MLB’s ‘robo-umps’ receive rave reviews, reinvigorate stadium experience

The “robo-umps” have taken MLB by storm.

Despite early concerns from baseball purists, the new system of verifying balls and strikes has received near-unanimous praise from players, coaches and fans.

The fresh setup — officially known as the “Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System” — allows batters, pitchers and catchers to easily request a review of a pitch if they disagree with the home plate umpire’s ruling.

An intricate series of cameras are in place at every MLB stadium. They’re combined with precise measurements of each hitter to create individualized strike zones, which allow an automated system to determine whether a pitch is a stirke or a ball.

When a player challenges a pitch, the athletes, umpires and fans turn to the in-stadium video board together for an automated review, which delivers an updated ruling in less than 10 seconds.

It’s created an entirely new way for fans to engage with games.

Hometown fans of the Cincinnati Reds broke into applause when the ABS set-up overturned a strike-three call from umpire C.B. Bucknor on Saturday. The cheers only amplified when batter Eugenio Suarez challenged a second consecutive would-be strikeout call. The “robo-ump” proved Suarez right again, causing 40,000 Reds fans to erupt in applause.

The shift has been mostly seamless for fans in the stands. A batter, pitcher or catcher taps their head after a pitch, the ABS replay shows on the video board and play continues.

“I have no idea whether MLB realized what this was going to do to the fan experience, but they definitely hit the jackpot,” fan and blogger Matt Glassman wrote on X.

Teams start the game with two challenges and only lose a challenge if their attempt fails.

But the setup has offered a learning curve for the players on the field.

According to MLB StatCast, players have succeeded on 55% of challenges through the first week of the MLB season. Catchers have been more successful than pitchers or batters, converting 59% of their calls, compared to 52% for batters and 42% for pitchers.

Most players have also been reluctant to use their challenges through the first week of the season. Players are challenging about 6% of called pitches on the edges of the strike zone, according to MLB.com.

The timing of those challenges has garnered more attention.

During Tuesday’s loss against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Nationals lost both of their challenges by the end of the third inning. When close calls went against Washington late in the game, the Nationals had no recourse at the plate.

The Nationals went on to lose, 3-2. Washington has succeeded on just three of its 10 challenges to start the season, one of the lowest success rates in the league.

“We’ll probably talk about — at least early in the game — probably being a little bit more strategic with runners on base or obvious ones. The tough thing, though, is that most of the time our guys are challenging, in their mind, it’s obviously not the result that was called on the field,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “We could get a little more strategic … and open it up later.”

The strategic opportunities are a gold mine for MLB fans and coaches who have embraced analytics over the past two decades. When to use a challenge is an evolving art for managers to teach their players.

According to MLB data scientist Tom Tango, a successful challenge with the bases empty is worth just 0.08 runs. But an overturned call with the bases loaded is worth 0.60 runs.

“In other words, you can get over seven times the payoff on a flipped 3-2 pitch as you would from flipping a first pitch,” Mr. Tango told MLB.com. “When you have that kind of a payoff, you need to be very careful on challenging first pitches and very aggressive on challenging 3-2 pitches.”

The Baltimore Orioles provided proof of concept for that idea on Wednesday.

Baltimore had an 8-3 lead over the Texas Rangers with two outs in the top of the ninth. When Rangers batter Evan Carter took a pitch close to the zone on a 1-2 count, Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo decided to burn a challenge.

“I think we had two (challenges left) at that point,” Basallo said through a translator. “I thought, ’Why not use it?’ Better to use it and see what happens instead of holding onto it.”

The pitch was overturned from a ball to a strike, giving Orioles pitcher Albert Suarez his first save of the season.

“I think I like it more after what happened today,” Suárez said of his opinion toward the ABS system.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.