Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred downplayed the chances of the automated ball-strike system being installed at the big-league level ahead of next season on Thursday, according to Evan Drellich. Manfred, who held a press conference to mark the end of owners meetings, said he did not consider the automated ball-strike system as an issue for the competition committee to discuss this winter. 

The league has experimented with the automated ball-strike system, or robot umpires as they're affectionately referred to, at a variety of levels and for a number of years, including (to pushback) in the Atlantic League, the top independent baseball league in the country. This season, for example, they expanded their usage to the Triple-A level. The viability of using the automated ball-strike system in the majors has been questioned before, however, because of the limits in technology.