According to Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, robot umpires are not likely to be implemented in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the 2024 season. Manfred stated that there are unresolved operational issues with the Automatic Ball-Strike System (ABS), which is currently being used at the Triple-A level. One of the challenges is defining a computerized strike zone.
The ABS system was initially tested at the 2019 All-Star Game in the independent Atlantic League and was also used in the 2019 Arizona Fall League for top prospects. It then progressed to the Low-A Southeast League in 2021 before reaching Triple-A in 2022.
At the Triple-A level, half of the games use robot umpires for ball/strike calls, while the other half have a human umpire making decisions, which can be subject to appeals to the ABS by teams.
In addition to the potential implementation of robot umpires, MLB has introduced other changes in recent years, such as the pitch clock, restrictions on defensive shifts, pitcher disengagements, and larger bases. These changes have contributed to a decrease in the average time of a nine-inning game from 3 hours and 5 minutes to 2 hours and 38 minutes. The batting average in the big leagues has also increased to .248, up from .243 in the full 2022 season, and it is on track to be the highest since 2019.
Despite the delay in implementing robot umpires, MLB has seen an increase in average attendance, with an average of 27,630 spectators per game compared to 25,620 at the same point in the previous year.
Commissioner Manfred expressed satisfaction with the current state of the game and the positive impact of the implemented changes, stating that the outcomes have been consistent with the experimentation in minor league baseball in terms of game time and rule violations per game. He mentioned that MLB is projected to experience a 6 to 8% increase in attendance, which is considered a positive result.
