MLB to Propose Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System for 2026 Season, Manfred Says

The automated ball-strike system could be coming to MLB next year.

Per The Athletic's Evan Drellich, commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday that he plans to propose bringing the ABS to MLB by 2026 to the league's competition committee. Drellich noted that the league office has enough votes on the 11-person committee to put the plan for the ABS in motion.

Under the new system, human umpires would still be relied upon for the vast majority of ball-strike calls, but teams would get two challenges to start the game and could use them to change an umpire's ruling. If the call is overturned, teams would keep their challenge.

The same technology that umpires would rely on has been tested in the minor leagues for years and was used in spring training last year.

Manfred said that he's received requests for MLB to switch to the ABS and thinks teams would be on board with the new system.

“I do think that we’re going to pursue the possibility of changing that process, and we’ll see what comes out at the end of that,” Manfred said at MLB headquarters, per Drellich. “I think that teams are really positive about ABS. You know, I do have that unscientific system that I use — my email traffic — and my distinct impression is that using ABS in spring training has made people more prone to complain about balls and strike calls via email, to me, referencing the need for ABS. That is undoubtedly true, undoubtedly true.”

Drellich noted that the system's new technology doesn't exactly imitate how a human umpire would call balls and strikes because of the tendencies that umpires have in different counts. While human umpires tend to have a smaller strike zone on pitcher's counts and broader zones on hitter's counts, ABS wouldn't do the same.

Manfred said his biggest concern isn't the technology itself, but how the players might react to it.

“My single biggest concern is working through the process and deploying it in a way that’s acceptable to the players,” Manfred said. “There’s always going to be things around the edges that we need to work through and whatever, and I want them to feel like we respected the committee process and that there was a full airing of concerns about the system, and an attempt to address those concerns before we go forward.”

While it could be a long process voting on the new system and getting everything in order ahead of the season, it seems likely MLB could be relying on ABS next year.