There’s nothing like overreaction Monday following the opening weekend of MLB’s 162-game marathon. But with the ABS system making its debut this year, it’s time to glean some insights from a three-game sample size.
The Athletic’s Johnny Flores Jr. pulled together some data from taptochallenge.com , a new website dedicated to tracking the ABS system this year. It shows a number of interesting trends and gives great explanation into how the system will influence the outcomes of games. With pitchers, catchers and hitters all able to challenge at any time, given their team has one remaining, every at bat turns into even more of a chess match.
ABS is new for everyone, including umpires, players and managers, and it is the teams that adapt to it the quickest who will have a competitive advantage in 2026. Here are a couple of observations from the first weekend of the season:
Catchers Are Stealing Strikes
One of the biggest questions about ABS was who would challenge the most? Or rather, who would managers allow to challenge the most?
After three games, the answer to both of those questions is the catcher. In total, they’ve challenged 90 calls, while batters have challenged 78 and pitchers just five. Edgar Quero of the Chicago White Sox leads the league with seven challenges, winning four of them. Salvador Perez (Kansas City Royals), Patrick Bailey (San Francisco Giants) Cal Raleigh (Seattle Mariners) and Will Smith (Los Angeles Dodgers) are all tied for second with four challenges each.
Perez owns the highest success rate, going a perfect four-for-four against the Atlanta Braves on Friday, March 27. The Gold Glover turned four balls called by umpire Doug Eddings into strikes, including this sequence with two in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Some Managers Are Having Fits
A pair of incidents involving managers and the ABS system got some attention over the weekend, with both leading to ejections.
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora got tossed against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, March 28 after arguing with umpire C.B. Bucknor over a check-swing call on Trevor Story. Cora was already fuming with Bucknor over his strike zone, which was challenged eight times throughout the course of the game with a 75% success rate.
“He has one job to do,” Cora said after the game. “It’s call balls and strikes, and it wasn’t his best day, and that’s what the system does. It is out there, everybody sees it, and he’ll be the first one to accept it. I saw him putting his head down after one of the challenges, and we’re all human, it’s not easy.”
Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton was ejected against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, March 29, after closer Ryan Helsley successfully turned a walk into a strikeout against Josh Bell. Shelton ran out of the dugout and argued that Helsley did not tap his hat fast enough after the initial call.
“Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. It has to be something within the three seconds, and I didn’t think it was there,” Shelton said after the game.
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