The Orioles haven’t just battled the AL East over a forgettable 2025 campaign. They’ve also battled the men and women in blue behind the plate.

Blown ball-and-strike calls have cost Baltimore more than 13 runs this season, fourth-most in the majors, according to Ump Scorecards’ run expectancy.

Next season? The Orioles will be breathing a sigh of relief because Major League Baseball is implementing robot umpires.

It’s about time.

MLB announced Tuesday that the “ABS challenge system” will be introduced across the majors beginning in 2026. The strike zone should not serve as a canvas for every umpire’s personal brushstroke, and the Orioles’ 13-run deficit is proof that the cost of error is too high
But for a sport that considers itself America’s pastime and has long romanticized the human element of umpiring, the change lands like a jolt.

In reality, it’s long overdue.

The ABS system will give each team two challenges per game, retained if correct. Pitchers, catchers or batters must tap their helmet or cap immediately after the pitch call to signal a challenge, with no dugout input allowed. Moments after a challenge is used, the cameras and scoreboard graphics will settle the argument.

The league has already tested ABS in the minors and the independent Atlantic League.

The debate – if there truly was one – for robot umps has long shifted from “if” to “when” and “how.”

To be clear, MLB isn’t surrendering to robots entirely. The challenge format is a tool that allows umpires to continue to call the game, but leaves strategy in human hands. Burn a challenge early on a borderline pitch and you might regret it in the ninth.

No one knows the stakes better than a reliever trying to survive the late innings.

Left-hander Dietrich Enns, 34, acquired from the Tigers at the trade deadline, has already lived inside a baseball world with an automated zone, working with ABS in Triple-A Toledo earlier this year and before that in the Korea Baseball Organization.

“There is less guessing with the umpire,” Enns told The Baltimore Sun. “It forces you to trust your stuff and just work.”

That’s just one example of many in which one missed strike can balloon a pitch count, turn a two-strike count into a hitter’s count, or swing momentum entirely. An overturned call is the kind of hidden swing that doesn’t show up in the current box score.

Yes, the Orioles had plenty of other issues this season. But 13-plus runs of negative run expectancy for a competitive team in the hunt could mean the difference between playing in October or not.

Traditionalists will bristle at the incoming change.

Orioles Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver built his reputation for disagreeing with umpires, often taunting, throwing fits and stretching his limits. Former Oriole and longtime MLB manager Lou Piniella was another animated skipper during his memorable interactions with the officials in blue.

But the days of traditional baseball are quickly moving to the rearview mirror. Over the past few years, MLB has implemented plenty of initially controversial but influential changes, including the inherited runner rule in extra innings, the three-batter minimum rule for relievers and the pitch clock, among others.

Each change drew early howls and negative feedback. Each change has also made the sport better in the long run.

The ABS challenge system will, too.

Consider Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino as a former hater who has since turned his head the other way.

“Years ago in the minor leagues, I hated [the rule changes],” Mansolino said. “Now, I love it … it’s the greatest thing they’ve done. Everything that they’ve done with all these rules, they’ve actually kind of turned the game back.

“I think it is important in today’s day and age for it to be entertaining for the people that buy tickets and the people that ultimately allow us to be here. I think it’s going to be entertaining … it’s going to be good for the game.”

MLB will monetize the moment.

The league, which looped this historical and technological leap to a corporate partnership with T-Mobile that was subtly included in Tuesday’s announcement, ultimately is hoping for more broadcast viewers and a new layer of drama with every helmet tap and scoreboard graphic that announces the verdict. All of it fuels more sponsorships and advertising opportunities.

There will be expected growing pains with the introduction of ABS.

Enns estimates a potential full-on ABS implementation in the future could hurt certain pitchers who live on dotting edges and corners, while it could benefit others who prefer to pound the zone.

“If it’s a blowout, it could slow down the game because the zone doesn’t change and you have to get it in the box,” he said. “It just depends on the situation. It makes the game flow, and you can just go about your work.”

The Orioles, a victim this season of the human zone’s imperfections, should gladly welcome this change.

Have a news tip? Contact Josh Tolentino at jtolentino@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, x.com/JCTSports and instagram.com/JCTSports.