Phillies Star Catcher Reveals Complicated Thoughts On Robot Umpires

The Philadelphia Phillies star catcher must weigh the pros and cons of robot umpires, being in a unique spot.

Feb 16, 2025; Clearwater, FL, USA; Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto (10) participates in spring training workouts at BayCare Ballpark. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

MLB made a huge push towards the future with the Automated Ball-Strike System taking over spring training, with the Philadelphia Phillies being one of the teams involved in the experiment.

This has forced some players to rethink how they play the game, most notably catchers.

Jayson Stark of The Athletic recently spoke to a handful of MLB players, managers and more to see how the ABS system was received this spring.

One of which was Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto, who had some mixed feelings about the robot umpires.

"I like it as a hitter," said Realmuto. "I don't really like it as a catcher as much, just because I think it takes part of the game away, part of the catcher position. Framing is still going to matter, but it's not going to be as big of a deal. So that part I don't like. But as a hitter, I do like having the consistent strike zone."

The ABS system changes the game in a handful of ways.

The most obvious is the challenge system where pitchers, catchers and managers can go to a camera to see whether or not the umpire got the call right.

Each team gets two challenges and only lose them after getting a challenge wrong.

This is the change to framing that Realmuto is worried about as a catcher.

It could actually benefit him in terms of framing, though, since that aspect of his game is no longer the strength it was during the prime years of his career.

From 2017 to 2021, Baseball Savant has his framing score as an average of 4.4, which is elite. From 2022 on, that number is all the way down to -5.3 which is a very large drop.

His defense has taken a large hit across the board, but framing is one thing that has been much tougher on him in recent seasons.

On the offensive side, his positives comes from the fact it would create a consistent strike zone.

The ABS strike zone is set to percentages based on the player's height. It is traditionally a little bit lower than the traditional strike zone.

Batters tend to like this as more balls will likely be called as a result.

This is another change that could end up benefitting Realmuto since he has become more accustomed to swinging at pitches out of the zone and is walking a bit less.

Perhaps a consistent strike zone will help him improve his grasp at the plate.

No matter how Realmuto or any other player feels about it, it seems as though it is almost a foregone conclusion that the ABS System will be expanded and brought into the Major League level in the future.

It has gone well in the minors and it was a huge hit this spring.

It will be one of the biggest talking points throughout this season and next year as a major shift could be coming to MLB.