Major League Baseball plans to test the ball-strike challenge system during next year’s Spring Training, commissioner Rob Manfred said this week. Manfred suggested as much on Monday in a conversation with Jack Curry of the YES Network (X link). The commissioner reiterated that this morning in an interview with Chris Russo on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio.
“What I can tell you 100% is we are going to test the challenge system in Major League Spring Training in 2025,” Manfred told Russo. “I think that’s an important step forward.” That isn’t a stepping stone to implementing the system in regular season games by next year. Manfred said in May that he didn’t believe the technology would be sufficiently ironed out to put the automatic strike zone in place for meaningful games by ’25.
The commissioner didn’t reveal a specific timeline for its regular season implementation. He did tell The Dan Patrick Show last week (X link) that he expected to have some form of automated zone in place by the end of his tenure as commissioner, which concludes in the 2028-29 offseason. The date will presumably be dependent on the feedback MLB gets from players, coaches, and umpires. While MLB initially seemed to embrace a fully robotic zone, they’ve pivoted to the challenge system after testing both the challenge and the full ABS in the minors.
The challenge system leaves the human umpire as the default. Each team gets a finite number of challenges to turn to the automatic zone on borderline pitches. Challenges must be called for in real time by the hitter, pitcher or catcher. That’ll leave some missed calls but reduces the likelihood of a blown call on an especially important pitch.
That assuages some concerns about the rule book strike zone not perfectly aligning with the way players expect the game to be called. One common complaint about the automatic zone is its tendency to reward pitchers for clipping the top of the zone with an elevated breaking ball. That’s less likely to be an issue with the challenge system, as pitchers and catchers won’t often dispute pitches they don’t perceive as strikes themselves.
The challenge system also preserves some of the value of a catcher’s framing ability, although it offers a check in high-leverage spots when stealing a strike would be most significant. From a fan perspective, that’s mostly an aesthetic concern. It’s an economic one for some players, as there are plenty of current catchers whose value is driven largely by their receiving skills.
In an unrelated bit of rule experimentation, MLB used the Arizona Fall League as a testing ground for check swings. As Baseball America’s Josh Norris first observed (on X) last week, players were able to use bat tracking technology to challenge a check swing call.
MLB rules don’t spell out a technical definition of a check swing. Subjectivity doesn’t work for a challenge system. Sam Dykstra of MLB.com writes that the league used a 45-degree threshold for the bat angle. In other words, if the bat angle went beyond the opposite field base line, it was deemed a swing. The check swing challenge was only in use during the Fall League. There’s no indication it’s under consideration for testing with MLB players, though it wouldn’t be a surprise if it gets an eventual trial run in minor league regular season games.
It’s insane how powerful the umpire’s union is.
I have no problem with the Umpires having a union. I have a problem how there are no penalties or repercussions, backed with data, for any particular umpire, having such poor understanding of the strike zone. It’s cost teams so many games, it is absolutely absurd.
@ Acoss I agree. I feel like they should grade them with data. Whoever grades out as the worst few umpires get demoted to the minors and call up the best few umps from the minors.
for every one umpire who gets the strike zone correct there’s at least three that don’t
The overall problem is they typically look at how the catcher caught the ball instead of watching where it crossed the plate. I realize it’s not easy given the speed of the ball but they are supposed to be the best in the world. One thing I would change is to not allow the pitcher to challenge. Why should the offense only have one person with that ability while the defense has two?
It’s not the umpire union holding back a challenge system, it’s the same people who picked the umps for the World Series despite them being ranked in the bottom half of accuracy
The union is what prevents harsher punishment for bad umpiring. If they were held accountable for their poor work then MLB wouldn’t need these ridiculous challenge systems.
I admittedly don’t watch a ton of baseball but def caught 20-30 games this year. The vast majority of calls I wasn’t happy with was bc they went against the team or player im rooting for in that game. And nearly every time the ball was on the strike zone line in some fashion, whether it be 10% or 50%.
If they grade an umpire, it needs to be on consistency of how they manage the strike zone and not the automated square bc the games I see, the umps wre consistent in their zone even if it varies from automated square a bit.
Furthermore, this is an absolutely terrible idea ! They just made the game faster like last year and now they are going to slow it back down again to measure centimeters or less ?? In football, atleast once a weekend, the whole world agrees a call will go one way and the ref decides for it to go the other after a review. Now we are going to use that system to measure the smallest amount of error possible. 80% of time there won’t be conclusive evidence to overturn leaving fans doubly pissed
I know back in the day, every ump had his own strike zone. After a while, you knew them well enough to manipulate that as far as pitching. Of course, as a hitter, you say I hope my pitcher gets that call too.
The guys I hated was the ones who leaned on me (I was a catcher for those of you new). I elbowed more than one up under the chin going for a foul ball, whether accidentally or accidentally on purpose, you decide.
One thing the WS showed is how the box is not accurate. So many new angles from behind the plate had me changing my thought from a strike to a ball (umps got each right!).
I think when this comes to the league they need to get rid of the strike zone box during the tv broadcast. You’ll have teams trying to watch live calling challenges constantly rather than letting the players use their judgment.
That’s why it has to be challenged live by the batter, catcher, or pitcher. Broadcasts are intentionally on a 5 second delay for editing purposes but also to prevent teams from watching live and yelling to the player which pitch the catcher called for. Your point is a good one, but luckily what you’re describing wouldn’t be possible.
The 5 second delay I was unaware of. That will be good enough to keep a relay from getting to the batter as they really need to challenge in the first 2 seconds.
“That’s less likely to be an issue with the challenge system, as pitchers and catchers won’t often dispute pitches they don’t perceive as strikes themselves.”
That seems like a bold assumption. If they know high breaking balls clipping the zone can steal a strike, then what stopping teams from using that knowledge late in games when they have challenges remaining? Seems like a nice card to play especially if you need a strike and have a guy that can drop a hammer
I thought a check swing generally was called a swing if the bat went past parallel with the front of home plate. Of course, with no actual rulebook definition, who knows???
I always heard rolling or breaking the wrists. Which I thought was umpire propaganda to make them seem more in tune with the game. Because there’s no way these umpires would be able to see that in real time with the other things they need to focus on.
That’s why they pretty much always point to one of the base umpires when they want an opinion on check swings.
I’m surprised more retired players don’t get into umpiring. Anyone know of a reason why that is?
They want to be retired instead of traveling around maybe
There’s no way I’d want an umpiring job after making millions as a player. Some college somewhere needs a coach if I only made a few million as a player.
They would have to start umpiring in the minors by the way.
I always imagined Brandon Belt would make a great home plate umpire.
If there’s a 30 second delay, it’s unlikely that players would have time to know. Plus, if that was made illegal, there’s no way the secret wouldn’t get out.
Just make a computerized strike zone already.
I love the idea of the challenge system because it keeps the human element in the game while also adding the strategy of fixing mistakes.
It will be interesting to see which batters, pitchers, and catchers use the most challenges. I can imagine certain overconfident players using challenges all the time.
The human element only applies to players – because that’s who is competing in the game. The umpires need only relay calls in real time so players can react in real time. Umpires should miss zero calls, ever. The only people that should influence the game in any way are the players.
It’s then influenced by the programmers who wrote the code for the software. Ultimately at the end of any path there is a form of human element
Umpires are actually correct at a very high clip. It’s only a few pitches a game. Personally, I like it.
Even if they could perfect ball and strike calls, there are still objective umpiring calls that are never going to be correct 100% of the time, especially safe/out calls.
Step 1 install strike zone projecter into home play
Step 2 project strike zone
Step 3 let fans take turns calling balls and strikes each half winners draw winning seat numbers prior to game
Step 4 get rid of umps behind home plate
Step 5 profit
Sorry
Step 4A remove umps from behind home plate 1B umps is crew chief
Step 4B permanently add 2 umps to OF
Well, what fun will that be without Ángel Hernández?
Bucknor and Gonzalez will have to step things up for the sake of entertainment.
This is a good system. Working well in minors. Umps get it right most of time so this is fair.
Honest to God this guy can’t go a single season without changing the rules. Leave the game alone.
Unfortunately the horse has left the barn. There’s no stopping this a-hole commissioner.
Challenging a ball strike call is going to lengthen the game. Too many hackers with a robot umpire. MLB terminator ump – I need a vacation. MLB should just add more umpires and rotate them, giving some time off during the season.
No it hasn’t done that in the minors. I think they limit the challenges anyway
It doesn’t take any time at all. You get 3 wrong challenges. You can keep challenging until you get 3 wrong, Then you’re done. So you better use them wisely. It adds zero time at all because it’s done electronically on every pitch you just need to look at the result. and send it to the ump behind the plate. It’s a no brainer.
I watch a LOT of minor league baseball. The challenge system is VERY expedient. Takes about 10-15 seconds. Each team gets three incorrect challenges for the duration of the game, then they’re out of them. I found it to work quite well.
Considering the amount of times hitters get jobbed during important at-bats, I think it’s a necessary add to the big leagues. If in the end they could implement the same system for challenging base path calls, they’d really have something. As it is, some of those take too long to hash out.
The time for this is way past overdue. There are so many horrible umps at calling balls and strikes that they need help. Since Baseball has admitted they use ABS to grade umpires they must already know how bad they suck at it and the fans aren’t blind either.
