{"id":177822,"date":"2025-09-24T04:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T04:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/177822\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T04:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T04:31:07","slug":"mlb-competition-committee-approves-automated-ball-strike-system-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/177822\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Competition Committee Approves Automated Ball-Strike System For 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

7:33pm: Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Competition Committee voted 9-2 to approve the ABS challenge system, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports<\/a>. All six owners, three of the four players, and the lone umpire on the committee voted in favor of the change.<\/p>\n

12:52pm: As expected, the ABS challenge system has been approved, per an MLB announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

11:50am: Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Competition Committee will meet today to vote on the implementation of the Automated Ball-Strike system for the 2026 season, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports<\/a>. The 11-person committee \u2014 comprised of six owners, four players and one umpire \u2014 is expected to approve the ABS system for next year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be a radical shift to the game\u2019s identity \u2014 one that many fans feel is overdue but many others oppose with fervor. The strike zone will not be fully automated if and when the ABS system is approved. Rather, the challenge system that has been used in the minor leagues, during spring training and during this year\u2019s All-Star Game will be in place.<\/p>\n

Under the incoming ABS system, any pitcher, catcher or hitter will be able to tap his helmet or cap to signify his desire to challenge a ball or strike call from the home plate umpire. Teams are afforded two challenges per game but are only docked a challenge if it is unsuccessful. Once a team has two unsuccessful challenges, they\u2019ll be out of challenges for the remainder of the game. In theory, there\u2019s no limit to the number of successful challenges a team could go through in a game. Challenges must come immediately after a ball\/strike call is made; the dugout cannot have the team\u2019s replay coordinator review the pitch and call for a challenge 10 to 15 seconds after the pitch was delivered, for instance. The challenge result will be shown on the on the scoreboard immediately after a challenge is granted.<\/p>\n

For many players, this system will be second-nature. The ABS system was first implemented in the low minors back in 2021. It\u2019s been standard at the Triple-A level since 2022. More veteran players got their first taste of it during spring training 2025 and will have all of the 2026 spring schedule to acclimate to the changes. As with any notable change, there will be some hurdles and probably some hiccups in the adoption, but the league\u2019s hope is surely that \u2014 much like the pitch clock and, to a lesser extent, instant replay \u2014 it will quickly become a fairly seamless integration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7:33pm: Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Competition Committee voted 9-2 to approve the ABS challenge system, Bob Nightengale of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[9099,99],"class_list":["post-177822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-rob-manfred","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}