What Rangers Slugger Evan Carter Has Noticed About ABS Use in Minors

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Last year, spring training games used ABS as an experiment. Now, it’s a springboard into the regular season.

MLB’s decision to go to the automated ball strike system — which was fully implemented in minor league baseball four years ago — will be used in all regular-season games in 2026. That gives teams like the Rangers a chance to challenge balls and strikes using the ABS technology instead of trying to argue with the umpire.

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Last year Rangers veterans leaned on the team’s younger players for advice on how to use it. But the stakes were not as high because it was all experimental. There was no certainty the technology would be used in 2026 in the Majors until MLB approved it.

Now spring training is a full-time laboratory for Rangers players, coaches and front office people to put theory of how to use ABS in Major League games into practice before opening day. Evan Carter has learned a lot about ABS over the years.

Evan Carter on ABS in the Minors

Texas Rangers center fielder Evan Carter points at a teammate as he crossed home plate. — Texas Rangers center fielder Evan Carter. | Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Carter is quite experienced with the system. It was implemented throughout the minor leagues in 2022, so he played with the system for nearly two years before he was promoted to the Majors in late 2023. He also played games with ABS when he was in the minor leagues in 2025 during his ramp-up for the regular season.

He said the best thing about the system is that it locks everyone in.

“I've noticed the umpires are more locked in and accurate because they know that we can challenge,” he said. “At the end of the day we're going to be more locked in because we know we have the opportunity to overturn a call. I think players, pitchers, catchers or hitters, like anybody who knows the zone well enough to overturn a call should be able to have the opportunity to do so.”

Earlier this week manager Skip Schumaker didn’t commit to who could make challenge calls through ABS. He’s using spring training to work through who should and who shouldn’t. He said it’s likely his catchers will have a green light to challenge when they’re behind the plate.

“I think they probably have less emotion behind the plate and kind of know exactly where the pitch lands,” Schumaker said. “Sometimes you know pitchers, they can get emotional during big situations. And hitters the same way. So, I think you'll see the catchers challenge more than more than you know the pitchers or the hitters.”