Just keep watering down the product even more. Ever since Buster Posey got injured mlb has gone downhill. Hell look no father than tonight that free base in the 9th for 3 pickoff attempts. Really? In the World Series even? Baseball is a joke compared to what it once was
Yeah…the Posey broken leg appeared to be the watershed moment as to when the monkeying around with the rules started. While I don’t advocate camping out and completely blocking the base path without the ball, they have really hamstrung the catcher (and the infielders) when trying to make a play.
Should’ve been done long ago. It’s been a big hit for fans and players in the minors.
Enough of the pitch framing. That is not part of baseball, deceive the umpire. The pitch should be called ball or strike on where it crosses the plate. Not how the catcher catches it.
The challenge system, which is identical to the challenge system in tennis, takes almost no time – 10 seconds tops. It’s worked well in MiLB. It’ll be fine in MLB and won’t reward catchers for out-of-zone framing/cheating, which has become tedious.
Yuck.
Full time ABS!
Challenge system imperfects the perfect.
((The commissioners comments that the challenge system is better because it allows for catchers to be valued for characteristics related to “gaming” the human system of Umpires is utterly moronic. The commish wants more offense…but not at the expense of deception (catchers) or error (Umpires)?!??!!?!))
The commissioner is sharing the concerns of other stakeholders in baseball, which is literally his job. He’s not saying it’s his personal preference.
That concern in particular almost certainly came from the players union, and/or from a lot of current catchers. There are quite a few catchers in the league who are only employed because of their framing ability.
I’ve seen 6 games with ABS (FSL, single A). Each game went fast and flawless. Zero complaints from hitters or pitchers. The only weird thing is that there is about a 2 second delay when the umpire signals the call but you get used to that.
The technology has been in use successfully in pro ball for years. It can be implemented next season. I do understand the umpires and players union will need to approve. The former is going to be the biggest challenge. They’ll want some giveback.
Changes I’d like to see:
-Challenge system
-Elimination of intentional walks. Pitch to the batter
-Foul balls are not considered strikes.
I prefer they just install the automated calls than this. Delaying the game for this? I would prefer they give the pitcher an extra 10 seconds. Than this.
Taking the umps out of calling balls and strikes just allows for no inconsistent BS calls. It’s the same for every team. Every inning. Every player.
Maybe it cannot be 100 percent in the zone. How about 90? If they want room for error.
It allows players who get called strikes. Balls at their ankles because of their height. Talking about Eloy De La Cruz on this one. But because these catchers lift up to get the call. Steal strikes.
The calls on the outside corner that get brought back to steal a strike.
Having a system where every player knows what the zone is will also probably lead to more hitters having to swing or else. Even faster games. Probably leading to pitchers throwing less pitches. Maybe even hitters developing better contact skills because they have to be more aggressive?
Just make balls and strikes reviewable as part of the existing challenge system. Then the free market of managerial strategy will determine how important an individual bad ball/strike call is.
I understand the baby steps. But this is the problem with MLB…..
The games are too long, Not enough action with all the W’s and K’s. Fans want to see the ball put in play.
So now we “test” a system, which along with other challenges cause a delay in the game. And the funny thing about the limited challenges is that they’re really not limited; a manager can “request” the umpiring crew to review plays anyway….which they almost always do (I don’t recall a request being turned down; am sure there has been, but I’ve never seen one) for fear that after the game is over a replay will be broadcast all over the country pointing a finger at the umpiring crew for changing the outcome of the game.
Just silly.
S or get off the pot.
In a post-Angel Hernandez world
The fact that there is a statistic called “framing” (which is basically how well the catcher can fool the umpire) is all the evidence you need that the league would benefit from an automated system.
If cameras and computers can’t call balls and strikes in a baseball game, then please stop telling us they can drive cars on busy highways.
Pick one.
ESPN going to hack it second it goes live
It’s about time. I am looking forward to see how the umps fare. Some of these umps are going to be overturned 95% of the time on the questionable calls.
No to ABS.
Challenge system is ok as per what was trialled at AAA, 6 challenges to balls and strikes per team per game.
Onfield manager’s challenges should be increased to 2 per game in regular season as per the post season.
Check swing shouldn’t be 45% tolerance, it should be through the plate ie past the front of the plate, the example I saw on a video as described in this article is a farce.
I don’t understand the push back on a fully automated zone.
Having the ump call a zone one way for the entire game and then challenging a pitch can result in calls that differ from the umps established zone. Why not just call it the same the entire game?
No!!!
I’ve seen it in minor.league play!!!!!!
It is unsportsman like to challenge the call.
Manfred is RUINING BASEBALL ON PURPOSE.
Heckling umps used.to be an integral part of.the game for the player, manager and fan experience!!!!
Boooo!