NEW YORK — Commissioner Rob Manfred reaffirmed Wednesday that Major League Baseball plans to test the automated ball-strike system in major-league spring training next season, with an eye on implementation for 2026.
“I would be interested in having it in ’26,” Manfred said at MLB’s central office.
The system won’t be installed in every spring ballpark, but all teams will have opportunities to play with it.
MLB has tested two types of ABS in the minors: one that was used by umpires on every pitch, and another where teams had either two or three challenges per game. The league expects to give teams two challenges per game in spring training. At the end of 2024 in the minors, MLB started testing two challenges rather than three, and wants to continue looking at that setup. Teams retain the challenge when they are correct, and so three challenges could amount to a higher volume of in-game stoppages.
Check out this challenge to win the game!@GoStripers catcher Sandy León asks for a second look, and the @Braves club gets the ‘W’ pic.twitter.com/yzJcRjipKl
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) April 6, 2024
“I think we will have a spring training ABS test that will provide a meaningful opportunity for all major-league players to see what the challenge system will look like,” Manfred said. “From my perspective, there’s two sides to that test: it’s what clubs think about it, and also, what do the players think about it? And we’re gonna have to sort through both of those.”
Manfred also has to collectively bargain a new contract with major league umpires, whose contract expired after the season, and the automated strike zone is a part of that negotiation.
“We’re going to have to work through that issue as well,” Manfred said.
(Photo of home-plate umpire watching over the shoulder of catcher Travis d’Arnaud on Sept. 6: David J. Griffin / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
