MLB's New ABS Challenge System Once Again Proves Umpire Wrong Over and Over Again

First-year technology got a real workout during Nationals-Astros spring training game.

C.B. Bucknor awaits the results of yet another first-inning challenge on Thursday. | Jomboy on X

Spring training continues apace even though many eyeballs and rooting interests are locked into the World Baseball Classic. The exhibition games continue to provide a sneak peek into how the relationship between players and umpires will change this season. The brand new Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System is getting quite a workout as pitchers and hitters exercise their new agency when the home plate umpire makes a ruling they disagree with immediately.

The good news is that a larger sample size of these challenges is proving that the addition of legalized second-guessing will not result in unwieldy delays. The bad news, at least to some of the men and women in blue, is that there's the potential everyone will be able to see just how many of these 50-50 calls are being wrongly decided.

Last month a Red Sox-Pirates game made very unique history as it featured five consecutive successful challenges on ball-strike calls. Mitch Trzeciak, who was behind the dish for that one, received a bit of a Bronx cheer when replay proved that he'd gotten the sixth challenged call correct in real-time.

C.B. Bucknor had a similiarly eventful day working the plate on Thursday in the Nationals-Astros game. No less than three pitches on his watch were overturned in the first inning alone.

Umpire C.B. Bucknor had three pitches overturned in the first inning today pic.twitter.com/iAP5QS8nEx

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 13, 2026

This is where I personally break with some of my colleagues. Sure, it doesn't look great to have it laid bare just how often umpires miss pitches. But every time there's a successful challenge, the positive spin is that the new system is working and more and more of them are being judged accurately. If it takes the help of a soulless computer, than so be it.

And there might not be anything more difficult across all of sports officiating than calling balls and strikes. The sheer speed MLB pitchers possess, added to the insane movement, colored by world-class hitters who have refined the zone in their eye to a ridiculous degree, creates in ordinate opportunity for failure. Honestly, I'm more impressed by the number of calls the umpires get correct than flummoxed by the ones they miss.

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