There's a First Time for Everything: Tracking All of MLB's ABS Challenge Firsts

There’s a first time for everything, but in baseball, firsts can be somewhat hard to come by given the 150-year history of the sport has seen more than 20,000 players suit up for millions and millions of at bats. For that reason, it’s good to celebrate firsts when we find them in the sport, and this year, we’re seeing quite a few thanks to the introduction of the ABS challenge system.

We're here to keep track all of the memorable firsts as they roll in.

MLB's first-ever ABS Challenge

Of the many questions baseball fans had entering the Yankees-Giants Opening Night game, chief among them was when the first ABS challenge was going to occur—and which player was going to initiate it.

MLB fans got their answer rather quickly, as Yankees shortstop José Caballero signaled for a challenge after home plate umpire Bill Miller called Giants pitcher Logan Webb's sinker on the inside corner a strike in the top of the fourth inning.

As it turns out, Miller was correct and Caballero lost the challenge, though fans never would have known it. In a stroke of incredibly poor fortune for MLB, the Netflix broadcast just so happened to be conducting an in-game interview with Giants first-year manager Tony Vitello, meaning that fans missed the footage of baseball's first-ever challenge.

MLB's first successful ABS Challenge

Fans had to wait until the following afternoon for MLB's first successful challenge. And it was an impactful one. In the top of the third inning of an Opening Day contest between the Mets and Pirates, Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta, with the count full, delivered a four-seam fastball just below the letters to Pirates slugger Oneil Cruz, an offering that home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson ruled to be ball four.

Alvarez immediately signaled for the challenge as Cruz headed down the first-base line. The call was overturned, to the delight of the Citi Field crowd. Alvarez's challenge was not only successful, but overturned a walk into a strikeout. The challenge kept the bases empty for the Pirates, an important development for the Mets considering that Peralta served up a home run two batters later.

MLB's first game-ending ABS Challenge

First game-ending ABS challenge in MLB historypic.twitter.com/aizL62z0Lz
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) April 1, 2026

One fun aspect of the ABS challenge system is that it creates suspense and drama. All told, the process takes around 15 seconds, but it feels like an eternity watching the animated baseball sail towards the strike zone on replay. It's peak theater, which made some fans wonder when we'd see a challenge to end a game.

The Orioles' 8-3 win over the Rangers on April 1 provided such theater. Baltimore was a strike away from victory in the top of the ninth inning when relief pitcher Albert Suárez fired a 95 mph four-seamer on the upper-outside corner. Home-plate umpire Manny Gonzalez called the pitch a ball, Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo tapped his cap and it was as if the opening credits started scrolling down an imaginary screen.

The home fans at Oriole Park at Camden Yards waited with bated breath as the ball inched towards the plate on replay, which eventually showed the pitch to be a game-ending strike three. The crowd roared its approval.

What a moment, brought to you by ABS.

MLB's first manager ejection involving ABS Challenge System

Minnesota Twins, Derek Shelton — Twins manager Derek Shelton argued that Orioles pitcher Ryan Helsley didn't challenge a call soon enough. | Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

Managers aren't allowed to utilize the ABS challenge system—only hitters, pitchers and catchers can do so—and they can't argue against the ABS challenge system. What they are allowed to do, as many found out during a March 29 game between the Orioles and Twins, is argue about a challenge—though like many arguments in baseball, it still ends with an ejection.

The Twins, down 8-6 with one out in the top of the ninth inning, had the tying run at the plate in the form of first baseman Josh Bell against Orioles closer Ryan Helsley. Helsley's 3-0 pitch, ruled a ball, was challenged by Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman. Moments later, Helsley seemingly missed on a 3-2 offering, with Bell headed down the first-base line for a walk. Only, Helsley tapped his cap for a challenge and the call was overturned to strike three. It was a huge moment in the game, as the Twins would have had the go-ahead run at the plate with just one out. Instead, they were down to their last out with the tying run still at first base.

And Twins manager Derek Shelton was irate with the umpiring crew, believing that Helsley hadn't signaled his call for a challenge in time. Players have roughly two seconds to initiate a challenge. Shelton clearly felt the Orioles' challenge didn't come within that two-second window and he was ejected, but not before getting his money's worth.

Shelton's was the first ABS-related ejection. Chances are, it won't be the last.

MLB's first ABS Challenge on first pitch of an inning

This ABS challenge first happened in the bottom of the first inning of the Dodgers' game against the Blue Jays on April 8. It also may have been MLB's first accidental challenge.

Two-way star Shohei Ohtani was on the mound against the Blue Jays and delivered a 94 mph sinker that seemed low in the zone but was framed well by Dodgers backstop Will Smith. Ohtani reached his hand up to the back of his cap—it's unclear whether the gesture was meant to signal a challenge or if he was merely adjusting his hat—and Smith followed suit, signaling for a challenge.

Theory about this very odd challenge, which was the first challenge this year to occur on the first pitch of the first inning.

Ohtani went to fix his hat, but Smith thought he wanted him to challenge so Smith tapped his head. Weird one. pic.twitter.com/U9ObTByXC8
— Jake Mintz (@Jake_Mintz) April 8, 2026

The challenge wasn't particularly close, meaning the Dodgers had burned a challenge in the first inning. Or they had accidentally challenged the call because Smith mistook Ohtani reaching for his cap as a challenge gesture.

The incident makes me think that MLB needs to change the signal for a challenge to something that doesn't resemble another gesture that players perform hundreds of times a game. Just a thought.

MLB's first ABS Challenge on back-to-back pitches

Think of back-to-back pitches resulting in an ABS challenge as a solar eclipse. Circumstances need to be just right and it's something you might not see very often. Well, the circumstances were just right for consecutive pitches to be challenged during the bottom of the sixth inning of a March 28 game between the Red Sox and Reds, otherwise known as the C.B. Bucknor game.

On the mound was Red Sox righthander Ryan Watson, a pitcher who has struggled to find the zone consistently this season. Behind the plate was Bucknor, consistently one of the worst arbiters of balls and strikes in the big leagues.

Get those proverbial eclipse glasses ready.

With the bases loaded and the count 1-and-2, Watson delivered a sinker at Reds third baseman Eugenio Suárez's knees, a pitch Bucknor ruled strike three to end the inning. Only, Suárez (correctly) believed the pitch was low and challenged it, which he won. So Suárez lived to see another pitch, and on the 2-2 offering, Watson seemingly painted in a fastball on the outside corner. Bucknor rang up Suárez. The Reds slugger challenged the pitch and the call was overturned, this time by a wider margin. Rinse repeat.

Suárez ultimately grounded out and the Reds left the bases juiced. But baseball had its first back-to-back ABS challenges courtesy of Bucknor, who had a no-good-very-bad-day behind the plate.