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Cubs players, manager react to Rob Manfred’s MLB robo-ump plans

Cubs catcher Yan Gomes paused to gather his thoughts. He wanted to be precise in his reaction to Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred’s comments about wanting robo-umps in the big-leagues by 2024.

“I don’t think that’s right,” Gomes told the Sun-Times. “The best thing in baseball, and professional sports in general, is the human element of things.”

Manfred revealed the timeline to implement some form of the automated strike zone to ESPN as part of a wide-ranging profile that published Wednesday. It’s not yet clear the extent to which so-called robot umpires will be integrated into the game.