The Major League Baseball (MLB) approved the incorporation of Referee Robots For the 2026 season, a decision that marks one of the greatest changes in the recent history of professional baseball in the United States.
The automated ball and strike system (ABS) It was ratified by the Competition Committee of the League, composed of 11 members, confirming its official use after several years of evidence in the minor leagues, he reported The Associated Press.
The implementation of the ABS technology It will not eliminate the figure of the human referees, but it will modify the dynamics of each party. According to APthe system will work under a scheme of “challenges”, where the Umpire will continue to make all the calls in real time, and each team can appeal up to two decisions per game. “This is a change that has been taking place after multiple experiments in minor leagues and exhibition matches for years,” said the US agency.
The automated system uses Hawk-Eye cameras installed around the stadiums, capable of tracking the trajectory of each launch and determining if the ball crosses inside the zone de Strike.
The ABS decision is based on digital parameters and not on the visual observation of the Umpire. Players who want to challenge a play must signal it by playing the helmet or cap, and have a maximum of two seconds to start the challenge.
Only pitcher, batter or Catcher have the possibility of presenting the challenge, without the coaching staff intervening. If the challenge is successful, the team maintains it; Otherwise, he loses it. In statements collected by The Associated Pressthe MLB said that the objective is “to offer greater precision and justice in decisions, without losing the human interaction that characterizes sport.”
According to the League, the complete review with the ABS – including the graph of the trajectory and the area – appears both on the stadium and transmission screen, while the Umpir updates the count in front of the public.
The Automated Strike Zone It maintains a rectangular form, as described by the regulation, in contrast to the traditional oval zone that the referees usually mark. The calibration for each player adjusts based on their height (measured without footwear before the first game), a process that, according to the data offered by The Associated Presslasts less than a minute per person.
After several years of adjustments, the Strike area of ABS It was defined with a width of 43.18 centimeters, coinciding with the Home Plate, and vertical limits calculated as percentages of the batter height: the upper part represents 53.5% and the lower one, 27%. A relevant fact contributed by the MLB is that “the batter’s position is not taken into account, only its official stature.”
The system makes the decision at the midpoint of the plate, at 21.59 centimeters from the front and the background. In this regard, AP He pointed out that this interpretation differs from the regulatory text, where any part of the ball that crosses the cubic zone is considered Strike.
La mlb and the Atlantic League Independent They initiated experimentation with the ABS system in 2019. After rehearsals in minor leagues-including at least eight stages of the Low-A Southeast in 2021 and the jump after triple-A in 2022-, an increase in walks and small changes in strikeouts rates were observed after adjusting the dimensions of the area.
The last testing phase included all major league spring camps in 2024 and the historic Star set in Atlantawhere “four of five challenges to the Umpir of Home Dan Iassogna were correct according to the system,” said The Associated Press.
During the first months of the 2024 season in Triple-A, 49.5% of the challenges were successful, a slight decrease with respect to 50.6% of the previous year. In that period, the receptors achieved better successes (53.7%) compared to batters (45%). The average game challenges increased to 4.2, although the challenges on the first launch barely reached 1.6%.
“The use of ABS increased especially in critical counts: 3.9% in launches with two strikes, 5.2% in situations with three balls and up to 8.2% with complete accounts,” according to the data of Major League Baseball itself. This pattern also varied during the games, with more challenges in the final entries.
