It doesn’t appear that robot umpires behind home plate will be coming to Major League Baseball in 2025. Commissioner Rob Manfred held a news conference Thursday and told reporters they haven’t made as much progress as they were hoping to by this point.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred
“We still have some technical issues,” Manfred said, via The Associated Press. “We haven’t made as much progress in the minor leagues this year as we sort of hoped at this point. I think it’s becoming more and more likely that this will not be a go for ‘25.”
The technology has been used in the minor leagues since 2019, with the 2024 season being the second consecutive year every MiLB park using the robot umps.
MLB has implemented new rules last year including a pitch clock. But, like the robot umps, the pitch clock wasn’t something that happened overnight. Rather, MLB experimented with it and held off as long as they could to try to avoid anything going wrong — essentially what the league is doing now with the umpires.
“One thing we did learn with the changes that we went through last year: taking the extra time to make sure you have it right is definitely the best approach,” Manfred said. “I think we’re going to use that same approach here.”
There’s been plenty of conversations about whether the robot umpires would be better than a human umpire — especially this season when umpires have had a difficult time calling balls or strikes.
