Rob Manfred Expects MLB to Use an Automated Strike Zone in the Next 4 Years | News, scores, highlights, statistics and rumors

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is optimistic about implementing an automated strike zone in the future, but it could still take some time.

Appearing in The Dan Patrick ShowManfred explained that a version of the automatic strike zone could come to MLB within the next four years.

Baseball Americaof JJ Cooper noted in March that games in the Triple-A and High-A Florida State League, which has some parks equipped with ABS technology, would use the system to call balls and strikes for Tuesday-Thursday games during the 2024 season.

Cooper added that the Triple-A strike zone would be 17 inches wide, the length of home plate, with the top and bottom of the zone set at 53.5 percent and 27 percent of the batter’s height. The height to the top of the zone was a 2.5 percent increase from 2023.

The FSL zone was 20 inches wide, with the bottom of the zone set at the height of the batter’s back knee and the top of the zone based on the midpoint of the batter’s hips. The zone could actually change based on the hitter’s stance, but it was based on a moving median of the player’s stance on previous pitches using the Hawk-Eye visual tracking system.

Umpires make the call using a system similar to what pitchers and catchers have with PitchCom, where the system calls a ball or hit and relays the call to the umpire through a headset.

Manfred’s assessment that MLB could take years to implement the system isn’t a complete surprise. He told reporters in May after an owners meeting that there were “some technical issues” with “the operation of the system” that would likely take him off the table in 2025, but the technology was working well.

One of the issues cited by Manfred was the definition of the strike zone and how to define it for each individual hitter, whether based on a percentage of their height or the positioning of camera systems within the stadium.

“I’m not sure anyone is completely satisfied with either approach,” Manfred said. “We haven’t started those conversations (with the MLBPA) because we haven’t decided what we think about it yet. It’s hard to have those conversations before you know what they’re thinking.”

During a pre-All-Star Game event in July, Manfred called the 2026 regular season a “viable possibility” for the ABS system to be implemented if things go well during a test in spring training before the start of next season.

There has been continued scrutiny on referees throughout the postseason. Some estimates tracked a combined 116 incorrect calls in the 11 American and National League Championship Series games.

A four-year timeline for MLB to implement the ABS system would mean it would happen before the end of Manfred’s term as commissioner. The 66-year-old told reporters in February that he would retire when his current term ends in January 2029.