In a shocking twist in the saga of America’s pastime, Major League Baseball is unleashing robot umpires during its spring training exhibition games. Yes, you read that right, ball and strike calls may soon come with a side of silicon and circuit boards. Commissioner Rob Manfred has been champing at the bit for this Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) to finally make its grand debut after four years of low-key test runs in the minor leagues. Who needs human error when you’ve got tech, am I right?

The robots aren’t here to overthrow the umpires, yet. Instead, they’re merely serving as a high-tech assistant to our beloved home plate umps. MLB plans to tweak the system based on results from these spring training games before possibly rolling it out to the big leagues as soon as 2026. Let’s be real, anything that gets us more accurate calls should be celebrated in this land of instant replay madness.

The ABS operates on a simple concept: cameras track the pitch and inform the umpires through an earpiece if it’s a ball or a strike. Impressive, but it gets better. Human umpires will still get to keep their day jobs, sort of. During the challenge system trial, teams can contest up to two calls per game. So picture this: your favorite team may actually have a chance to tell an umpire they’re wrong, and if they do it right, they get to keep challenging! Who knows, this could be the new reality TV we didn’t know we needed.

The tech itself, utilizing a Hawk-Eye system and multiple cameras, will be deployed across 13 spring training ballparks in Florida and Arizona. So if you’re soaking up the sunshine, maybe find a game to watch with the family and catch some of this beautiful blend of tradition and technology. The robots will be tracking pitches and calculating strike zones that are more square than the shape of home plate as called by your average umpire.

What’s the museum of broken dreams that led us here? The journey began in 2019 with some experimental gimmicks in indie leagues, but this is a whole new ball game now. Over the years, the width and shape of the strike zone have changed more than your cousin’s political views. With all of this, fans will even get a front-row seat to player feedback through iPads in the dugout, these players might just bring about a new era of umpires with less ego and possibly more accuracy.

So, as you settle in for this year’s spring training, keep your eyes peeled for that shiny new technology and maybe a discussion on how a robot is about to be the best umpire we’ve ever seen. Because honestly, what’s next? A robot cheering section? One can dream.