SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants got a preview of the automated ball-strike system, or ABS, during Cactus League games this past spring. Starting next year, the system will be making its debut in the majors.
Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday morning that ABS will be coming to the majors in 2026. Human umpires will still call balls and strikes behind the plate, but each team will have two challenges per game and extra appeals in extra innings.
Pitchers, catchers and batters are the only players who can challenge, which they do by tapping their heads. If a challenge is successful, teams retain their challenge.
“Everybody’s probably for it at this point,” said manager Bob Melvin. “You saw how many misses there were in spring training and there’s so much information now that, like anything they’ve done here recently, they’re trying to get it right and make it better.”
The Giant who stands to be impacted the most, by far, is catcher Patrick Bailey. The one-time Gold Glove Award winner has been the most valuable defender since making his debut, according to Baseball Savant’s Fielding Run Value, and much of his value derives from his framing.
Over the last three seasons, Bailey has been the best at turning strikes into a wide margin, leading all backstops with 64 Catcher Framing Runs. For context, the Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk ranks second in Catcher Framing Runs during that same timeframe with 33. And unlike most catchers, Bailey excels at stealing strikes on all sides of the plate — up, down, left or right.
“He’s as good as you get, and he understands (the zone) too,” Melvin said. “He knows all the numbers. He knows what his pitchers can do and where he needs to go to get these strikes. It makes a big impact. He’s a pretty cerebral player on top of it. A lot of understanding of the nuances of the position.”
Bailey said he wasn’t a fan of ABS during spring training, but he had a more measured stance when speaking with reporters on Tuesday.
“I don’t really have any thoughts on it,” Bailey said. “We’ll just have to figure out what it looks like. I’ve had experience with it in Triple-A a little bit and in spring training. It’ll be a big chance and we’ll have to figure out how to use it to the best of our ability.”
Bailey added: “It doesn’t matter if we’re cool with it.”
Bailey said he doesn’t believe that the system will take away the value of frame, adding that catchers still “have to get calls and keep strikes, strikes.” While Bailey will likely have a few framed strikes overturned, he’ll also have his chance to turn incorrectly-called balls into strikes.
“This past week, off the top of my head, there’s obviously times where I’m catching where it’s pretty confident that was a strike,” Bailey said. “That’s going to be able to help catchers as well. I think some of the best catchers are going to be the ones that know the zone the best. So, there’s going to be training in that and value and that. We’ll have to see what that looks like.”
“Maybe a little bit,” Melvin said when asked if Bailey’s value will be impacted. “I don’t think a good framer goes away unless it’s wholesale. I still think his value is going to be pretty high.”
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While technology will now help determine balls and strikes — Hawk-Eye technology will run in the background of games and monitor the location of every pitch — the home-plate umpire will still be responsible for the majority of calls. This, in turn, maintains the human element of the game. The full ABS system, by contrast, completely removes that component.
The full ABS system was tested in the minors from 2022-24 but phased out by the end of the 2024 season in favor of the challenge system. With this system, every call was dictated by Hawk-Eye technology and took the responsibility of calling balls and strikes out of an umpire’s hands. Justin Verlander and Robbie Ray were among those fine with the challenge system but against full ABS.
“I think it’s a nightmare scenario with full ABS,” Verlander said. “I think you completely take away the art of pitching. It would just completely go away. You’d have a designated hitter sitting behind home plate (instead of a catcher) setting up on the corner. … I think the appeal system is definitely the better scenario for that.”
“I don’t really have a problem with (the challenge system). I do have a problem with the full ABS system. It just doesn’t seem right if you were to call balls and strikes off the full zone,” Ray said. “I feel like that would be taking away from the sport. … If there’s a big situation and you feel like you make your pitch — or a hitter feels like he gets a close pitch that gets called a strike — I don’t mind having the ability to challenge that.”