After a season of testing in the Minor Leagues, the automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system has made its first appearance in a Major Leagues setting as part of Spring Training this year.
It is an important first step for an eventual full implementation that can happen as soon as 2026 if all goes well.
Each team is granted two challenges per game and retains them as long as they are successful.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts discussed the strategy he wants the team to follow when utilizing the ABS Challenge System. It included telling Max Muncy he was banned from challenging calls.
“I told Muncy not to challenge,” Roberts recently said. “He’s our biggest culprit of not agreeing with the strike zone, so I said, ‘Save your challenges.'”
It didn’t take long for the ABS system to see its first use this year, as it was called upon in the first game of Cactus League play between the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.
As fate would have it, Muncy was at the plate when it happened, but the call did not come from him. The challenge was instead initiated by Cubs pitcher Cody Poteet, who asked for a review of his 0-1 pitch to Muncy.
The original call of a ball was overturned, making the count 0-2 instead of 1-1.
After the challenge, Muncy took some good-natured ribbing from his teammates when he returned to the dugout after being on the losing end of the challenge.
“Yeah, what’s going on? Freddie called me out in the meeting and said, ‘You’re banned from using challenges.’ I don’t know why,” Muncy recalled. “I guess it’s because everyone knows I have a good idea of the strike zone. I don’t know.
“But of course it’s me that gets the first one after all those guys were joking about it. When I came back up, Freddie was waiting for me, just laughing right in my face. Go figure.”
Muncy is one of the MLB players best suited to take advantage of the ABS challenge system. He was not exaggerating his understanding of the strike zone, as evident by the fact he owns the all-time postseason record for reaching base safely.
His streak of getting on base 12 consecutive times in last season’s National League Championship Series included eight walks, and he walked 11 times in the series overall.
Later in Spring Training, Roberts clarified that banning Muncy from challenging pitches was a joke, rather than anything to take seriously.
Muncy challenged a call on March 2 and successfully had a would-be strikeout overturned to ball three. That wound up leading to a walk.
Max Muncy sees promise in ABS Challenge System
Despite being its first victim, Muncy likes the idea of what the ABS Challenge System can bring to the Majors if it continues to be refined.
“It’s interesting. I don’t hate the idea of it,” Muncy said. “The technology, I think they’ll admit, is not entirely there yet, but it’s a cool idea. I like it. It’s cool, something that’s different. When that ball crossed, I thought it was a strike right away. I looked out there and he’s tapping his head, I’m like, ‘Well, I’m going to be the first one.’ I knew it was a strike.
“The idea of it is cool and it’s definitely interesting, but we’ll see how it progresses.”
Teams that find a good balance between saving challenges for big moments and making as many correct challenges as possible will have a great advantage whenever the ABS system is ready to be implemented in the Majors.
The biggest worry with using challenges early and often is the threat of not having any available when a team needs them most, so many Minor League teams declined to challenge early in games.
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