LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's spring training time. Major League Baseball's 30 teams are in Arizona and Florida for the next couple of months, preparing for the upcoming season. And this year, for the first time, big league players will be able to challenge calls on balls and strikes. It's all part of a test run to see if some kind of automated strike zone should be in the league's future. Joining us now from Arizona with more is NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan. Good morning, Becky.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
FADEL: OK, so baseball calls this the automated ball-strike challenge system. What does that mean?
SULLIVAN: Well, first, I should just headline that this is just a test for spring training. No matter what, it will not be in effect for the actual 2025 season this year.
FADEL: OK.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. Basically, when an ump makes a call of ball or strike on a pitch, players will be able to challenge if they disagree. There will be a system of cameras set up throughout ballparks to track the exact location of the pitch the moment it passes halfway across home plate. It's a very technical system. Same kind of technology you see in tennis and with video replay of offside in soccer.
FADEL: Oh, OK. How will it work in baseball?
SULLIVAN: Well, the challenge can only come from three players - either the pitcher, the catcher or the batter. They have to do it right away, no communication with the dugout. And then everyone in the stadium - the players, the umps, the fans - will all watch on the jumbotron as this, like, computer-animated version of the pitch will show up, and the system shows whether that was a ball or a strike. And it takes - whole thing takes around just 15 or 20 seconds, and the game moves right along. Teams will start each game with two challenges a piece. If you get one wrong, you lose it, but if you get it right, you keep it. You can keep on challenging. And again, just a test for spring training. It's already been tried out in the minor leagues, but this is a huge change for Major League Baseball to see if it could be added in the 2026 season or beyond.
FADEL: Now, the other big story in baseball right now is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the World Series last season and seem bent on getting their way to another title this year. How much has that come up this week?
SULLIVAN: Oh, I think it's come up even more than this...
FADEL: (Laughter).
SULLIVAN: ...Ball-strike challenge system we've been talking about. Yeah, they have been spending big this off-season. They added two of the biggest free-agent pitchers in baseball. Those are Blake Snell, the two-time Cy Young winner, and Roki Sasaki, the Japanese phenom, who's coming to the U.S. for the first time this season. They also added a new second baseman, a new outfielder, resigned a bunch of key guys from that World Series run to what is on top of already a star-studded roster with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman. If it sounds like a ton, it is according to Spotrac, which is this, like, contract service. The Dodgers tax payroll will be nearly $400 million this year...
FADEL: Wow.
SULLIVAN: ...Which is double or more than over half the teams in the league and five times as much as the teams at the very bottom.
FADEL: So maybe you can buy yourself a title. Is there a concern about how teams from smaller markets really can keep up with that kind of spending?
SULLIVAN: Oh, for sure. I mean, especially from fans, but also from other people in baseball. I mean, baseball doesn't have a salary cap. It just has what's called a luxury tax, which is essentially a penalty on payroll that goes over a certain amount. The Dodgers, of course, being way over that amount, but they can afford it. They have a huge market. They have tons of fans. They have a lucrative TV deal. So Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, he spoke to reporters yesterday, and a lot of the questions he faced were about this concern of competitive balance.
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ROB MANFRED: It certainly is at the top of my list of concerns about what's going on in the sport. You know, when I say I can't be critical of Dodgers, they're doing what the system allows. If I'm going to be critical of something, it's not going to be the Dodgers. It's going to be the system.
SULLIVAN: It's not easy to change that system. Players historically haven't wanted anything to limit their income like a salary cap would. So all of that is setting up for a big showdown in union bargaining when the current contract is up after the end of the 2026 season.
FADEL: That's NPR's Becky Sullivan in Phoenix. Thank you, Becky.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome.
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