MLB releases Spring Training ABS challenge results
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Wonder how the new Automated Ball-Strike System fared during Spring Training? Well, wonder no more.
According to data released Wednesday by MLB, 52.2% of ball-strike challenges this spring resulted in a successful overturn of the home-plate umpire¡¯s original call -- up from 50.6% when the technology was used in Triple-A in 2024.
ABS was used at 13 Spring Training parks -- covering 19 home teams thanks to shared facilities -- and was employed in roughly 60% of Spring Training games in 2025 to test its suitability for the Major League level. Each team started a game with two challenges and lost them if the umpire's call was confirmed, with batters, pitchers and catchers allowed to challenge the ruling.
Here¡¯s what to know about how things went:
? The pitching team (54.4% overturn rate) fared better than the hitting club (50.0%), with catchers succeeding at a 56% clip -- considerably higher than the 41% rate at which pitchers¡¯ challenges were successful.
? In ABS games during Spring Training, 2.6% of called pitches were challenged. Roughly 80% of spring games using ABS saw five or fewer challenges.
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? Each challenge added an average of 13.8 seconds to a game, an improvement on the 16.6-second average from Triple-A in 2024. With 4.1 challenges per Spring Training game using the ABS system, that amounts to less than an extra minute per contest. Spring games overall averaged 2 hours and 38 minutes, three minutes up from the 2023-24 average (2:35).
? Players challenged more pitches in higher-leverage counts, although challenges in those counts tended to be less successful. Just 44% of 2-2 or 3-2 pitches were overturned, compared to a 57% overturn rate on the first pitch of a plate appearance.
? While players used their challenges consistently throughout games, overturn rates declined as the game went on. In the first three innings, 60% of challenged calls were overturned, compared to 51% in the fourth through sixth, 43% in the seventh and eighth and 46% in the ninth.