MLB to Introduce Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System in 2026

Courtesy of Anthony Castrovince at MLB.com.

By Anthony Curioso

Fans of Major League Baseball (MLB) will soon have one less thing to worry about when it comes to their team’s performance during a game: missed ball or strike calls. With just one week left in the 2025 season, the league’s Joint Competition Committee (JCC) voted on September 23 to implement an automated ball-strike challenge system (ABS). The new system will be in place for both regular-season and postseason games starting in the 2026 season. 

This decision follows successful experimentation at the Minor League level over the past few seasons, as well as pilot programs conducted during MLB Spring Training and the MLB All-Star Game this year.

“The previous rule changes that [the JCC has adopted] have had staying power and created momentum for the game,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We used the same process with ABS that started with listening to fans, conducting extensive testing at the Minor League level, and trying at every step to make the game better.”

MLB and the MLB Players’ Association (MLBPA) considered ABS as a suitable compromise between so-called “robot umpires” – that is, fully automated umpiring –  and the tradition of natural human error. The 2026 implementation of this new challenge system will mark the first time that a home-plate umpire’s ball or strike calls will not be final and unchangeable.

The ABS challenge system uses “Hawk-Eye” technology, which monitors each pitch’s location relative to the batter’s strike zone. When a pitcher, catcher, or batter feels that an umpire has misjudged a pitch as a ball or strike, he may indicate as much by tapping his helmet or cap; from there, the “Hawk-Eye” view gets transmitted near-instantly to the videoboard and home team’s television broadcast via a T-Mobile network, and the call is either confirmed or overturned.

A player must indicate his desire to challenge immediately after the home-plate umpire makes the ball or strike call, without assistance from his dugout or manager. Each team can challenge two calls using ABS technology during a nine-inning game. If a challenge successfully overturns the umpire’s call, the team retains that challenge; if the ABS technology confirms the call, the challenge is lost. In extra innings, if a team starts the tenth inning having exhausted its two challenge attempts, it receives another challenge at that time. The teams will receive another challenge in each inning after the tenth inning, if the one given to them at the start of the inning is exhausted.

A fully automated ABS system received its first round of testing in the independent Atlantic League in 2019. The ABS challenge system, in its 2026 MLB form, began testing in the A-level Florida State League in 2022. Both systems underwent testing in the 2023 and 2024 Minor League Baseball seasons, with the challenge system becoming the preferred option by the end of 2024, as input from fans, players, coaches, and league officials alike suggested it was a significantly better option than full automation.Fan surveys disseminated during MLB Spring Training revealed that 72% of respondents felt the ABS challenge system had a positive impact on their experience, and 69% expressed a desire for MLB to move forward with the system.