Major League Baseball is expanding the use of electronic batting zone technology at all 30 Triple-A parks in 2023, has confirmed.
The decision is still subject to MLB team owner approval, which is expected in February. ESPN was the first to report on the development.
It’s the latest step on the mature technology’s journey to the majors, where umpires have resisted its implantation. It was first used at Triple-A in 2022, but now MLB wants it implemented at the highest level of minors.
TrackMan, the ABS used by the Atlantic League in 2019, sits above home plate and is typically attached to the outside of the press box (right). After each pitch, the ABS system, seated at a scoring table, would transmit balls and shots to the home plate umpire, who is equipped with an earpiece (left). The system will be deployed throughout Triple-A in 2023
The Automated Balls and Strikes (ABS) system is used in Triple-A in two different ways: Half of the parks will use it to determine all balls and shots, the other 15 will use it as a challenge system, similar to the one used in high-level tennis. According to ESPN, teams get three challenges per game but can keep the challenge if they pick up a call.
A challenge system was already introduced in the Single-A Southeast League, where pitchers, catchers, and hitters each have the power to challenge calls.
At first glance, the device looks like a simple black box or radar gun, but it’s actually a 3-D Doppler radar that analyzes every pitch. The system is automatically recalibrated for each batsman’s size and stance, so a taller player cannot benefit from a smaller hitter’s hitting zone dimensions.
After each pitch, the ABS system, seated at a scoring table, operates and transmits balls and shots to the home plate umpire, who is equipped with an earpiece.
TrackMan looks like a simple black box at first glance, but it’s actually a 3-D Doppler radar that analyzes every pitch. The system is automatically recalibrated for each batsman’s size and stance, so a taller player cannot benefit from the dimensions of a smaller hitter’s hitting zone
Club employees were impressed with the system in its first year, according to ESPN, which reports one official saying it added an intriguing layer of strategy.
Implementing ABS in the majors, however, would negate catchers’ ability to frame pitches, which has been one of the most important aspects of the position for more than a century.
Little Harvey, a $10,000 ball-giving robot rabbit, debuted in Oakland in 1968. He was previously used by athletics in Kansas City before moving to California
Meanwhile, ESPN reports that the commissioner’s office is working to lower the high end of the strike zone, where many pitchers have been feasting on hitters amid rising strikeout rates.
The Major League Baseball Umpires Association, in its employment contract that began in 2020, has agreed to cooperate and assist if Commissioner Rob Manfred decides to deploy the system at the major league level.
“It’s hard to decide if, when, or how it’ll be used at the major league level because it’s a pretty substantial difference from how the game is called today,” said Chris Marinak, MLB’s chief operations and strategy officer, im March of 2020.
The Doppler system is not the first technological advance in refereeing.
In the 1960s, the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics used a mechanical rabbit that emerged from under the grass near home plate with a basket of fresh baseballs for umpires.
Rob Porter, left, TrackMan operator for Major League Baseball, fits Baltimore Sun baseball writer Nathan Ruiz (right) with an earpiece for the new Robump/Automated Ball and Strike Radar Tracking System at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Maryland