This falls under things that I never really thought of. Technology is becoming huge in sports, including baseball. With the ABS Challenge System coming to the majors in 2026 and teams using high-tech gadgets to evaluate both their own players and others, I just assumed it was all taken for granted that teams used the best tech they could find.

Turns out that in the majors, teams have to choose technology that they can use in their stadiums from a list of vendors and equipment that has been approved by MLB. If a company or their particular technology is not on that list, it can not be used. In Minor League Baseball, teams can install any technology they want in their affiliates stadiums, which leads to some teams having elite systems that can tell a team how many times a player scratched their nose and how much pressure he used, if they really wanted to know. Problem is that there is no parity in the systems. One team can have the best of the best and switch it out immediately when something flashier comes along while another team has some guy sitting with a video camera from Wal-Mart and playing it back on a basic computer.

Major League Baseball wants to change all of that, but they have not yet announced it officially. The Athletic has the best coverage on the new regulations, but their info is behind a pay-wall and I won’t give away what they deserve to get paid for. (Just for the record, if you are a sports fan, you really should have a subscription anyway!) There is some other information that I have been able to find, so I will share the basics of the change.

Basically, the change will bring the same technological parity that they have brought to the majors to the minors. That means though that a team that has the best that the technology arms race has to offer installed in their minor league parks, if that particular equipment is not approved by Major League Baseball, they will have to rip it out and start over. Some execs are asking what they are going to do with all of the equipment that they paid handsomely for. Perhaps, we should all watch eBay for some good tech deals next spring.

What about the teams that have not – or have not been able to – spend on minor league technology? Major League Baseball will pay to put the approved systems into their minor league ballparks, all in the name of parity.

There is another concern with the arrangement whether it is at the major league or minor league level. The conspiracy theorist in me asks if the system, which has already been in effect for years at the major league level, is not one that could lead to some backroom deals.

Some of the more tech oriented teams, the same ones who may need to rip out their systems at minor league ballparks, are going to be upset that MLB is buying the approved stuff for other teams. It’s not clear whether MLB will also pay to replace a system that is not on the list of approved vendors. The only real information on that comes in a quote from an unidentified MLB spokesperson who stated: “MLB will pay for and manage the technology.”

For fans, their game experience won’t be changed at all. What will change is that some teams will get a boost from information they can grab about their minor league players, others will remain unchanged, and some will have to cut back on the amount of technology that they will have access to. That part of it is likely to change some teams evaluation of their own players and those that come through their ballparks during the season.

That brings up one final point. Not all teams at the same level of the minors play each other and certainly do not play each other every season. For instance, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs who play in the International League, have never seen most of the teams in the Pacific Coast League come into Coca-Cola Park. With the scheduling that went into affect a few years back, not even every International League team comes to town to play the IronPigs in a season and many don’t roll through for a number of years. That throws at least a small monkey wrench into the parity argument.

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