Robot Umpires Make Spring Training Debut with Mixed Results

Major League Baseball tested its automated ball-strike system during Friday's spring training games, with teams successfully challenging umpire calls 56.5% of the time. The technology, dubbed "robot umpires," will be used during the regular season for the first time this year.

Major League Baseball’s introduction of automated umpiring technology got its first test run Friday during spring training, with teams winning more than half of their disputes against home plate umpires.

During five games featuring the automated ball-strike system, teams successfully contested 13 out of 23 umpire decisions, resulting in a 56.5% success rate for challenges, according to MLB officials.

The games averaged 4.6 disputes per contest, with an average of 2.6 calls getting reversed by the automated system.

Plate umpire Alex MacKay faced the most scrutiny during Arizona’s narrow 3-2 victory over Colorado, with seven of his calls being questioned. Six of those challenges proved successful, including four out of five contested decisions that went in Arizona’s favor, while Colorado went two-for-two on their disputes.

This marks baseball’s preparation for implementing the controversial “robot umpire” technology during regular season play for the first time. Last year’s spring training trials showed teams achieved a 52.2% success rate, overturning 617 out of 1,182 challenged calls.

Under the current system, each team can dispute up to two calls per game. Teams maintain their challenge opportunity when they win a dispute, similar to existing video replay rules that began with home run calls in 2008 and expanded significantly by 2014. During extra innings, teams receive an additional challenge for each extra frame, even if they’ve used up their original allotments.