CLEVELAND — When Padres infielder Xander Bogaerts touched his helmet during a rehab at-bat in Triple-A El Paso, he stepped into Major League Baseball’s looming future.
An automated ball-strike system is being tinkered with across the minor leagues. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said some version of it might arrive in the big leagues as early as 2026.
Bogaerts lost his challenge, but holds no grudge against the robo ump overlords.
“What’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong,” Bogaerts said. “You want to get it right. I liked it.”
No one should panic, like so many did when the pitch clock arrived. Innovation that leads to more correct calls, without creating long delays, should be the global goal.
Leveraging technology has been a longtime practice on line calls in major tennis events, without Wimbledon’s cream curdling. If it’s good enough for Serena and Djokovic, it’s good enough for Soto and Ohtani.
In fact, some see even broader technological horizons.
“You talk about line calls in tennis, I’d like that,” said Jake Cronenworth, the Padres’ representative for the Major League Baseball Players Association. “I know they can review (foul-line calls) over video and it’s hard when it rolls over a base and that sort of thing, but I’ve always thought about that one.”
Cronenworth agreed that getting things right is the bullseye on this thing.
“If you’re judging a call that potentially could be in a big spot of the game, I don’t think anybody’s going to be mad,” Cronenworth said of the concerns about delaying or lengthening games. “Let’s say a call is incorrect and they challenge it in the ninth inning on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded and it extends the game, if the call is being made correctly, I don’t think anybody can be mad at that.”
Our natural instinct, though, is to cringe when change knocks on our sports door. Hand-wringing is our default mode when innovation peeks over the horizon.
Hiccups will come, but that’s how you fine-tune things and make them better. A decade from now, baseball fans will look back and yawn.
“It’s coming,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I don’t know the time frame, but I think we’re all pretty naive to think it’s (not). … When it shows up, we’ll deal with it like the three-batter minimum (for relief pitchers) and all the different things that have been implemented over the last several years.
“You know the clocks, the pitch timers, you normalize it and figure out a way to deal with it.”
Wrinkles will need to be ironed out, of course.
The tracking technology will establish strike zones that for the size of players and differing stances. It sets the bottom of the default zone at a player’s knees and identifies arms to round out the picture.
“I can’t have the same strike zone as (Jose) Altuve,” Bogaerts said. “(Aaron) Judge can’t have the same one as Mookie (Betts). That’s where it gets a little tricky.”
Tricky, perhaps. Workable? In this day and age? Absolutely.
So what in the name of Angel Hernandez and C.B. Bucknor are we talking about?
The tracking system, known as ABS, can be used to make every ball and strike call. Or, as is currently the norm in Triple-A, a challenge system can provide teams with limited opportunites to ask for a second look.
Right now, Triple-A rules allow for three challenges per team per game. You retain the challenge if you’re successful.
Sound familiar? Baseball already offers the chance for managers to test calls on the bases.
“I don’t know if any manager’s ever going to get ejected again, so that’s probably a pro and a con,” Shildt said with a laugh. “You can’t argue with anything anymore. I’m not saying I want to argue … but you can’t chirp on balls and strikes (now).”
There’s more to sort, but also the time to sort it.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged that the change could impact the “art” of framing by catchers. Padres fans need only go back to defensive-first catcher Austin Hedges, playing for the Guardians during this weekend’s series in Cleveland, for an up-close example.
All involved will need to adjust.
“I’m from the old school, in which part of the game was umpires making mistakes,” Padres hitting coach Victor Rodriguez said. “I think it will benefit some cases, but that borderline call, that’s part of the game.
“But at the beginning of the pitch clock, everyone thought, ‘Ahhhh’ (cringes). Then you realize the game is shorter. Now everybody’s used to it. Let’s see what happens.”
The night after Bogaerts fell to 0-1 in career ball-strike challenges, another moment had him thinking.
“I wanted to challenge and I was like, ‘Never mind,’ ” he said. “I already wasted one the day before. But I would’ve gotten that one right.”
Sometime soon, we’ll find out.
