New Robo Ump System Could End Baseball TV Broadcast Strike Zones

Major League Baseball is testing the automatic ball and strike zone (ABS), commonly referred to as robo umps, in spring training this year. While there's no guarantee that the ABS ever officially comes to regular-season games, the earliest it could is the 2026 season. 

Challenging balls and strikes would be another immense shift in how baseball works and looks. And in more ways than one.

A now-ubiquitous feature of baseball broadcasts is the superimposed strike zone, showing fans an approximation of where balls and strikes should be called. But the official version of the ABS-defined strike zone is defined a bit differently, and the challenge system could also necessitate a change.

"The strike-zone box that we display on broadcasts and our app probably is inconsistent with the way we currently do it with the challenge system," said Morgan Sword, the EVP for baseball operations at MLB, during a press conference this week. "You take a lot of the drama and excitement out of it if the fan can see up front that that pitch was a strike. It sort of obviates the need for the challenge.

"Then there’s a secondary issue, which is cheating. There are monitors, big-screen televisions all over our ballparks that display the feed of the game. And it wouldn’t be that hard if this box was up there for fans or anybody to yell to the players, right? That’s not what we want, either."

Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies argues with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez after being called out on strikes during the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citizens Bank Park on April 24, 2022, in Philadelphia. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

MLB Testing Some Broadcast Fixes

Sword continued, saying the league has some ideas of how to potentially save the strike zone box while still maintaining the integrity of the challenge system.

"We’re going to test out a couple different ideas," he said. "One is to show the box but not show where the ball was. The second is to show the ball, but not where the box was. And then the third is to remove some of the edges from the box — this has actually been done on some broadcasts."

The new definition of the strike zone could also be accounted for, with broadcasters using the parameters the league gives them.

"My understanding is they present the box based on data that we provide to them," Sword said. "We actually were talking to broadcasters about this issue a couple weeks ago in New York, and they’re on board. They would just want to find a way to present the game in an exciting way, given that this might be a part of it."

Sword says the league knows casual fans do enjoy having the frame of reference, but that the current iteration isn't always accurate to the "real" strike zone, particularly moving forward.

"It makes sense that, particularly for more casual fans, it gives some frame of reference for the strike zone and what is determining balls and strikes. But those of us that live in this world all the time often are frustrated by it, because it doesn’t totally match the way that we evaluate umpires, and creates a perception among fans that the strike zone itself is a little different than it is."

Sword's concern over cheating is valid, but the strike zone view has become an integral part of broadcasts. Losing it entirely isn't desirable, but adjusting how it's displayed would at least provide context for how the league defines the strike zone. And how bad (or good!) umpires are at calling it.