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Major League Baseball's Plan To Introduce Robot Umpires

July 07, 2022

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Hey Friends,

Commissioner Rob Manfred recently told ESPN that Major League Baseball will introduce an “automated strike zone system”, otherwise known as robot umpires, as soon as the 2024 season after testing the concept in the minor leagues for two years.

So today we’ll dig into why Major League Baseball is doing this, how the tech actually works, and the company behind the product that is making it all possible. Enjoy!

Major League Baseball is at a pivotal point in history. Sure, franchise valuations have increased over the last few decades, and the average MLB team is now worth more than $2 billion. But more fans attended MLB games in 1998 than in 2019, the average time each game takes to complete has increased 50% from 2 hours to more than 3 hours, and it now costs a family of four nearly $250 to attend a game, on average.

  • 2005: $332 million

  • 2010: $491 million

  • 2015: 1.2 billion

  • 2022: $2.1 billion

  • MLS: 40

  • NBA: 42

  • NHL: 49

  • NFL: 50

  • MLB: 57

MLB Attendance By Year

MLB Average Time Of Game By Year

MLB Average Cost To Attend (Family of 4)

So Commissioner Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball have introduced various changes over the last few years to shake things up. They have started to work with more influencers to engage a younger demographic. They have tweaked the rules to speed up the game, limiting mound visits, implementing an intra-inning clock, and more. And they have introduced special offers for people attending multiple games.

But “robot umpires” might be one of the most interesting changes yet, at least visually.

The fundamental concept behind robot umpires is pretty simple—today’s umpires occasionally make errors and mistakes, so if you can reduce that while speeding up the game through innovative technology, it almost seems like a no-brainer to explore.

The system being tested in the minor leagues is made by TrackMan, a Danish radar tracking device technology developer and manufacturer. And here’s how it works:

  • A system using 3-D doppler radar technology is hung above home plate.

  • It generates a customized strike zone for each batter based on their size and stance—6’ 7” Aaron Judge won’t have the same strike zone as 5’ 6” Jose Altuve.

  • The tech then tracks and identifies a pitch’s location and communities the call (ball vs. strike) to the iPhone connected to the umpire’s ear via earpiece.

  • Umpires can override a call if there’s an obvious error like a bounced ball at the plate that’s called a strike, and a TrackMan crew sits in the press box during games to manage the system’s equipment and fix any errors as they come up.

This is still a work in progress—the minor leagues had to switch to wired earpieces because the AirPods they were initially using would die during games. But still, the early results are promising. For example, not only are there fewer incorrect calls, but the “robot umpire” system has reduced game times by 9 minutes in the minor leagues.

And for additional context, here’s an example of how it looks behind home plate.

So we’ll see how this goes. And according to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, we’ll probably see it being used at baseball’s highest level sooner rather than later. But regardless, it’s a super interesting concept, and anytime a sports league is willing to experiment with innovative technology to improve the game, that’s good for fans.

I hope everyone has a great day. We’ll talk tomorrow.

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