Rob Manfred Talks ABS Challenge System Timeline, Defends 'Unbelievable' MLB Umpires

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred pumped the breaks on the possible adoption of "robot umpires" in the bigs.

"I've been meeting with players for three years now, discussing this issue with them on and off," he said to the Dallas Morning News' Evan Grant. "I think it's really clear players prefer the challenge-type system. And we're going to take guidance from the players on that issue."

Manfred added that MLB has "nailed" the technology for Automated Balls and Strikes aside from "certain technical issues."

"I hope we are going to make progress on those in the second half of the season," he said. "As far as [implementation], you can draw your own conclusion from this: Before we go live in a big league game, we're going to have a spring training test with Major League players."

The commissioner went on to praise the ongoing work of MLB's current umpires, telling Grant they "do an unbelievable job in an extremely, extremely difficult role."

MLB has utilized the minors as a testing ground for an automated strike system in recent years. That allowed the league to iron out the flaws prior to its adoption in the bigs, if it ever comes to that.

However, there are still some issues to resolve before an automated strike zone arrives in MLB, and Manfred went on the record in May to say it's unlikely to happen by 2025. He cited in part the difficulty in identifying a uniform standard for the strike zone, going either by the batter's height or how the tracking cameras are stationed.

"I'm not sure that anybody is wholly satisfied with either approach," Manfred said. "We have not started those conversations [with the MLBPA] because we haven't settled on what we think about it. It's hard to have those conversations before you know what you're thinking."

The commissioner also signaled that a challenge system might be more popular with MLB players. Under that format, a player or manager could challenge the call made by a human umpire, and ABS would make the final call.

"One thing we've learned in these meetings is that the players feel there could be other effects on the game that would be negative if you used it full-blown," Manfred said this spring. "The second one is those who have played with it do have a strong preference for the Challenge system over ABS calling every pitch. That has certainly altered our thinking on where we might be headed."

Whenever a home-plate umpire misses a call, plenty of fans reflexively say it's time to bring out the robots. Well, that point is still a relatively long way off based on Manfred's comments.