Major League Baseball has approved two wearable technology devices for in-game use this season, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The devices are the Motus Baseball Sleeve, which measures stress on elbows, and the Zephyr Bioharness, which monitors heart and breathing rates, according to the report.
MLB’s playing rules committee, which gave the sleeve provisional approval last year, also approved two bat sensors from Blast Motion and Diamond Kinetics for on-field workouts.
The Associated Press reported information from sources that requested anonymity. Neither MLB nor the players’ association commented publicly for the report. New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, who chairs the playing rules committee, declined to comment to the AP.
The wearable devices would help detect and possibly prevent injuries, especially on pitchers.
“Motus and MLB have the same goal, keeping players healthy on and off the field,” Motus CEO Joe Nolan said in the report.
The players’ association has some concerns over player privacy and how the information from the wearable devices will be distributed. According to the report, data cannot be transmitted during games. Teams will use information internally and will share it with the player, not with the media or make it available for commercial purposes. Players also can decide whether or not to use the technology from the wearable devices and determine who can receive the data, according to the report.
