Since 2008, Major League Baseball has allowed some form of video review to guard against incorrect umpire calls.

Balls and strikes have always been exempt from challenges. That will change next year.

On Tuesday, a joint competition committee consisting of six MLB owners, four players, and one umpire approved the “challenge system” tested in spring training.

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ABS — automated balls and strikes, the system which utilizes computer tracking to determine whether a pitch entered the strike zone — has been in use in the minor leagues for years. Major leaguers were exposed to a limited version of it in spring training, when pitchers, catchers, and batters could challenge a small number of ball and strike calls in every game.

In 2026, the same system will go into use during the regular season. Home plate umpires will have their calls subject to review in every major league game.

“The previous rule changes that have been adopted by the Joint Competition Committee have had staying power and created momentum for the game,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “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. Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that’s acceptable to players.

“The strong preference from players for the Challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today.”

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Starting next season, each team will start the game with two challenges apiece. An unsuccessful challenge means the team is reduced to one challenge for the remainder of the game. If a team loses its next challenge, it cannot challenge another called strike or ball unless the game goes to extra innings

Any team that starts the extra inning out of challenges will get one challenge for the 10th inning. If they exhaust that challenge, they will then get another challenge for the 11th, and so on.

The system does not completely turn the strike zone over to “robots.” (Technically, MLB’s Hawk-Eye technology will run on a 5G private network from T-Mobile for Business’ Advanced Network Solutions.) Rather, it will force players to be strategic about which ball and strike calls they challenge.

In 288 games with the ABS Challenge System during spring training, there were an average of 4.1 challenges per game. Those challenges added an average of 13.8 seconds each, according to MLB.

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