The first weekend of MLB’s Automated Ball-Strike system (ABS) appears to be a rousing success, at least in the eyes of fans.
There was no shortage of interesting ABS moments throughout the opening weekend of play. Veteran umpire CB Bucknor found himself on the receiving end of a particularly unfortunate stretch of missed calls, which saw the Reds’ Eugenio Suárez challenge back-to-back called strike-threes, both of which were overturned to balls, and sent the home crowd in Cincinnati into a frenzy. Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton got tossed during the ninth inning of a tight game in Baltimore, claiming Orioles pitcher Ryan Helsley initiated a challenge too late after a called ball-four in a full-count was overturned to strike-three.
And these exact scenarios have Fox Sports MLB reporter and The Athletic contributor Ken Rosenthal singing ABS’s praises. Rosenthal, in a piece published in The Athletic on Monday, praised the “entertainment value” that ABS had already brought to the sport.
“ABS introduces new forms of scrutiny, new ways to talk baseball, new strategies to debate. Numerous players already have expressed remorse about using questionable judgment. Some reacted too passively, failing to seize an opportunity for a reversal. Others responded too aggressively, knowing each team in the first nine innings can miss on only two challenges,” Rosenthal writes. “Let ‘em fret. The rest of us can just enjoy the show.”
This seems to be the prevailing opinion throughout baseball. Fans had long been frustrated with umpires’ abilities to call balls and strikes. Now, the players have recourse, and it adds another element of strategy to the game.
That said, there’s the possibility that the novelty wears off quickly, and fans become fed up with the number of stoppages in the game.
“Granted, this is the shiny new toy phase, the robots at their most romantic. Moments of exasperation are inevitable. Perhaps when a game ends on an overturned ball-strike call. Perhaps when an outcome turns over a difference of a tenth of an inch. But the ABS process is quick and definitive. And fans already are getting into it,” Rosenthal asserts.
ABS is firmly in the honeymoon phase. Any claims that it is good or bad for the game are likely premature. But the early returns are positive, and Rosenthal believes the system has added an entirely new dimension to the game.
“The decision for players, though, is not as simple as ‘to tap or not to tap,'” he writes. Players need to consider when to leverage their limited number of challenges carefully. Should they be used early in the game if a player is confident a call was wrong, or saved for a higher leverage moment? Will catchers start framing pitches differently, perhaps trying to fool a batter into making the wrong challenge? The possibilities are endless!
“MLB wants to keep the game moving. They want teams to use challenges selectively, and only in certain situations with the most leverage.”@Ken_Rosenthal doesn’t envision teams getting a third ABS challenge. pic.twitter.com/MVX48GsdYb
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 30, 2026
Whether ABS remains popular for the long haul depends on whether it can avoid becoming a distraction. If it’s simply an asset, a tool used to help umpires get more calls right, its approval rating will stay high. If it becomes a focal point of the game, people will quickly tire of it.
We’ll just have to wait and see what it becomes.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.