Robot umps make the big-league roster in 2026

For over a century, “the human element” has been baseball’s brand — charming when it’s a bang-bang play at first, infuriating when strike three is six inches outside. You win some, you lose some.

But starting in 2026, any wiggle room will shrink. Umpires will still squat behind the plate, but their strike calls will be challenged by pitchers, hitters, or catchers. 

The review won’t come from a grumpy crew chief — it’ll come from Sony’s Hawk-Eye cameras. In seconds, the verdict will flash on the scoreboard. Officially, the technology is called the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS). Unofficially, Major League Baseball is getting “robot umps.”

ABS has been creeping up through the Minor Leagues since 2019, and has been increasingly refined via Triple-A, spring training stints, and this year’s All-Star Game. In Triple-A, as of this season, the number of challenges per game has risen, with success rates near 50%. Players and managers have seen enough early flaws to grumble — catcher framing? strike-zone width? stance effects? — but have also seen enough reversed calls to believe change was overdue. 

Last year, 60% of ejections were tied to arguments over balls and strikes. MLB is selling fairness, consistency — and fewer lunatic eruptions behind home plate. The league isn’t scrapping the human element, at least not yet, but MLB is giving the (often short-fused) umps a chaperone.

So, here’s how the system works: Each team gets two challenges per game, with more if it goes to extra innings. Graphic results will show up on video boards. The strike zone will be a rule-book rectangular zone, defined as a plate-width rectangle (around 17 inches), with the top and bottom adjusted for batter height — stance won’t matter. It’s theater with a twist — a quick tap of the helmet, a crowd holding its breath, and then the verdict glowing on the board.

The business stakes are louder than the potential boos. Sony’s Hawk-Eye is the tech behind tennis line calls, cricket reviews, and global VAR systems. Baseball is simply the latest blue-chip client for a company building a cross-sport officiating business where accuracy is the product and data is the upsell — from broadcast inserts to betting feeds. Leagues get cleaner broadcasts, sponsors get fewer PR train wrecks, and betting markets get a more predictable product — because lines can move when strike zones shift even slightly.

Of course, not everyone’s celebrating. Umpires’ unions could lose leverage. Catchers could lose their framing magic — think: Buster Posey, who made borderline pitches vanish into the strike zone with nothing more than a glove twitch. Traditionalists lose the human drama. Fans who live for the occasional meltdown will miss the sight of a manager getting tossed on a Tuesday night in Cleveland.

Triple-A watchers know the robots aren’t perfect: The edge of the strike zone can still glitch, leaving fans arguing about the algorithm instead of Angel Hernández. And some early voices are cautious. Players want assurance that challenges are fast, fair, and transparent. They want data integrity. MLB has also been tweaking strike zone dimensions as the league tests — because what feels fair from the dugout isn’t always fair by the camera’s lens.

Still, this is baseball’s deal with modernity: preserve the feel but fix the product.

MLB has long marketed itself as America’s pastime. But baseball has already bent its own nostalgia: pitch clocks, bigger bases, limited shifts. Robot umps are just the latest admission that tradition doesn’t always stream well. Fans can cling to the romance of the human element. MLB is betting that accuracy — clean, sellable, sponsor-friendly accuracy — pays better.