Major League Baseball’s commissioner Rob Manfred said that the automated strike zone will be used in the minor leagues in some capacity during the 2020 season.
This news comes following the testing of the technology in both the Atlantic League and Arizona Fall League this year. Most recently, the automated strike zone made news when an AFL player was ejected arguing one of it’s calls. As you can see in the video if you look close, the homeplate umpire wears an earpiece to hear the relayed ball or strike call that is generated by ABS.
Baseball America did a piece that touched on why pitchers and hitters were both dissatisfied with the experiment of having TrackMan decide the strike zone in the AFL.
Manfred talked with MLB Now about the automated strike zone, “We’re actually going through a big upgrade of that piece of our technology during this offseason. I think we need to be ready to use an automated strike zone when the time is right. That’s why we experimented in the Atlantic League. It’s why we went to the Arizona Fall League. It’s why we’re using it in Minor League Baseball next year, in some ballparks at least.”
Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports that one possibility for the automated strike zone next season is the Florida State League. The Mets Single-A St. Lucie Mets are part of the Florida State League.
