Home Plate Umpire Brian Walsh uses an earpiece to hear the electronic notification as to weather a pitch was a ball or a strike by the ABS system during a AAA minor league baseball game.

The automated ball-strike system (ABS) has been used for minor league games, but it's getting rolled out for the first time in the big leagues during spring training.

It didn't take long for the ABS system to prove human umpires wrong during MLB's first spring training game of 2025. What if I told you there was once a day when human umpires ruled all?

Apr 30, 2023; Mexico City, Mexico; Home plate umpire Pat Hoberg (31) calls an out in the fifth inning during a MLB World Tour game between the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants at ...

which potentially as early as 2026 could be used to aid MLB home plate umpires, but not replace them. Starting in 2024, MLB focused testing on a challenge system in which the human umpire makes ...