Baseball's ABS Challenge System For Balls and Strikes Has Been Approved And Is Officially On The Way Starting in 2026

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Change in sports is often met with a bunch of people yelling that it's going to ruin the game, ESPECIALLY in baseball. The invention of the pitch clock was met with immense push back to start, only for pretty much everybody to accept it as one of the best changes to the game in a long time. Still I'm sure you get a few people here and there who stopped watching entirely the moment extra innings started with an automatic runner on 2nd base or a pitcher was limited to just three pickoff throws before a balk is called. Hell, even making the bases bigger caught some heat. People simply hate change to their precious sports. Well, buckle up because the big tamale is coming in 2026 —the ABS system

This doesn't come as a surprise really as the rule would have been implemented this season if it was legally possible. After testing things out in spring training, I think the sport was ready to adopt the rule, but the league must give the MLPA 45 days heads up before officially making the change. That meant we had to wait until 2026 at the earliest, which is now official. 

So what's exactly the rule change? The hitter, catcher, or pitcher can immediately challenge a pitch with the tapping of their head. It has to be borderline instantaneous to keep the game moving along. Each team will receive two challenges and if you are successful you retain it for later on in the game. In theory you could keep peppering a bad ump and just totally embarrass the guy. The challenge replay will be shown on the jumbotron in centerfield right after the head tap. This has been tested out in the minors for years now and as I said spring training in 2025, along with this year’s All Star Game. From everything I've seen it's a no brainer and doesn't the slow the game down much at all. 

Overall I think it's a great, much-needed change for the sport. This is a major moment in baseball history, let’s hold on tight and hope for the best. 

Now with the ABS system, compared to the pitch clock, I think there's going to be way more pushback from players and fans. In fact, I KNOW that. There will be a much longer adjustment period here. The one sacred thing about baseball is that an umpire, good or bad, controls the game. It's the human error aspect that separates it from every other sport. As much as I do like that uniqueness, that means dealing with an umpire like Roberto Ortiz last night. 

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or Brian Walsh..

Did I say Brian Walsh? 

The fact that umpires can be that bad at their job and go unpunished is CRAZY. There are good ones out there too, but the inconsistency on a nightly basis is brutal. That's why this has to happen. If the umpire's union policed their idiots appropriately then we wouldn't be here, but instead they go unchecked. Now umps are going to get embarrassed on a nightly basis for simple challenges on blown calls. Maybe/hopefully they get better at their jobs because of this. You're also going to get players who look dumb on challenges of their own. I imagine managers are going to instruct their guys to not challenge anything until it's late in the game or if it's in a big spot early with a key player at the plate. You better be right if you tap your head. It'll be funny though to see which players are atrocious at challenges. Keep in mind it’s gotta be a quick decision. On the flip side guys like Juan Soto or Aaron Judge might get even better with a much more fair zone to work with. 

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My big worry here is that this is the first step along the way to a fully automated zone. That can't happen. There needs to be an umpire behind the plate calling balls and strikes. While the challenges are going to hurt the art of pitch framing, it won't kill it entirely. You only get two challenges, remember. You still will get umps messing with a game. 

Maybe I'm crazy but I'm cautiously optimistic here with the challenge system, let's just not get too carried away with the robots and let them fully take over.