MLB, Apple strike deal to put iPads in dugouts

Major League Baseball is diving deeper into the digital age.

On Wednesday, the league announced a new multi-year agreement with Apple Inc. that will equip every dugout with iPad Pro tablets moving forward, enabling managers and coaches to make better tactical decisions by putting years of data at their fingertips.

"Our collaboration with Apple on the use of iPad Pro in dugouts and bullpens is part of our ongoing effort to introduce extraordinary technology into our game," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said. "We are pleased that Apple's groundbreaking products, which have already improved the access that fans have to our sport, will now inform the decisions that make our games interesting and exciting throughout the year."

Though use of the devices is optional, each team will receive a 12.9-inch iPad Pro - fitted with a case displaying the league's logo - loaded with a custom app, MLB Dugout, that will allow coaches to sift through things like matchup histories, spray charts, video footage, and Statcast reports in-game.

"We're not just replacing binders with tablets, we're actually helping them do things that weren't possible before," Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, told Nathan Olivarez-Giles of the Wall Street Journal.

For years, MLB had banned smartphones, tablets, and laptops from dugouts, but Manfred said giving teams iPads is not only a natural next step for baseball, but also something clubs have asked for.

"I started in this game 25 years ago and the single biggest change has been the emergence and predominance of analytics," said Manfred. "It affects the way we judge players, make decisions on the field, and the way fans consume the game."

Details of the deal weren't disclosed, though the agreement comes roughly three years after Microsoft struck a $400-million deal with the National Football League to replace traditional playbooks with Microsoft Surface tablets.