Robot Umpire Challenges Added a Minute to Every Game This Season

Baseball's new robot umpire system cost fans about a minute a game this year. MLB said Monday that the average nine-inning game lasted 2 hours, 42 minutes, up 3 minutes, 43 seconds from last season, and that 61 seconds of the increase came from the automated ball-strike challenges.

Under the system, batters, pitchers and catchers can appeal an umpire's ball or strike call to a computer. Each challenge means a short stop while the call is reviewed. It also led to more walks: 3.36 per team per game, the most in a full season since 2009.

The rest of the increase isn't explained, but the bigger picture hasn't changed. Games are still much shorter than before the pitch clock. The average was 3:04 in 2022, fell to 2:40 when the clock arrived in 2023 and to 2:36 in 2024, the shortest since 1984. It rose to 2:38 last year.

For comparison, games first averaged more than three hours in 2016 and peaked at 3:10 in 2021. A 2:42 game would have been a quick night back then.

The playoffs start Tuesday with four wild-card series.