This isn’t a great look for Jen, I’ll be honest.

PublishedMarch 20, 2026 8:23 AM EDT•UpdatedMarch 20, 2026 8:23 AM EDT

FacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link

The ABS system in Major League Baseball is going to make a lot of people look really, really bad this season. I’m personally not the biggest fan of it, but I get it, and I’m excited to see the chaos that’s about to unfold starting next week. 

Well, scratch that. Forget waiting until the regular season opens in a few days. Why wait, when we can all laugh now? 

Let’s do it!

Jen Pawol, who made history last season as the first female home plate umpire, is the latest victim of the AI boom. 

Join the club, Jen! It’s getting full in here, so get a seat now!

Pawol was umping a Guardians-Reds spring training game this week, when she called a pitch literally right down the middle … a ball. I mean, it couldn’t have been more down the middle if it were put on a tee. 

Don’t know what happened to Jen here, but she missed it, and ‘ol reliable ABS had to come in and clean up the mess:

Tough look for Jen Pawol here

Whoaaaaaaaaa Nellie! Tough look here for Jen. And before you come after me for being sexist or racist or misogynistic or whatever this makes me … don’t. I wrote about ABS making a male umpire look just as silly earlier this spring. I don’t want to hear it. 

Fair is fair, and this is an objectively awful, yet hilarious, call. Jen Pawol just happens to be the one making it. 

Look, I’m pretty on the fence about ABS. Again, I get it. I know the technology is available, which means we have to use it. Calls like this are atrocious, and shouldn’t happen. They should be fixed ASAP, and they will be moving forward. 

But, I also don’t love taking humans out of baseball. 

I staunchly defended the strike three call that ended last week’s WBC between the US and the Dominican Republic. Context matters, and you don’t take a pitch that close on a 3-2 count when the zone has been bad all game. You shouldn’t be bailed out by ABS in that instance. You should simply swing the bat. That’s Baseball 101. 

A call like this, though? Eh. It’s gonna be tough for me to defend Jen Pawol and human umpires here. It’s right down the middle, Jen. Wake up! 

Or, set yourself up to be mocked by the internet, even if the jokes are low-hanging fruit: