ABS (Automated Ball-Strike System)

Umpires in Major League Baseball have overturned a called strike two after a challenge to the automated ball-strike system, known as ABS. The call was corrected on review, showing the pitch outside the strike zone. The moment is drawing attention as MLB expands use of pitch challenges, giving players a way to contest ball and strike calls during games.

MLB's automated ball-strike challenge system is set to feature in 2026, and ESPN has launched a tracker ranking how teams and players fare with challenges of umpire calls. The system lets players contest ball and strike decisions reviewed by tracking technology, and the tracker will follow which clubs and hitters use challenges most effectively as the season unfolds.

A strike call was reversed after a team used Major League Baseball's automated ball-strike system to challenge it. The ABS challenge, now part of MLB's trial of robot umpiring, let the field umpire's strike-one ruling be checked and overturned by the automated review. The moment is fueling wider debate about how technology is reshaping officiating in baseball.

Major League Baseball's automated ball-strike system was used in a game for the first time in a notable moment: a called strike one was challenged and overturned to ball one. The play marks a concrete example of the ABS challenge system changing an umpire's call, a development fans and commentators are weighing as baseball experiments with technology-assisted officiating.