One-third of MLB teams used AI to call pitches – now it’s banned

As many as one-third of Major League Baseball teams had quietly turned to generative AI for live, in-game strategy before the league stepped in and banned the practice altogether. People familiar with how the dugout iPads were being used told The New York Times that clubs were feeding live game data into AI models to help predict the next pitch or recommend which pitch to throw next.

The ban, which took effect Wednesday, applies to every league-issued iPad in every MLB dugout and closes out custom apps that had expanded well past their intended function. A commissioner’s office memo, issued last month and obtained by the Times, said some teams had installed tools generating recommendations on ‘substitutions, pitch calling, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches.’

Jack Lambert, director of baseball operations at Driveline Baseball, explained how the technology worked in practice: with someone live-scoring the game, teams could chart pitch type and location to get dynamically updating game plans, he said, plans that could shift a team’s approach at the plate as it faced a lineup a second or third time, and could even feed into live pitch-calling from the dugout.

Pitch-calling itself is not new to MLB dugouts. People briefed on team systems say the Miami Marlins helped popularize the approach, and as many as six teams currently offer what they describe as ‘pitch suggestions’ from the bench. What changed is the addition of generative AI to that process during live play, which the league has now cut off.

MLB’s internal review found that clubs had stayed within existing rules on sign stealing and electronic devices, so the new restriction does not come with penalties attached. A senior official from the league’s research and development department told the Times the policy shift ’caused quite the stir’ once it reached teams. MLB itself declined to comment beyond the memo issued by Morgan Sword, executive vice president of baseball operations, and the players’ union also declined to comment. Going forward, teams can still load static information onto the iPads before first pitch, but any AI-assisted recommendations generated live during a game are no longer allowed.

Wikimedia Commons/by Keith Allison