MLB Says Umpire Strike Zone 'Has Not Changed' Amid Player Complaints of Tighter Calls

Amid a series of complaints from players about the strike zone so far this season, MLB has denied that changes were made to the size of the zone.

In a statement to The Athletic's Jayson Stark, Ken Rosenthal and Eno Sarris, an MLB official explained the zone hasn't changed and umpires haven't been instructed to call balls and strikes differently:

"The rulebook strike zone has not changed and we have not instructed umpires to call a different strike zone. In response to consistent player and club desire to have umpires evaluated more closely to the rulebook strike zone, we agreed with the MLB Umpires Association in their new CBA to reduce the size of the ‘buffer’ around the border of the strike zone, which essentially protects an umpire from being graded ‘incorrect’ on extremely close misses."

The Athletic's report details players' frustrations after MLB negotiated a deal with the Major League Umpires Association to change how home-plate umps are graded and evaluated.

A key change in the deal involved the "buffer zone" that umps are given as part of their evaluation. It had been two inches on all four areas of the zone (both sides, top, and bottom) but is now set at .75 inches.

Los Angeles Angels catcher Travis d'Arnaud told The Athletic that his research found there have been around 250 more close pitches that were called balls so far this year compared to the same point in 2024.

"We pulled the numbers of strikes that were called balls in the first week of the season, this year versus last year," d’Arnaud said. "Last year, there were like 300 or so. This year, (we found) like 550 at the same point in time, with strikes that are called balls."

The MLB official also said that teams were informed of the change when the new umpire collective bargaining agreement was finalized and "overall ball-strike accuracy in 2025 is the highest it has ever been through this point in the season."

Per Baseball Savant, the 12.8 percent rate of pitches in the zone that were called balls during the first month of the 2025 season was the highest rate for the first month of any season since 2017.

Despite MLB's official's insistence that all 30 clubs were informed of the buffer-zone change, The Athletic noted more than two dozen people, including managers, front-office executives and sources with ties to the MLBPA, said they had "no recollection" of any briefing from the league.

All of this is happening as MLB is looking to potentially implement the automated ball-strike system in the 2026 season. The system utilizes a challenge system with a fixed zone.

It was used in 13 ballparks during spring training this year, with a 52.2 percent success rate on the 1,182 calls that were challenged.