers extra strikes along the outer edges. The ABS system is perfectly square.

Players’ bodies are measured in the spring so each hitter has a personalized strike zone depending on his height. Misner said he got so accustomed to his own strike zone in Durham that it was an adjustment when he was called up to Tampa Bay in August.

“That was one of the negative things about it,” Misner said. “I saw some pitches that I know would have been a ball in Triple A but the big-league umpires were still calling it a strike. In Triple A, those umpires were getting automatic feedback on their calls. I think it makes them a little bit sharper.”

In a way, the system could also protect umpires. Much like instant replay eliminated a lot of arguments on the basepaths, the ABS could cut down on constant chirping about pitches from the dugout.

“You’ll hear a lot less complaining,” Johns said. “An umpire can say, ‘You don’t like the call? Challenge it.’”

Since the system is at least a year away, Rays manager Kevin Cash said he hasn’t spent a lot of time worrying about the best way to employ challenges, but is looking forward to seeing how it works in the spring.

“I’m curious to see how it plays out, the timing of it,” Cash said. “I’ve heard from our people that have experienced it in Triple A that they’ve enjoyed it, and the fans enjoyed it.”

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