What do the Bay Area All-Stars think about MLB switching to the robot umpire system?

Logan Webb is old school, and he’s proud to admit it. He’d love to pitch every inning of every start. He wasn’t a fan of the universal designated hitter rule. And he’s not a fan of robot umpires calling balls and strikes.

Webb doesn’t want technology to determine the strike zone, but that’s not just because the San Francisco Giants pitcher is old school.

“To be honest,” Webb said with a broad smile, “I think I throw the most strikes out of the zone in baseball, so probably not. I’d like to keep it that way.”

It’s true that Webb leads all MLB pitchers in strikes, with 433 total, according to Statcast — ahead of St. Louis’ Miles Mikolas and Kyle Gibson with 411 and 406, respectively — and he’d prefer to see plate umpires handle all of their duties.

Anyway, the automated balls and strikes system is coming. Not in full form right away, but ABS is coming anyway.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday that MLB could experiment with an ABS challenge system next spring and, if all goes well, it could be implemented for the 2026 season.

That means the technology wouldn’t be used to replace an umpire calling balls and strikes, but to allow teams to challenge an umpire’s strike-zone calls. The challenge system is currently in use in Triple-A, with Pacific Coast League teams getting three challenges per game and International League teams getting two — if they’re successful, clubs get to keep their challenges.

Several All-Stars interviewed by the Chronicle on ABS were in favor of the challenge system, but did not want the plate umpire to lose the authority to call balls and strikes.

“The challenge creates accountability on both sides and creates a strike zone,” Oakland Athletics closer Mason Miller said. “If they make a change, I would welcome it. As far as (a computer) calling balls and strikes, it’s part of the game to ask an umpire where a pitch was or complain about a missed call. I think taking away that human element detracts from the game that we love.”

Giants midfielder Heliot Ramos shared similar sentiments.

“I don’t like it when a machine calls it,” he said. “I like it when the umpire calls it, but I’d like to challenge his calls, too. I had it in the minors, and I like it. The umpire can make a mistake, and we can make a mistake with a challenge. Either way, we can take care of it right away.”

Hawk-Eye technology is used for the strike-zone challenge system in Triple-A, just as it is for line challenges in tennis and goal-line reviews in soccer. It’s there to correct the most egregious lapses by referees and perhaps keep a turn alive (or shorten it) during a key moment in a game, rather than letting one incorrect call determine the outcome of a game.

“Tennis has that great Hawk-Eye technology, and it would be cool to use it for a challenge system,” said former Giants prospect Bryan Reynolds, a two-time All-Star outfielder for the Pirates. “Baseball should have it for everything. Foul balls, home runs. I don’t see why we wouldn’t have it. In tennis, it’s down to the millimeter.

“But I wouldn’t want every pitch to be decided by a computer. I still want a human element with umpires calling balls and strikes. That’s the way it should be. I don’t think people want to see an umpire standing in the back, they want a computer to decide everything.”

Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, who was born in Hayward and grew up in Fremont before his family moved to Arizona when he was in high school, said the technology used in the minor leagues needs to be significantly improved before it can be used at the highest level.

That starts with the interpretation of the strike zone. The MLB rulebook states that the strike zone is “the area above home plate from the midpoint between a batter’s shoulders and the top of the uniform pants — when the batter is standing and ready to strike at a pitched ball — to a point just below the kneecap.”

However, that is not always the case with referees or ABS. Manfred admitted that there are “technical issues around the definition of the strike zone, and that still needs to be worked out.”

“They’ve got to get the strike zone right,” Skubal said. “They’ve got to define what the strike zone really is. There’s a lot of debate about that. I thought the (ABS) strike zone was really low when I was in the minors. You could throw the ball really low and get a lot of strikes. The top (of the zone) wasn’t really there. They’re going to have a hard time figuring that out and figuring out how to adjust the zone from batter to batter before they ever want to implement it.”

Skubal called the challenge system an “interesting” option, but noted that if technology were to determine all ball-strike calls, framing pitches would no longer be possible for catchers. “That’s such a great art in our sport, such a great skill,” Skubal said. “All of that would be lost.”

Still, Salvador Perez, a nine-time All-Star catcher for the Royals, appears to be going along with whatever MLB decides, even though he has spent his career trying to improve his framing skills to give his pitchers an edge.

“I just have to catch the ball. That’s it,” Perez said matter-of-factly. “If they’re going to add it and it’s going to work, we’re going to have to get used to it. It’s not going to bother me. I’m going to keep calling my pitches no matter what.”

ABS has been tried in the minors for several years, including the last two in Triple-A. Initially, it was used three times a week for every ball and strike call (with the umpire wearing an earpiece and giving the automated call), with only the challenge system being used in the other three games. However, as of June 25, the entire ABS system was suspended and only the challenge system is in effect.

Former A’s shortstop Marcus Semien, who helped the Rangers win last year’s World Series, is a member of the players’ union’s eight-member executive subcommittee. He said players are often skeptical when more technology is introduced into the game, especially when it comes to the strike zone.

To implement the challenge system in MLB, approval is required from the 11-member league committee, consisting of four players, six team representatives and an umpire.

“We’ll see how it works at the lower levels,” Semien said. “As long as the league’s intent is to improve the quality of the calls, that’s great. But as a union, we’re definitely not ready to make a decision on that. They can gauge guys and everything, but we want to make sure this is a game that we’re comfortable playing.”