The pros and cons of baseball’s new ABS challenge system

As I used to be recapping Saturday’s extra-inning loss to the Reds, my ideas and feelings ran the gamut when it got here to ABS, umpiring, and the intersection of the 2. I touched on a number of of these within the recap itself, however the broad outlines had been this:

I had another ideas about ABS that I didn’t embrace within the sport recap as a result of it felt just a bit out of scope for that format. Retaining in thoughts that this Red Sox season remains to be getting off the bottom, so the pattern measurement is at the moment miniscule, right here’s me poking round this subject slightly bit extra.

CB Bucknor, the house plate umpire for Saturday’s sport, was not on level in any manner, form, or kind. He merely didn’t have it. It’s objectively true that his ball-strike calls had been off the mark, confirmed by six challenges (out of eight whole) that overturned his preliminary name. (He was additionally removed from on-point, however inside his rights, in his missed test swing name on Trevor Story. Let’s come again to that.)

Eugenio Suárez struck out twice within the sixth inning with two outs and the bases loaded, on referred to as strikes and on successive pitches. (What a bizarre sentence to write down, however it’s factually appropriate. We reside in unusual occasions, my associates.) Suárez challenged the decision every time and prevailed. This was far more thrilling, and essential, than Roman Anthony utilizing up the remaining Pink Sox challenges within the first at-bat of the third inning, when the stakes had been low. Finally, the Suárez reversals didn’t matter as a result of the Sox retired him anyway, nevertheless it restored to the Reds their rightful alternative to proceed with the inning and hopefully capitalize.

That is essential and is definitely the purpose of the entire ABS system.

One thing I wasn’t anticipating was the extra pleasure the challenges added. You could possibly see and listen to the gang’s response when the results of every Suárez problem was revealed. They went wild. The cheer that went up was as loud as if he had hit a house run. It was a high-stakes second, as mentioned, and Suárez is a batter who can activate the ability, so something appeared potential. And for it to occur twice! Unprecedented.

In-game pleasure, sure, rely me in. Is it additionally potential that a few of the enjoyable comes from rebelling in opposition to authority in some small, albeit sanctioned, manner? For me, I feel that is perhaps true; I felt it additionally when Roman Anthony gained his preliminary problem. In a world the place laptop packages monitor my keystrokes to let coworkers know that I’m not actively tapping away on the keyboard…the place cameras observe my almost each motion, by way of my neighborhood, my metropolis, my office…the place Rob Manfred, Sam Kennedy, John Henry and extra try to get extra money from me whereas investing more and more fewer sources of their very own, usually talking…little wins can tackle a much bigger profile. Possibly that is a kind of micro-wins, one minuscule solution to benefit from the feeling of beating the system, even for only a second? I don’t know, however my therapist might have further ideas on the topic.

This isn’t actually a con of the ABS system however it may possibly’t be overlooked of the dialogue of Saturday’s sport: the decision that arguably might have mattered was Story’s controversial strikeout on a checked swing within the eighth inning. It damage as a result of the Pink Sox had some momentum going, with batters on first and second with two outs, in a one-run sport. However this was a state of affairs not ruled by ABS, nor was it topic to problem in any respect.

Lou Merloni talked about a number of occasions that Bucknor didn’t seek the advice of with the primary base umpire on his determination. Fast guidelines overview: as a result of Story was deemed to have swung and a strike subsequently referred to as, there was no chance of attraction. If Bucknor had referred to as a ball (having determined Story had not swung), an attraction would have been potential, almost definitely from the Reds’ catcher, or the supervisor. On this case, it might have been appealed after which Bucknor would have been required to ask for a ruling from a nook base umpire (first base, on this case, since Story is right-handed) who has a greater angle. With a strike name on this state of affairs, there is no such thing as a chance for attraction (see Rule 8.02 (c) of the Official Baseball Rules (and please don’t ask me why I can order the certain and printed 2026 model, however MLB itself posts the 2025 guidelines on their web site. It’s what it’s. See what I imply about micro-wins?). May Bucknor have requested for help earlier than making that strike name? Sure, if he thought he didn’t see it. Primarily based on his fast ejection of Alex Cora, he appeared greater than keen to double down, so I wouldn’t essentially anticipate him to say he didn’t see, wasn’t positive, or wanted assist. That is veering into pop psychology territory however is all a manner of claiming that ABS righted a number of umpiring wrongs on Saturday although it didn’t come by way of for the Pink Sox the place it felt prefer it might need counted. In fact, that is all a what-if sport as a result of even when the chance was restored to the Pink Sox to proceed with the at-bat, who says Story would have executed?

Except for Story’s at-bat, introducing checked swings right into a dialogue on ABS isn’t completely out of nowhere. Check swing challenge testing has been underway. May this make a distinction sooner or later? Maybe, however first MLB might have to really outline a checked swing; there’s at the moment no definition in any respect.

Right here’s a real con, however one which was inside the Pink Sox management: Roman Anthony wasted a problem. So did Carlos Narváez, for that matter, and so they every did it in extraordinarily low-stakes conditions. Within the first inning of the second sport of the season, to me, Narváez’s problem felt like a brand new toy. He misplaced his problem, however Anthony’s first problem generated a fuck yeah! adrenaline enhance in me for proving the umpire fallacious. Possibly Anthony felt the identical. However by the very subsequent pitch, when he challenged once more, the novelty had already worn off. It was the third problem of the day by the Sox, and it was solely the primary batter of the third inning. It was a 3-1 pitch, for godsakes. Anthony was fallacious, the Pink Sox had been out of challenges far too early within the sport, and that may function a method lesson.

I additionally surprise if ABS lengthened the time of the sport. It’ll take extra video games and information to see if that’s true, nevertheless it feels true about Saturday’s sport. Someday throughout that sport, I wrote “3 hours???” in my notes, properly earlier than it went to further innings. The 2025 nine-inning common sport time was 2:38; the ultimate sport time for Saturday was 3:32. This sport didn’t spend an hour in further innings, so it was empirically an extended sport by way of 9. Was it a coincidence that there have been additionally a number of ABS challenges? It’s fully anecdotal at this early stage of the season. However I’ve to ask: is ABS at odds with considered one of baseball’s central targets of accelerating engagement and curiosity in our stunning sport by retaining sport occasions manageable?

I discover myself, for now, in assist of ABS, in that it may possibly restore alternatives that had been wrongly taken away, nevertheless it additionally tried my persistence on Saturday. Pink Sox hitters might want to develop ABS self-discipline to match their plate self-discipline, or flip off their egos, or no matter to ensure that the workforce to make use of this device to their benefit. These are fast ideas on a giant topic that may proceed to play out within the 2026 season.