For the first time in its long history, Major League Baseball will implement a new system that will render balls and strikes calls made by home plate umpires challengeable starting with the 2026 season.  

The new system, known as “ABS” or the “Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System”) will use 12 strategically placed Hawkeye cameras set up around the perimeter of the field to actuate where each pitch is in relation to where each batter’s personal strike zone is (customized to each batter’s height).  

An animated replay will be initiated after each challenge and will show the 3D location of the pitch on stadium videoboards and TV broadcasts which will ultimately determine if a call is correct or not.  The entire process is slated to only take about 14 seconds.  

This system has been tested in the minor leagues since 2022 and in select MLB spring training parks since 2024 as well as the 2025 All Star Game.  

More ABS Rules:

• Each team will get two challenges per 9 inning game, but they can keep them if they’re successful.
• Only the pitcher, catcher, or batter may request a challenge by immediately tapping on his hat or helmet and vocalizing a challenge right after the pitch is made.
• No help from the dugout or other players on the field is allowed.
• In each extra inning, a team will be awarded a challenge if it has none remaining entering the inning.

So, is ABS a good thing?

Back in 2014, I wrote about the need for an electronic strike zone across the board in MLB.

Independent research at the time had uncovered longtime high strike zone error rates made by home plate umpires and major biases towards some players and not others (including racial prejudices).

It became clear to me then that despite my tendency to want the tradition of our national pastime protected, the need for an electronic strike zone to bring fairness back into the game was paramount.  

Since that article was written, further data has been uncovered which reinforces MLB’s duty to have a technical system in place to minimize the bad calls home plate umpires continue to make while also limiting their unfair tendencies.

For example, a Boston University researcher and a team of graduate students did a deep dive in 2019 and found that over the prior 10-year period (from 2008-2018) MLB umpires had an error rate averaging 12.78%.  They further found that with two-strike counts error rates rose to at least 20% of the time, or 1 in every 5 calls.  

The BU crew also found that umpires had a “pronounced and persistent blind spot with a number of incorrect calls at the top of the strike zone” which resulted in pitches incorrectly called over 26% of the time in those situations.  

Their study additionally indicated that younger umpires often outperformed veteran umpires by a wide margin.  Specifically, the worst performing umpires had an average experience level of 20.6 years and averaged 56.1 years of age.  Their error rate was 56% HIGHER than the top 10 best MLB umpires over that period who incidentally averaged 33 years old…  

Also noteworthy is that the group identified a “standard peak” age for professional umpires and that was 33 years of age.  

At the same time, BU’s research revealed that compensation within the World Umpires Association was/is not merit based.  So, no matter how poorly umpires officiated games they would still get their same pay.  Incidentally, senior umpires earn northward of $450,000 annually compared to younger umpires who would likely start around $150,000.

Despite these facts, umpires chosen for MLB’s most prestigious (and visible) events like the World Series tend to include umps that are considerably older than the league average and have more experience regardless of overall prior poorer performance rates than their younger counterparts.

Thus, for MLB to bring in some form of a checks and balance system on umpires certainly signals a step in the right direction.  

But will ABS work?

During the 2026 spring training season in which MLB tested the ABS system, over 50% of challenges resulted in an overturned call which does seem to validate the system’s effectiveness.  

Only time will tell just how effective and (and perhaps eye-opening) the system will be especially with only 2 challenges allowed per game per team. 

In the very least, ABS will draw more public attention to missed calls which could influence umpires’ overall performances for the better.  Just knowing they could be called out on live TV for botching a call would likely be enough to prompt umpires wanting more consistency from themselves.

But interestingly, MLB announced in late Feb that with the introduction of ABS, televised or streamed game broadcasts that display strike zone box graphics for audiences cannot include whether the pitch was a ball or strike.  That data will only be visible on monitors in the broadcast booth. 

Hmm.

An MLB spokesperson told Yahoo Sports, “With ABS now determining the zone we want fans to trust the system without second-guessing every call through a digital strike box.”

The reality is likely that MLB doesn’t want the world to see just how many errors their umpires are calling on a regular basis.

Yahoo seems to confirm this: “Sources around the league [suggested] there were concerns that displaying a live digital strike zone could still lead to controversy if minor discrepancies appeared between what viewers saw and what the ABS system registered internally.” 

Bingo.

Other sources like the Chicago Sun Times indicated that by blocking the public from seeing ABS in action for every pitch in real time, MLB seeks to ensure that no club would be able to exploit the system to their advantage for challenging pitches.

But the ABS Challenge system is designed to be so quick it would be very difficult for clubs to capitalize on any exposure to it.

Quite simply, if MLB used ABS full-time to police every ball and strike, there would be no reason to hide it from the public.  

Is ABS just a segue to Robo Umps?

MLB’s Joint Competition Committee’s statement from Sept 2025 confirmed that ABS is being implemented as a balance between a fully electronic strike zone and traditional human umpiring based on extensive testing and “significant feedback from players, coaches, front office staff, umpires and fans”.  

But my belief is that eventually, MLB is going to have to cave in and give us Robo Umps at the plate and bring the game into the modern era.  

Perhaps the sport’s connections and fanbase aren’t ready for it yet, but they will be.  

There will come a time when a team is out of its two ABS challenges in a critical situation when an ump is wrong about a pitch and the sport will lose its collective mind.  

The ABS system will also point out how off human umps really are and we’re going to yearn for Hawkeye full-time like pro tennis has done.

Yes, technology is never going to be “perfect” as some baseball experts have pointed out.  

But, most importantly, using an electronic strike zone to call pitches at the plate won’t result in an inconsistent error rate during every game averaging anywhere from 12.78% to 26%, depending on how many strikes there are or where in the zone the pitches are located.  

MLB also won’t be paying error-prone people big salaries to stay in fancy hotels and fly first-class for doing a poor job and racially profiling people, even if it’s done subconsciously.  

And, a fully electronic strike zone that is shown in real time on every ball park videoboard and on every broadcast would ensure full transparency on every pitch.  

There would be no challenges, discrepancies, what-ifs and players getting thrown out over missed calls.  The call would be the call for everyone like it is in pro tennis.  

Even Wimbledon made the change after 147 years by eliminating human lines judges for an all-electronic line calling system in 2026. 

No controversy.  No challenges.  No missed calls.  It is what it is.  Saves time, grief. 

The Future will (fully) come to MLB… eventually.