The automatic balls and strikes (ABS) challenge system has been tested in Triple-A for a couple seasons. It was tested in spring training this year. Now it’s taking center stage in MLB’s midsummer classic.
The 2025 MLB All-Star Game will include the ABS challenge system, ESPN reported Wednesday.
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The ABS challenge system offers players and fans a blend between the old and the new. Even with this robot technology, umpires are still behind home plate calling balls and strikes, as they have been since the 1860s. But, in the background, Hawk-Eye technology is monitoring the exact location of each pitch, relative to a batter’s strike zone.
A pitcher, catcher or hitter can challenge an umpire’s call of a ball or strike immediately after the pitch in question. In the All-Star Game, as was the case in spring training this year, each team will be given two challenges. Those challenges can be retained if they are successful.
The challenging player has to tap his hat or helmet to indicate to the umpire that he wants a review. Plus, the challenging player isn’t allowed help from other players on the field or anyone in the dugout.
The stadium video board and broadcast will then flash the Hawk-Eye view so viewers can see the review for themselves.
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According to ESPN, major league officials reported that 72% of fans polled during spring training felt ABS had a “positive” impact on their viewing experience, whereas only 10% found it to have a negative effect.
MLB released data in March from its spring training experimentation with the ABS challenge system, which was used at 13 spring training parks and in approximately 60% of spring training games this year.
Ultimately, 52.2% of ball-strike challenges this spring successfully overturned the home-plate umpire’s original call. The pitching team posted an average overturn rate of 54.4%, 4.4% higher than the hitting team’s, according to that same data set. That said, catchers succeeded at a much higher clip (56%) than pitchers (41%).
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Each challenge added an average of 13.8 seconds to a game, and spring training games using the ABS challenge system averaged 4.1 challenges per game.
MLB’s competition committee will meet later this summer to determine if the ABS challenge system will be used in the majors full-time next season, per ESPN. The ABS challenge system is seen as a compromise between full ABS — in other words, a fully computerized ball-strike calling method — and the traditional method that solely relies on an umpire’s judgement.
This year’s All-Star Game will be played Tuesday at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves.
