Umpire in Red Sox spring game gets roasted by new ball-strike system
Baseball’s new ABS system made an early impact during the Red Sox’ spring training game against the Pirates, fixing an umpire’s awful call.
All baseball fans should take notice: those dastardly upmires are finally getting their comeuppance.
MLB is implenting its new ABS (automatic ball-strike) system in 2026, starting with spring training games, and it immediately became a focus early in the Red Sox' exhibition against the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday afternoon. The Red Sox were on the receiving end, as Pirates catcher Endy Rodriguez challenged the first pitch of Trevor Story's first at-bat of the game.
After the pitch was initially ruled a ball, the system took about 16 seconds to reveal that it was, in fact, pretty much right down the middle for a strike.
There have been some fair comments on social media about potential negative effects of this system, namely slowing down games unnecessarily for review purposes. The hope is we don't see too many pitches challenged in the first inning of scoreless regular-season games, and we save this for moments of greater consequence.
At the same time, it's well worth it to put umpires on notice while we're in spring training. They really need to sharpen up, because the ABS system is watching.
