MLB Wants Coaches, Not Chatbots, Calling the Shots

Major League Baseball has banned teams from using dugout iPads to run AI-powered tools that generate in-game strategy recommendations, marking a mid-season policy change aimed directly at custom apps that push tablets beyond review and reference work. Tablet use has become a familiar part of modern baseball broadcasts, with players and staff regularly reviewing information in the dugout. Regular viewers have grown accustomed to seeing teams huddled around devices, typically with the expectation that those tablets support performance review or last-minute statistical work. The league's concern is different. MLB officials intervened after teams reportedly began using hardware for generative AI tools and custom applications that crossed into decision-making territory. The policy change cuts off that use before it becomes a standard part of in-game management. The Athletic reported, that the commissioner's office delivered the news in a June 11 memo. Sources told The Athletic that as many as a third of MLB teams had used tablets for these unintended purposes. No clubs will face punishment. MLB review determined all organizations were compliant with the new rules. MLB's move fits into a longer tightening of in-game technology rules. iPad use during games faced increased restrictions after a sign-stealing scandal surfaced in 2021. In the years after that, teams pushed for more lenience, but the commissioner's office is now pulling back. Baseball teams already pursue every legal informational edge, and fast data processing sits naturally inside the sport's modern analytics culture. But MLB is now separating analysis from automated tactical direction, especially when those recommendations could affect substitutions, pitch calls, and other live competitive decisions. The ban does not reject technology outright. Baseball is well suited to statistical analysis, and AI is effective at processing large volumes of data quickly. The issue is where that processing turns into live instruction. Baseball decisions are not made from numbers alone. Mental, and emotional performance can complicate the mathematically optimal answer at any given moment. MLB's new restriction preserves room for players and coaches to make those calls rather than allowing generative AI tools to become dugout decision engines. The report also contrasts this kind of AI use with technology that acts as a backup, including the new ABS system. That distinction matters. MLB is not moving away from tech-assisted baseball; it is drawing a boundary around tools that replace strategic judgment during games. For a league built on both data and instinct, the message is direct. Tablets can remain part of the dugout workflow, but AI-generated strategy calls are out.