There could be robot umpires in the Major League Baseball (MLB) tournament in the United States starting with the 2026 regular season. According to a report from CNNMLB plans to test an Automated Ball Strike (ABS) challenge system in 13 stadiums 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 the case across the board, but we actually have a plan where every team will get significant exposure to this,” he added.

Manfred further said that discussions between MLB and the MLB Umpires Association regarding the new technology are ongoing. According to a report in the Associated PressThe MLB Umpires’ Association collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1.

“We have an obligation to collective bargaining there. This is obviously a condition of employment. We’re going to have to resolve that as well,” he said.

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 pitch relative to the strike zone.”

Since 2022, the ABS challenge system has been present 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.