There could reportedly be robot umpires in the Major League Baseball (MLB) tournament in the United States starting in the 2026 regular season. According to a report in CNNMLB plans to test an automated ball strike (ABS) challenge system at 13 ballparks that will host 19 MLB teams in 2025, during spring training.

“I think we will have a spring training ABS test that will provide a meaningful opportunity for all Major League players to see what the challenge system will look like,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said CNN.

“It’s not going to be in every single ballpark, but we actually have a plan where every team is going to get meaningful exposure to it,” he added.

Manfred further stated that talks between MLB and the MLB Umpires Association regarding the new technology are ongoing. A per a report i Associated PressThe MLB Umpires Association’s collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1.

– We have a collective bargaining obligation there. It is obviously a condition of employment. We will have to work through that issue as well, he says.

Under the new system, human umpires will continue to call balls and strikes, but teams that have a limited number of challenges can use the robot umpires. According to CNNABS technology uses Hawk-Eye cameras “to track the location of each plane relative to the strike zone.”

Since 2022, the ABS challenge system has been featured in Triple-A baseball, which is a Minor League Baseball competition. The technology was also used during the MLB All-Star Futures Game for the second consecutive year in July 2024.