#automated-ball-strike-abs

#automated-ball-strike-abs

If a team enters extra innings without a challenge, they'll be given an extra one every inning. The challenges will not accumulate if not used. Teams will never have more than one challenge per extra inning unless they entered extra frames with their original two intact. It's possible for both an ABS challenge and video replay challenge to occur on the same play. If that happens, the ball-strike call will be adjudicated first, followed by the video replay on the bases.

Just take a look at the numbers since Schneider entered the league during the latter parts of 2023. Since making his debut in the majors that season with Toronto, the 27-year-old utilityman ranked first in the entire league between 2023-2025 for the percentage of called strikes on pitches just outside of the strike zone, as depicted in the illustration below, courtesy of Chris Black. Schneider leads at a 29.9%, with Tyler Nevin considerably behind at 26.9%, followed by Ryan Mountcastle (26.2%) and Josh Jung (25.9%).

The previous rule changes that have been adopted by the Joint Competition Committee have had staying power and created momentum for the game. 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,