On a beautiful August afternoon at CHS Field in St. Paul, more than 8,000 people turned out for a Class AAA game between the St. Paul Saints and the Columbus Clippers, the top International League farm clubs of the Twins and the Cleveland Guardians.
It didn’t take long for modern technology to interrupt the proceedings.
The crowd was still settling in when Saints starting pitcher Ronny Henriquez delivered a 3-2 pitch to Johnathan Rodriguez, the Clippers’ designated hitter, with two out in the top of the first inning. Rodriguez didn’t swing. Plate umpire Tanner Dobson called it a strike, presumably ending the inning. The Saints began jogging off the field.
But wait. Rodriguez said something to Dobson, who turned and signaled the press box. All the players stood in place, as if frozen in time. Then they shifted their attention to the video board in left-center field.
A few seconds later, a strike zone grid appeared on the board, divided into nine sections. A circle, representing the pitch Henriquez had just thrown, touched the bottom line of the grid – visual evidence of a strike, confirming the call on the field. Then Rodriguez and the Saints headed for their respective dugouts. The whole thing took less than 20 seconds.
That’s an example of the automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system in use in Class AAA in various forms since 2022, and possibly coming to Major League Baseball as soon as 2026.
Last month, speaking with members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) at the All-Star Game, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called implementation of an ABS challenge system in 2026 “a viable possibility,” though technical issues with the automated strike zone “still need to be worked out.” Manfred said a spring training test run would come first, perhaps as soon as next year.
Fans, of course, have been screaming for some sort of automated ball-and-strike system – “robot umps,” if you will – for years. Most impartial observers agree it’s never been harder for even the best human umpires to call balls and strikes, in an era where more pitchers throw harder with more late movement than ever.
At the same time, scrutiny has never been higher. The combination of television strike zone grids, detailed digital pitch location graphics and social media accounts grading umpires’ strike-calling makes everyone sitting at home an expert – and a critic. Anything less than 100% accuracy (as if that’s humanly possible) makes certain fans demand ABS ASAP.
“I’ll be curious to see if they go forward with it,” said veteran Saints pitcher Randy Dobnak, a recent call-up to the Twins. “I think the challenge system would be really good. The full ABS system, there are going to be (potential technical issues). How do they know (the strike zone) hasn’t shifted? Someone could hack into it and change it, too. Overall, I would take the challenge system over the ABS.”
In a typical week, Class AAA clubs play a six-game series with an opponent. For all last year and the first half of this year, clubs relied on ABS system pitch-calling for the first three games of a series, with plate umpires giving traditional hand signals after hearing “ball” or “strike” via earpieces. For the final three games, human umps called pitches as they always had, but teams could challenge three calls per game based on where ABS tracked the pitch.
Most Saints players and staffers I talked to preferred the challenge system, a feeling reflected across AAA. According to an MLB survey, 61% of AAA staff and players favored the challenge system over status quo human umps (28%) and full ABS (11%). So beginning June 25, the AAA leagues switched to the challenge system for all games, though the International League reduced the number of challenges from three to two. Clubs kept a challenge if successful, and lost it if it failed.
In the game referenced earlier, because Columbus lost that first-inning challenge, it only had one more the rest of the game. The Clippers burned that in the fourth inning when another batter unsuccessfully challenged a called third strike with two outs and the bases loaded. St. Paul won its only challenge, getting a called ball overturned in the fourth, and went on to win 4-2.
Note: Only the pitcher, batter and catcher can challenge a call. And the request must be immediate, with no input from the manager or anyone else.
“If the umpires think the hitter looked into the dugout, or we gave a signal or did something to help out the challenge, they won’t give it to us,” said Saints manager Toby Gardenhire. “You’ve got to go fast.”
The chances of getting a call reversed run slightly less than 50-50. Per MLB, the first half of the Class AAA season saw an average of 5.8 challenges per game, with 47% of calls overturned. Pitchers and catchers were successful 49% of the time, and hitters 44%.
“It’s kind of like putting your money where your mouth’s at,” Dobnak said. “If you think it’s a strike, challenge it. If you get it wrong, you’ve got one more chance. If it’s the same guy blowing challenges all the time, the manager’s going to say, ‘Hey, you can’t be challenging any more.’”
Gardenhire prefers the challenge system to ABS, in part because he thinks the automated strike zone still needs work. An MLB official confirmed the top of the strike zone was raised this year after complaints the system didn’t call enough high strikes – a problem for modern pitchers who pound the zone with high fastballs. In 2023, Royce Lewis raved about the hitter-friendly low strike zone after hitting .356 with six home runs in 12 games over two rehab stints with the Saints. Industry observers also noted batters took more pitches with full ABS, making for longer games.
“I think this year they gave a little more commitment at the top of the zone,” said Saints center fielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr. “Last year, the top of the zone, it was tougher to get called strikes. This year they made the necessary adjustments.”
Saints pitcher Caleb Boushley termed the current ABS strike zone “pretty true,” with some subtle differences from ballpark to ballpark.
“I guess I’ve gotten used to it over time,” he said. “When you first start pitching on it, you’re used to getting some of those 50-50 balls from human umpires. I would say it’s a little bit of a tighter zone, but again, it’s true. You have to throw the ball on the plate. Honestly, it’s frustrating at times, but I feel like it does make me a better pitcher because it forces me to throw everything on the plate.
“The hitters have definitely adjusted to it. Their approach has definitely narrowed in. They’re less reluctant to swing at pitches out of the zone.”
There’s also a strategy around when to challenge and when to let things go. Gardenhire urges his players to avoid challenging pitches in the early innings unless it’s an obvious bad call, preferring saving them for game-deciding situations.
If the Saints are up by five or more runs, Gardenhire tells his hitters to not challenge anything. That way, if the other team rallies and a reliever needs help with a close pitch, he’s got it. Sometimes that puts Saints catcher Patrick Winkel in the uncomfortable position of saying no to a pitcher early in the game.
“You’ll see a close pitch, and obviously the pitchers are moving around so they don’t necessarily see where it crosses,” Winkel said. “They’ll give you a little look like, hey, want to challenge that? I, unfortunately, sometimes have to mediate that and go, OK, it was close, but I’m pretty sure it was out. Also, too, not the right situation. We might be down in the later innings.”
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