Often referred to as a “robot umpire,” ABS automatically assesses whether a pitch qualifies as a ball or a strike and promptly communicates the decision to the umpire. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – The South Korean baseball league announced Thursday that robot umpires will be used from the start of the 2024 season, one of several rule changes being adopted one year after Major League Baseball (MLB).
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) will also enlarge bases in the new season and will institute a ban on defensive shifts, looking to increase offense and encourage action on base paths.
The decisions were reached during the meeting of the KBO’s board of directors, made up of the presidents of the league’s 10 clubs.
The automated ball-strike system, colloquially called robot umpires, uses tracking technology to determine balls and strikes, and relays the call to the home plate umpire through an earpiece.
In 2023, MLB enlarged the bases from 15 square inches to 18 square inches, hoping to increase steals and reduce injury risks. Big league players swiped 3,503 bases last year, the most since 1987 and the second-most in the past 100 seasons. The success rate reached an all-time high of 80.2 percent in 2023, up from 75.4 percent in 2022.
The shift ban is another rule change that the KBO hopes will lead to more offense. Though specifics of the ban weren’t announced Thursday, the KBO will likely follow the example in MLB, where four infielders must have at least one foot in the infield dirt, with at least two infielders on either side of the second base.
The board, however, put the brakes on the introduction of the pitch clock. If the KBO follows MLB’s example, the pitch clock would force pitchers to deliver a pitch within 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on.
The league had earlier proposed using the pitch clock from the start of the new season but faced some pushback from clubs for rushing to that move. The board decided Thursday the clock will have a test run during the first half of 2024 and then will decide later whether to put it in place for every game in the second half.
The pitch clock was largely credited with shaving the length of MLB games by over 20 minutes from 2022 to 2023. The average nine-inning game in the majors went for two hours and 40 minutes in 2023, compared to three hours and 12 minutes in the KBO.
The KBO board decided that the three-batter minimum rule, which forces pitchers to face at least three batters once they take the mound, will be first used in the Futures League, the KBO’s minor league, in 2024 before deciding on its use in the KBO.
The new extra-inning rule, whereby teams will have a runner on base to start extra innings to speed up games, will also be put in use in the Futures League first this season.
The 2024 KBO regular season begins March 23.
(Yonhap)
