Major League Baseball is looking to hire tech support in 11 Triple-A cities to operate its Automated Ball-Strike system. The job posting signals that MLB is preparing to implement ABS in Triple-A for the 2022 season, a significant jump after its trial at the Low-A level in 2021.

the ABS Tech Jobs on the MLB Careers page, ABS will operate at “spring training sites in Florida, AAA West and Low-A Southeast, and potentially other non-MLB games and sites.” Job responsibilities include using the ABS iPhone app for batting data entry during games and assisting human umpires and staff with ABS operations.

Low-A games last season used Hawk-Eye’s optical cameras to call balls and strikes, while the human plate umpire wore an AirPod in his ear to receive and execute the software call. TrackMan’s 3-D Doppler radar system has driven MLB’s initial deployment of ABS in the Atlantic League since 2019. The job posting says ABS will leverage “optical tracking data to call balls and strikes, indicating that Hawk-Eye and not TrackMan is the preferred technology. supplier goes ahead.

MLB is “actively recruiting” nominations to support 11 Triple-A teams: Albuquerque Isotopes, Charlotte Knights, El Paso Chihuahuas, Las Vegas Aviators, Oklahoma City Dodgers, Reno Aces, Round Rock Express, Sacramento River Cats, Salt Lake Bees, Sugar Land Skeeters and Tacoma Rainiers.