Major League Baseball has quietly implemented a sweeping change before the start of the second half of the season, restricting the use of iPads in the dugout to prevent teams from using artificial intelligence to help make strategy decisions.
Here’s what you need to know: MLB started allowing iPads in the dugout in 2016. These iPads are effectively dumb. There is no internet access or app store; players and coaches are only allowed to access three tabs. The first tab contains MLB-provided Statcast data and multiple video angles, which players are allowed to watch only after the inning ends. The second tab houses data for the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system, and the third tab is a custom tab where teams can put all their specialized data. This includes everything that would have previously been in a binder — matchup info, defensive positioning, and player tendencies.
But as data became an increasingly important part of the game, some teams took it a step further. Specifically, former MLB pitcher Adam Ottavino says New York Mets owner Steve Cohen spent hundreds of thousands of dollars so that his analytics team could build an AI program to help with live in-game strategy.
“The Mets were actually the team, the main team, that got cracked down on. They had an AI program that was very expensive apparently, and they were bragging about it a little bit early on in this — the year. Some of the coaches that I know were talking about it from around the league, and they had basically an AI program helping them pick pitches and I think some other stuff. But MLB got wind of it and nipped that right in the bud, so apparently they weren’t the only team, but I knew about it from the Mets angle. They tried to throw some money at the situation. Steve ponied up for — I think this program from what I heard was several hundred thousand dollars to have.”
In simple terms, rather than relying on pre-game reports from the analytics team to inform in-game strategy, several MLB teams have been feeding live data into generative AI models. These AI models can eliminate the human-led decision-making process by predicting the next pitch a pitcher should throw or forecasting what an opposing pitcher might throw based on sequencing patterns.
According to The Athletic, about one-third of MLB teams are using some level of generative AI on their league-issued iPads. Several teams, including the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies, now call pitches directly from the dugout — coaches relay the pitch call to the catcher using hand signals, and the catcher then inputs it into a PitchCom device to communicate to the pitcher — and the belief is that some of these teams rely on AI to determine what pitch to call.
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