Major League Baseball will test a computerized camera system for balls and strikes during spring training games this year, a source told ESPN on Wednesday.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred indicated earlier Wednesday that MLB would use the system to call balls and strikes during spring training games, but the source later clarified to ESPN that the system would only be tested and that plate umpires would still call balls and strikes.

Manfred's comments Wednesday during an interview with Fox Business Network appeared to signal an expansion of MLB's implementation of "robot umpires." He said that the "camera-based system" will be "more accurate than a human being standing there."

"We believe over the long haul it's going to be more accurate," Manfred said. "It will reduce controversy in the game and be good for the game."

Manfred said baseball would start using the camera system for balls and strikes in "some of our minor league(s) this year," with the source telling ESPN that the system would be available for use during the Florida State League season.

MLB began experimenting with a computerized strike zone last year in the independent Atlantic League. Plate umpires, crouched in their normal position behind the catcher, wore earpieces connected to a phone that relayed ball or strike calls from a camera system.

Baseball also used the system in the Arizona Fall League last season.

Manfred cautioned Wednesday that referring to the system as robots "may be an overstatement" and emphasized that "from the fans' perspective, it looks exactly like it looks today."

"The current strike zone design is actually three-dimensional," Manfred said, "and a camera is better at calling a three-dimensional strike zone than the human eye."