Former Mets pitcher says team was using expensive AI program to call pitches

Major League Baseball made the decision to start restricting how iPads can be used in dugouts during games, limiting the "custom" tab that teams had at their disposal. The reasoning behind it was that some teams were accessing the tab and creating programs that went beyond the intended use of the iPads.

One of the ways it was improperly being used: As a pitch selection device during games. 

We also may have some idea as to one of the main teams that was the focal point.

It is the New York Mets.

Former New York Mets pitcher says team was using expensive AI program to call pitches

Former New York Mets relief pitcher Adam Ottavino said on Thursday, during a Q&A session on his YouTube show "Baseball & Coffee," that the Mets were one of the teams MLB was cracking down on.

Ottavino said the Mets were bragging early on in the season about a "very expensive" AI program that was helping them call pitches, among other things, from the dugout. Ottavino said that whenever MLB caught wind of the program, they decided to act and disable the custom tab during games.

He added that the Mets were likely not the only team using a similar program, but that they were one of the teams he knew about using it, given his conversations with coaches. 

He said that the program may have cost in the "hundreds of thousands" of dollars. 

There are a few truly eye-opening things about this development.

The first is that it was not really doing the Mets any good, as their pitching staff enters the second half of the season with a 4.24 ERA, 18th in all of MLB.

The second is that it is stunning how much the MLB mindset around anything involving a computer has changed over the past two decades. Just think back to the way something as simple as analytics and SABRmetrics was treated in the early 2000s. 

An entire industry of former players, executives, writers and fans attempted to dismiss the idea of using numbers to analyze players, build rosters and manage games because it wasn't how the game was meant to be played. There were intangibles you had to account for that a computer or spreadsheet could not measure. 

Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game," which told the story of the Oakland A's use of analytics to find undervalued players, launched millions of hot takes both in favor of it and against it.

Now, analytics is not only an accepted part of the game, but it has largely taken over the game and front offices. There is not a team in the league that is not deeply invested in numbers and analyzing every aspect of the game in details never thought possible. Or imagined.

That is also sensible and understandable. Information is good. It helps. It makes teams better, and can make players better depending on how it is all used.

The use of an AI program to call pitches, however, is almost certainly taking it too far and flying a little too close to the sun with it. There are plenty of criticisms over AI in general and whether it is a positive or negative contribution to society, but in this instance, it legitimately is taking the human element out of the game. At least in the manner in which it was being used to call pitches. 

Ottavino spent 15 years in MLB as a relief pitcher, including three years with the Mets between 2022 and 2024. He most recently appeared with the New York Yankees during the 2025 season. He also pitched for the Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals.