Nationals Players Tested Out New Wrinkle Coming to MLB During Full-Squad Workout
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Because the Washington Nationals are so young, conventional thinking would suggest many of their players have familiarity with the new ABS challenge system coming to Major League Baseball this season. But manager Blake Butera didn't take any chances.
On Tuesday, during the team's second full-squad workout of the spring, the skipper said he gave the team an opportunity to test out the new automated balls and strike system that will be used in the MLB for the first time this year.
"We kind of worked on the challenge system a little bit where we had a bad umpire, myself, behind home plate in the stadium calling balls and strikes and let them challenge if they felt like it was an incorrect call, right?" he said, per MLB.com. "Just to kind of get the hang of that. So that was one thing for both our pitchers, catchers and hitters to start kind of learning the zone a little bit and which pitches they should challenge or what not."
How Nationals Could Be Affected by New ABS Challenge System
That is a wise idea by Butera. While this Nationals roster is young, the implementation of ABS first started in the Low-A Southeast League and the Arizona Fall League in 2021 before some Triple-A ballparks were introduced to the system in 2022. It wasn't until 2023 where all Triple-A teams could use the challenge system.
Because of that, it's been a while since many of Washington's players have used ABS during a game, if at all. So getting them acclimated to this new wrinkle coming to Major League Baseball is important, especially when looking at how this could affect the Nationals.
RotoWire took a look at data put out by UmpScorecards from 2021-25, and only three teams were more negatively affected by wrongly called balls and strikes for both their hitters and batters than Washington.
Umpire: Tyler Jones
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) September 25, 2025
Final: Nationals 4, Braves 3#NATITUDE // #BravesCountry#WSHvsATL // #ATLvsWSH
More stats for this ump 👇https://t.co/Dsj8ojVW5c pic.twitter.com/1sx7j79dik
UmpScorecards has a metric called "totFav," which is the sum of their Total Batter Impact and Total Pitcher Impact for each team. To simplify things, "totFav" shows which teams are on the combined wrong end of calls when they are hitting and pitching.
Per RotoWire, from 2021-25, the Nationals were 27th in "totFav" with a figure of -46.62. The Miami Marlins were 30th (-59.91), the Houston Astros were 29th (-56.2) and the Baltimore Orioles were 28th (-51.24). To compare, the New York Yankees ranked first with a figure of 87.41, while the New York Mets were second at 68.3.
With that in mind, there could be a lot of challenges coming for Washington during the upcoming season based on how negatively affected they've been in the past. So it's imperative the hitters, pitchers, catchers and even the coaching staff are familiar and on the same page when it comes to using the ABS challenge system.
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Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai