Major League Baseball Could Recruit Robot Umpires With Automated Strike Zones

As with most sports, embarrassing faux pas in judgement calls often grab headlines and cloud fans’ experiences of games, and the Major League Baseball (MLB) could finally decide it’s time to end the woes of bad officiating for good.

Following in the footsteps of soccer’s virtual assistant referee (VAR) technology, the MLB has revealed it could be introducing robot umpires to the game as soon as 2024. 

In an interview with ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that fans could look forward to an automated ball-strike zone system, more commonly referred to as the robot umpires in question. 

The ESPN interview stated that human umpires will receive updated information via an in-ear headset from the automated system, which could potentially also be able to review multiple instances of balls and strikes through a replay system.

At the moment, minor leagues are already using a form of this technology, which, as per Bleacher Report, uses sensors and cameras above the home plate to accurately detect the location of a pitch.

Not only has this resulted in better calls, data also showed that the automated system has shortened games by an average of nine minutes across the board, which could certainly aid the demands for less dragged out games.

Hang tight, MLB fans—robot umpires are on their way to save the sport!

[via USA Today and Bleacher Report, cover image via Yobro10 | Dreamstime.com]