The debate about robot umpires has been loud, messy and largely missing the point. What MLB is actually starting in 2026 is not robot acquisitions. It's a challenge system, and one of baseball's sharpest minds believes it could be just what the game needed.
On this week's new Sportsknot Interview podcast, longtime Sports Illustrated writer and Fox Sports analyst Tom Verducci says he's been watching the automated ball-strike system develop for some time. He is a believer. But not for the reasons most people assume.
Verducci said, "I'm not a fan of full-on calling every call made by the robo system – it's just technology that is encroaching into the game too much." "But I'm a big fan of actually correcting bad calls based on where we are on replay. And I'm talking about bad calls in big venues."
This is the main difference. This is not about changing umpires wholesale. It's about giving teams a limited number of challenges to correct the calls that really change the outcome. In smaller leagues, where the system has been tested, it averages about four challenges per game. Each takes about 15 seconds. Do the math – you're probably adding a minute to the ballgame. Anyone concerned about the pace of the game can rest easy.
However, what Verducci finds most fascinating is not the precision of the piece. This is strategy.
"I like anything that introduces more strategy into baseball," he said. "Because you only have a few challenges, you have to be really judicious about when to use them. It's not like every pitch, we will inadvertently challenge. No. You better be careful with them."
That calculation changes the way teams think. It rewards players with elite strike zone awareness. Verducci pointed to Alex Bregman as the prototype – a hitter so tuned in this area that former Houston manager AJ Hinch once told him that Bregman was right 99% of the time when he argued the call for walking back into the dugout. Such people become a real asset.
Catchers matter even more. At younger ages, pitchers challenging calls from 60 feet, six inches away had a significantly lower success rate than catchers. Situation, vantage point and instinct are all factors.
Critics say ABS takes away the human element from the sport. Verducci directly pushes back on that framing. "I think in this case we're adding some human element when it comes to the choices that catchers make."
Hard to argue with that.
