MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred joins Dan Patrick on The Dan Patrick Show to answer questions about the plan to implement the Automated Ball/Strike system at the Major League level. He says they are fully prepared to call every pitch with ABS and that may indeed be the future of the sport depending on how things go next season.
Dan Patrick: “How long will this take before this is the future?”
Rob Manfred: “…I think that if you had talked just to the owners about this topic a couple of years ago, they would have been in favor of calling every pitch, and we’re certainly capable of doing that, calling every pitch with ABS. I think what made us take the intermediate step is we got a lot of input from players, particular players who had used it in the minor leagues, that they preferred the challenge system, that if preserved a human element in the game. At the Major League level, we also got a lot of input about the significance of framing catchers and individual players who have the skillset that could be really impacted by this, so we took that input to heart and landed where we did. I think that we will see after the ‘26 season whether there’s a push to go the whole way.”