Major League Baseball is introducing an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) robot program in spring training, allowing teams the option to challenge ball-strike calls twice a game.

That applies to umpires too, apparently, as MLB ump Quinn Wolcott had an internal dialogue play out in the middle of a call. During Tuesday's Cactus League game between the Angels and Rangers ...

If they challenge, the pitch graphic appears on the scoreboard and broadcast, and the umpire updates the count. The MLB says this takes about 17 seconds. The MLB has been testing ABS challenges in ...

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Kansas City Royals catcher Freddy Fermin (34) takes a pitch as home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott (81) calls ...

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 ...

Baseball umpires have been calling balls and strikes since soon after the game was invented in the mid-19th century. Nearly 160 years later, those umpires will finally get some help –– at least during ...

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.