The move is designed to bring more accuracy to the game.
The Automated Ball Strike (ABS) Challenge system that MLB took for a test drive in spring training will be full adopted during the 2026 season.
Major League Baseball made the announcement this morning following a vote of the Joint Competition Committee, which boasts a membership of six owners, four active players and one active umpire.
Starting in 2026, the ABS Challenge System will be used in spring training and during the season and post season.
(Purple Row first wrote about the ABS Challenge system in April 2025.)
MLB has been testing the technology since 2022 in Triple-A baseball. It was further honed in spring training and in the 2025 All-Star Game.
Here’s how MLB describes the technology and process:
Twelve (12) Hawk-Eye cameras set up around the perimeter of the field track the location of each pitch. If a pitcher, catcher, or batter disagrees with the umpire’s initial call of ball or strike, he can request a challenge by immediately tapping on his hat or helmet and vocalizing a challenge. The pitch location is compared to the batter’s strike zone, and if any part of the ball touches any part of the strike zone, the pitch will be considered a strike. The home plate umpire will announce the challenge to the fans in the ballpark and a graphic showing the outcome of the challenge will be displayed on the scoreboard and broadcast. The entire process takes approximately 15 seconds.
Each team will have to challenges when the game starts. If a challenge is successful, the team will retain it; if it is not, the team loses one challenge. Only the pitcher, catcher, or batter may challenge a call, and the challenge must occur immediately without input from any player or coach. Should a team use all its challenges in the course of a game, it will receive an extra challenge in each inning of an extra-innings game.
To establish the strike zone, each player will be measured in spring training to establish their official height.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said of the move, aid: “We used the same process with ABS that started with listening to fans, conducting extensive testing at the minor league level, and trying at every step to make the game better. Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that’s acceptable to players. The strong preference from players for the Challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today.”
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Category: General Sports
