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MLB To Propose Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge System For 2026
By Anthony Franco | June 4, 2025 at 7:42pm CDT

The challenge system for calling balls and strikes seems to be less than a year away. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the league will propose that change, to go into effect in the 2026 regular season, to the Competition Committee. While the term “propose” may sound uncertain, MLB essentially has the ability to pass any on-field rule changes it wants.

MLB and the Players Association established the Competition Committee within the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. It’s an 11-person panel that consists of six league personnel, four player representatives, and one umpire. That committee can pass rule changes by majority vote.


full story at MLBTR

82birds wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 21:49 pm MLB To Propose Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge System For 2026
By Anthony Franco | June 4, 2025 at 7:42pm CDT

The challenge system for calling balls and strikes seems to be less than a year away. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the league will propose that change, to go into effect in the 2026 regular season, to the Competition Committee. While the term “propose” may sound uncertain, MLB essentially has the ability to pass any on-field rule changes it wants.

MLB and the Players Association established the Competition Committee within the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. It’s an 11-person panel that consists of six league personnel, four player representatives, and one umpire. That committee can pass rule changes by majority vote.


full story at MLBTR

overdue

fun fact ~ they're testing Check Swings using ABS tech in Low A Palm Beach. Pretty neat to see. Bat must break the front of the plate. Each team gets 1 challenge, if it's right, then they keep the challenge. 3B/1B ump can still assist after the challenge is gone.

agree - overdue

these umps have been atocious

craviduce wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 21:52 pm

82birds wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 21:49 pm MLB To Propose Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge System For 2026
By Anthony Franco | June 4, 2025 at 7:42pm CDT

The challenge system for calling balls and strikes seems to be less than a year away. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the league will propose that change, to go into effect in the 2026 regular season, to the Competition Committee. While the term “propose” may sound uncertain, MLB essentially has the ability to pass any on-field rule changes it wants.

MLB and the Players Association established the Competition Committee within the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. It’s an 11-person panel that consists of six league personnel, four player representatives, and one umpire. That committee can pass rule changes by majority vote.


full story at MLBTR

overdue

fun fact ~ they're testing Check Swings using ABS tech in Low A Palm Beach. Pretty neat to see. Bat must break the front of the plate. Each team gets 1 challenge, if it's right, then they keep the challenge. 3B/1B ump can still assist after the challenge is gone.

Interesting, I was wondering when they would start looking at check swings. Thanks for sharing

82birds wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 21:49 pm MLB To Propose Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge System For 2026
By Anthony Franco | June 4, 2025 at 7:42pm CDT

The challenge system for calling balls and strikes seems to be less than a year away. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the league will propose that change, to go into effect in the 2026 regular season, to the Competition Committee. While the term “propose” may sound uncertain, MLB essentially has the ability to pass any on-field rule changes it wants.

MLB and the Players Association established the Competition Committee within the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. It’s an 11-person panel that consists of six league personnel, four player representatives, and one umpire. That committee can pass rule changes by majority vote.


full story at MLBTR

I wonder how the one umpires rep will vote for ABS. If I were an umpire I’d vote for it just because I have a feeling they’re tired of being wrong so often.

Seems like it would be easier to train the umpires to not be so comically bad or penalize them for doing so. Especially in a league that has spent years trying to speed up the game. Gonna be an awful lot of helmet taps……

82birds wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 21:54 pm agree - overdue

these umps have been atocious

Agree. Nothing is more frustrating then when we had guys that knew the strike zone like Noot, Donovan, and Carp and they would take balls and they called them strikes. One ball called a strike call can change the whole at bat.

CardsBest wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 22:12 pm

82birds wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 21:54 pm agree - overdue

these umps have been atocious

Agree. Nothing is more frustrating then when we had guys that knew the strike zone like Noot, Donovan, and Carp and they would take balls and they called them strikes. One ball called a strike call can change the whole at bat.

without a doubt
or one strike called a ball

82birds wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 21:49 pm MLB To Propose Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge System For 2026
By Anthony Franco | June 4, 2025 at 7:42pm CDT

The challenge system for calling balls and strikes seems to be less than a year away. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the league will propose that change, to go into effect in the 2026 regular season, to the Competition Committee. While the term “propose” may sound uncertain, MLB essentially has the ability to pass any on-field rule changes it wants.

MLB and the Players Association established the Competition Committee within the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. It’s an 11-person panel that consists of six league personnel, four player representatives, and one umpire. That committee can pass rule changes by majority vote.


full story at MLBTR

On the surface, it sounds great but like with any system there are limitations .
For example, the manager can NOT challenge a ball/strike call . Only three people can challenge ..the batter, the catcher, and the pitcher .
Secondly , each team has just TWO challenges per game. If you challenge and get it correct , you retain the challenge.

Now here is where it will get dicey. Let's say it's the 2nd inning, and your team has runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. The ump calls strike 3 on the batter to end the inning but he feels it was a tad outside. Replay shows it was outside so 1 challenge lost with one remaining.
Now it's the 7th inning, you have the bases loaded, two outs and once again batter gets punched out on a 0-2 pitch on the corner . Batter taps his helmet to challenge. Review says STRIKE and now both challenges are GONE>
Now it's your teams last bat , bottom of 9th you trail by one run .. bases loaded , 2 outs, 3-2 count on batter. A walk and the game is tied .
on 3-2 pitch, the circle on TV screen shows it is just outside BUT the umpire yells STRIKE 3 . The home fans scream ..that was ball 4
Sorry, the ball/strike pitch can NOT be reviewed as the team has used both their challenges previously and had none left .
Some of you may say .. well teams will make sure they 'save' their final challenge in case that comes up in the 9th.. Sounds good BUT that means if you are going to 'save' it , then it also means you may not use it in the 7th or 8th inning where it could be quite crucial.
Remember it is only the batter, pitcher, or catcher that can call it. There can be no signal from a manager to challenge a call. Guess the MLB wants to prevent the video room from signaling thru the manager whether the batter should challenge.

