Manfred's Next Big Change Is Coming....

Will Rob Manfred’s next change kill baseball as we know it? That was the talk around the office today. I surprisedly heard more “YES” answers than I was expecting, so I am a little shocked by it as I am digesting all of this. Baseball certainly has changed over Manfred’s tenure….but has the baseball enthusiast changed also?

The next big change if Manfred gets his way will be the use of an automated ball and strike zone in baseball starting in 2026. Yup, next season, you can check out the details HERE. We briefly talked about this three years ago in RUMOR: ROBOTS ARE COMING TO A MLB STADIUM NEAR YOU and back then it felt like a horrible idea, and like a long term goal. Well, maybe it isn’t AS horrible of an idea and it’s almost here.

I’ll admit, three years ago I hated the idea. Now, I am not so sure. We all watch games today and it’s “normal” to see a terrible call made by an umpire (here’s looking at you C.B. Bucknor) and this kind of normal just isn’t good for the game. There’s a human element to the game, but they shouldn’t be wrong this often and they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. Where’s the accountability? It doesn’t exist.

So, here we are. Manfred has his sights set on making this change, his biggest change of his tenure next Spring. This change comes at a VERY interesting time. The Competition Committee was created in the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that consists of six owners, four players and one umpire so his Automated Ball Strike zone (ABS) will have little to no opposition to stop this from becoming a reality at least for next year because players won’t have enough power to stop it. However, the current CBA expires December 1, 2026 so if this experiment is a disaster we could have another lockout situation.

The players could make this sticky, so Manfred is going to put on his best politician bullshit voice to try and smooth it over. He’s already practicing. “My single biggest concern is working through the process and deploying it in a way that’s acceptable to the players,” Manfred said. “There’s always going to be things around the edges that we need to work through and whatever, and I want them to feel like we respected the committee process and that there was a full airing of concerns about the system, and an attempt to address those concerns before we go forward.”

I really don’t like or trust Manfred. A commissioner’s interests always align with the owners, otherwise he wouldn’t have a job he’d be fired. So his concern isn’t the players accepting it….his concerns is trying to persuade players just like a corrupt politician. He’s just full of crap and full of himself.

So this will be interesting. Honestly, I really have lost all patience with incompetent umpires so would it be so bad if there were less of them? 

One of my coworkers said today this was “proof nothing can stop AI from taking over.” Then I guess we could credit AI for eliminating some of Aaron Boone‘s temper tantrums that lead him to be ejected…. maybe. That would be a change to the Yankees game for sure. Food for thought… I’ll be watching this headline closely.

How do you feel about an Automated Ball Strike zone? Tell us.