We’ve Gotten a Preview of MLB’s New ABS System and It Wasn’t Pretty

1. It’s not often that we get something from a spring training game that stands out as an “Oh wow” moment. However, Tuesday’s Pirates-Red Sox exhibition game featured a truly eye-opening sequence that will only make baseball fans have less respect for umpires.

In the first two innings of the game, there were five challenges using Major League Baseball’s new ABS Challenge System, which will be implemented for the first time this season. The home plate umpire, Mitch Trzeciak, was wrong on all five challenges.

Just to refresh your memory: Starting this regular season, each team will get two challenges per game. Teams will only lose a challenge if the umpire’s call is confirmed. If a team wins a challenge, they keep a challenge. Only the batter, pitcher and catcher can ask for a challenge.

Based on what we saw in the Pittsburgh-Boston game, two challenges are not nearly enough.

The first challenge was just amazing. The pitch from the Pirates’ Carmen Mlodzinski was literally right down the middle and Trzeciak called it a ball.

This is why ABS was invented. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/RyHmz7BFOM
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) February 24, 2026

There are going to be missed calls in every single game. It’s impossible to be perfect calling balls and strikes when there are 200-plus pitches in a game. But getting five calls wrong in three innings shows an alarming rate of inconsistency.

The good news for Trzeciak is that there was a sixth challenge, but he got that one right, which led to an amusing cheer from the crowd.

Here’s how all six challenges played out.

You think YOU'VE had a bad day??

Here's 5 Consecutive Calls overturned by ABS challenges.

The cheer at the end. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/5EG0WLgm21
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) February 24, 2026

This new ABS Challenge System is going to be a lot of fun this season.

2. The Canada-U.S. gold medal game, which began at 8 a.m. on Sunday, drew 18.6 million viewers for the live telecast.

Here’s how it stacks up against other big sporting events over the past year:

• Indiana-Miami College Football Playoff championship game: 30.1 million viewers

• Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series Game 7: 26.9 million viewers

• Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 7: 16.6 million viewers

3. New data from a research company reveals that more people now listen to podcasts than to traditional AM/FM radio. This study was audio only and does not count YouTube.

This seems like a good opportunity to tell you that you should subscribe/follow SI Media With Jimmy Traina on whatever platform you use for podcasts.

4. Netflix announced four new subjects for its Untold series, which will premiere at the end of March. You can’t really get a juicier tease than “Jail Blazers.”

UNTOLD is back with four new films premiering weekly starting March 31:

• The Death and Life of Lamar Odom: Lamar revisits the infamous night at the Love Ranch that nearly cost him his life.

• Chess Mates: The story of Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann's 2024 rematch following… pic.twitter.com/QBJntjQ3Hp
— Netflix (@netflix) February 24, 2026

5. Here’s the song from Zac Brown Band that you will be hearing nonstop in a few weeks throughout the NCAA tournament.

"Give It Away" by Zac Brown Band will be this year's anthem for March Madness coverage on CBS/TNT.

Last year's song was "Abracadabra" by Lady Gaga. pic.twitter.com/vpAwFPaBU5
— Sports TV News & Updates (@TVSportsUpdates) February 24, 2026

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with Ben Koo, the owner and editor of Awful Announcing.

The podcast covers all things Awful Announcing, including the history of the site, Koo’s philosophy for what to post and not post, the dilemma in amplifying terrible people in sports media, whether Koo feels the company is respected within the sports media industry, the site’s relationship with the networks that air sports and much more.

Following Koo, Sal Licata from SNY TV joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include issues with trying to purchase MLB.tv through ESPN, the run of celebrity deaths, an iPhone problem that I’m having, Sal’s wild use of “legend” to describe a WWE announcer and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 77th birthday to one of the all-time greats, The Nature Boy, Ric Flair.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.