The system certainly will correct some errors but there will still be a time, like in my example above, where a team has NO challenges remaining and a bad call by the homeplate ump will not change a thing. Just like it is now.

PS A follow-up Imagine this scenario ... Cardinals in bottom of 9th are tied 3-3 .. have the bases loaded, 2 outs , with a 3-2 count on Nootbaar
The pitch comes in and the ump calls it ball 4 on a close pitch. Fans go nuts that winning run was walked in .. but of course the pitcher and maybe catcher too , tap their cap. Nothing to lose calling for the replay as the game would be over without a challenge.
TV shows us that the little circle was completely outside the inside bottom corner with just the 'edge' of the circle possibly touching the lines on the 'box' .
Now NY is looking at it .. we at home or at the stadium on scoreboard are shown a 'blowup ' shot of the circle with 'maybe ' the outer circumference of the circle touching the edge of the line . Announcers say the guys in NY reviewing must have magnifying glasses looking at the 'blowup of the circle and the rectangular box. Is it touching or isn't it ? After a couple minutes .. Home up says Call is overturned ! the pitch was a strike ! 3 outs . The game goes into extra innings or if Cards had been down a run instead of tied with another batter coming up , the Cards lose the game .
Wonder how much the fans will love the ABS challenge system then ? The ump won't be booed .. the boos will be for the NY replay room guys who determined that a millifraction of the circle was touching the line.

ramfandan wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 22:31 pm PS A follow-up Imagine this scenario ... Cardinals in bottom of 9th are tied 3-3 .. have the bases loaded, 2 outs , with a 3-2 count on Nootbaar
The pitch comes in and the ump calls it ball 4 on a close pitch. Fans go nuts that winning run was walked in .. but of course the pitcher and maybe catcher too , tap their cap. Nothing to lose calling for the replay as the game would be over without a challenge.
TV shows us that the little circle was completely outside the inside bottom corner with just the 'edge' of the circle possibly touching the lines on the 'box' .
Now NY is looking at it .. we at home or at the stadium on scoreboard are shown a 'blowup ' shot of the circle with 'maybe ' the outer circumference of the circle touching the edge of the line . Announcers say the guys in NY reviewing must have magnifying glasses looking at the 'blowup of the circle and the rectangular box. Is it touching or isn't it ? After a couple minutes .. Home up says Call is overturned ! the pitch was a strike ! 3 outs . The game goes into extra innings or if Cards had been down a run instead of tied with another batter coming up , the Cards lose the game .
Wonder how much the fans will love the ABS challenge system then ? The ump won't be booed .. the boos will be for the NY replay room guys who determined that a millifraction of the circle was touching the line.

If it is that close it is still a huge improvement over what we have currently. You see pitches miss by 6” called strikes now.

ramfandan wrote: ↑04 Jun 2025 22:31 pm PS A follow-up Imagine this scenario ... Cardinals in bottom of 9th are tied 3-3 .. have the bases loaded, 2 outs , with a 3-2 count on Nootbaar
The pitch comes in and the ump calls it ball 4 on a close pitch. Fans go nuts that winning run was walked in .. but of course the pitcher and maybe catcher too , tap their cap. Nothing to lose calling for the replay as the game would be over without a challenge.
TV shows us that the little circle was completely outside the inside bottom corner with just the 'edge' of the circle possibly touching the lines on the 'box' .
Now NY is looking at it .. we at home or at the stadium on scoreboard are shown a 'blowup ' shot of the circle with 'maybe ' the outer circumference of the circle touching the edge of the line . Announcers say the guys in NY reviewing must have magnifying glasses looking at the 'blowup of the circle and the rectangular box. Is it touching or isn't it ? After a couple minutes .. Home up says Call is overturned ! the pitch was a strike ! 3 outs . The game goes into extra innings or if Cards had been down a run instead of tied with another batter coming up , the Cards lose the game .
Wonder how much the fans will love the ABS challenge system then ? The ump won't be booed .. the boos will be for the NY replay room guys who determined that a millifraction of the circle was touching the line.

ABS challenge system doesn't work that way at all. It's an onsite system that takes less than 8 seconds to complete. 2 Seconds for players to challenge, Under 6 seconds for the display on the Scoreboard. At NO time does "New York" look at the pitch. It's done by computer. Player challenges, Umpire initiates the ABS system, results on the scoreboard for players, umpires, fans to see.

It's been tested, overhauled several times over the last 4 years in the minors...particularly at Roger Dean (launching point)....the system is GREAT.

Catchers in the minors seem to know the strike zone for each player, they make most of the calls. You get the seldom overzealous batter who will make a reckless challenge, but mostly it's forced the offensive players to learn their own strike zone....which in hindsight is EXTREMELY beneficial for the batter going forward.

You win your challenge, then you keep your challenge....it's on you to learn the strike zone