Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game will have a wrinkle previously seen only in spring training. The league’s automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system will be in use when the first pitch is thrown on Tuesday, July 15, at Truist Park in Atlanta.
What is Major League Baseball’s ABS system?
The ABS system allows players to challenge an umpire’s ball or strike call. In March, it was used throughout ballparks in Florida and Arizona with mostly good reviews. Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, was asked at the start of the spring what the best-case scenario for the trial run would be.
“Getting a majority of our players, coaches and fans feeling like they prefer that version of baseball to the status quo, and we’re gonna find out that information at the end of the spring,” Sword said.
According to a report from ESPN, league officials say 72 percent of fans who were polled during spring training said ABS was a “positive” experience during games. Sixty-nine percent said they’d like it to be part of the game moving forward.
How will it work in the All-Star Game?
At the All-Star Game, like Spring Training, each team will be given two challenges with the ability to retain them if successful. To initiate the challenge, one of three players will tap his hat or helmet without help from the dugout or other players.
Texas Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy received several updates from MLB about how the system is supposed to work during spring games. He offered up this assessment.
“Seems like it’s created interest in the game, it goes pretty quick,” Bochy said. “You have to challenge right away, the pitcher, the batter and the catcher are the three that can challenge this, and I think it’s created interest with the fans. They have fun with it.”
How long has MLB been testing the system and where?
MLB has been testing ABS at the minor league level since the 2021 season, and it has been used in Triple-A games since 2022. In March, it was used at 13 spring training parks covering 19 home teams due to shared facilities, and was employed in roughly 60 percent of games.
It uses the “Hawk-Eye” system, which tracks each pitch in relation to the batter and home plate. When a challenge is made, the pitch is shown to fans via the video board in the stadium and on the game broadcast. The home plate umpire then determines whether to uphold or deny the challenge.
In early June, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he would present an ABS proposal to the league’s competition committee. The 11-member committee will meet later this summer to determine if the system will be instituted in the majors next season.
“My single biggest concern is working through the process and deploying it in a way that’s acceptable to the players,” Manfred said. “There’s always going to be things around the edges that we need to work through and whatever, and I want them to feel like we respected the committee process and that there was a full airing of concerns about the system.”
