Really big news buried within rather mundane news tonight, as MLB and the Umpires Association have reached a new five-year deal. That’s the mundane news – it was necessary, but expected.
Buried within that mundane news, though, was a critical report from the Associated Press: “Umpires agreed to cooperate with Major League Baseball in the development and testing of an automated ball-strike system, [and] also agreed to cooperate and assist if Commissioner Rob Manfred decides to utilize the system at the major league level.”
BREAKING: People familiar with talks tell The Associated Press that MLB umps have agreed to cooperate with computerized strike zone. https://t.co/thJr3Uy0iL
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) December 21, 2019
DUDE. That is huge news.
For more than a year now, the electronic strike zone – in one form or another – has felt like an inevitability in MLB, but one of the biggest hurdles was going to be fighting from the umpire’s union. Sensing, perhaps, that it was better to agree to some parameters now rather than risk their own CBA, the umpires probably made a good decision just agreeing to work with the league on automated balls and strikes when the time comes.
When will the time come? Well, there’s going to be a rollout process in the minor leagues in the coming years as the technology improves and players adjust to the new world. From there, it’s possible we’ll see full-on automated balls and strikes in the big leagues, or perhaps it will start with a challenge system. Either way, it’s clear that, with available assistive technology, it’s insane to me that we let egregious and unnecessary human error dictate the outcomes of games.