ATLANTA \u2014 Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark wondered Tuesday whether the automated ball-strike system would do well to provide a little grace, a half-inch or so, so that the system isn\u2019t used to overturn calls that are wrong by a razor-thin margin.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes there need to be some type of buffer-zone consideration?\u201d Clark asked. \u201cWe haven\u2019t even started talking about the strike zone itself, how that\u2019s going to necessarily be measured.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Rob Manfred, however, does not wonder the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe that technology supports the notion that you need a buffer zone,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cTo get into the idea that there\u2019s something that is not a strike that you\u2019re going to call a strike in a review system \u2014 I don\u2019t know why I would want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manfred has the power to implement ABS at the major-league level for the 2026 season, and is expected to do so. The change would grant teams two challenges per game on the human umpires\u2019 ball or strike calls. The umpire would then defer to technology MLB has tested for several years in the minor leagues.<\/p>\n
The ABS system was on display Tuesday in baseball\u2019s All-Star Game, marking its first use by major leaguers outside of spring training. The All-Stars used four challenges, with three of them resulting in overturned calls \u2014 some by the kind of extremely thin margins Clark referenced before the game.<\/p>\n
Formally, the process to implement the system in the big leagues runs through an 11-person competition committee that includes league representatives, player representatives an umpire. But MLB has enough votes to push it through, a set-up players and owners agreed to during collective bargaining. Manfred has said he\u2019s going to indeed propose ABS to the committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to believe that at some point in time, when it\u2019s represented to the committee and in front of players, and players offer input, that it\u2019s actually listened to,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI still remain hopeful that that may be the case. But our guys do have a concern with that half-inch, what that might otherwise lead to.\u201d<\/p>\n
If teams think they can get the closest of calls overturned, they might be more likely to roll the dice on a challenge if they have one late in games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of discussion that still needs to be had, despite the fact that (implementation) seems more inevitable than not,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n