To which I say, “Hallelujah!”
Major League Baseball has had home run reviews since late 2008. It’s had replay review for most plays in the field since 2014.
And a ball-and-strike challenge system has been in place in several minor leagues over the past three seasons.
Now, as reported by R.J. Anderson, Commissioner Rob Manfred says the challenge system for ball-and-strike calls will be tested in Spring Training next year:
“There’s going to be a test at the Major League level during spring training next year,” Manfred told YES Network’s Jack Curry during an appearance on the “Yankees News & Views” show. “We’re going to test the challenge system with big-league players.”
There was no indication of future plans beyond spring training — such as, say, when this might be employed during the regular season. It stands to reason that MLB will want to see how the trial period goes before fully implementing the challenge system.
Anderson’s article doesn’t mention whether this will be used at all Spring Training parks or only a select few where they can install the technology needed for it — multiple cameras are required for the best results. Still, this is a welcome step forward.
Here’s one of the very first such challenges, in a Triple-A game between Syracuse and Charlotte in 2022:
A ball overturned to a strike in mere seconds.
Three experimental rules are being implemented in a @MiLB game tonight: https://t.co/7QiCzOArVl pic.twitter.com/aohQfG8etj
— MLB (@MLB) August 21, 2022
The way it works: There’s no waiting around for a manager to check with the video room. Any such challenge must be called immediately by the batter, pitcher or catcher. As shown in the clip above, the result is shown on the stadium video board and the result is posted immediately. The whole process doesn’t take longer than about 10 seconds.
Each team gets three challenges per game — but if you are correct in your challenge, you retain it. As a result, teams can get quite a few of them:
We had a whopping thirteen (13) ball/strike “ABS challenges” tonight. (You start with 3 and only lose them if you’re wrong.)
Sugar Land was 6-for-7 on challenges.
The Isotopes were 4-of-6 on challenges, including a ball 4 that was overturned to strike 3 to end an inning.
— Josh Suchon (@Josh_Suchon) September 1, 2022
The system was very fast, around 5-10 seconds for each challenge.
The videoboard here at Constellation Field showed the location. All the players turned around to see for themselves the precise location.
Only 1 hitter used a challenge. The other 12 were by pitcher/catcher.
— Josh Suchon (@Josh_Suchon) September 1, 2022
This is all upside, in my view. The most egregious bad calls would be overturned; I would think players would hold on to them until a critical situation — say, a third-strike call on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded, or a ball-four call in a similar situation. There are quite a few players who are very good judges of the strike zone and would likely initiate successful challenges.
Regarding going to any sort of fully automated strike zone, there’s this from Anderson’s article:
It’s worth noting that Manfred admitted the league had moved to the challenge system approach after he spent the last few years traveling from clubhouse to clubhouse and asking the players about their preferences. Per Manfred, the players he spoke with “overwhelmingly” favored the challenge system to the fully automated approach.
And so, I believe the challenge system will be the one instituted in MLB when the time comes. I’d like to think they could do it for the 2025 regular season, but given that they aren’t even going to be testing it until Spring Training, we’re probably looking at 2026, unless they want to start midseason.
All of this is welcome. As always, we await developments.