Overview
- MLB finalized the ABS format for this season: each team gets two challenges per game by the pitcher, catcher or hitter, successful challenges are retained, and teams without challenges receive one per inning in extras.
- Challenges must be initiated immediately with a head tap, triggering an ABS animation that rules ball or strike on the stadium videoboard and the television broadcast.
- Telecasts will keep the strike‑zone box but remove filled and hollow indicators that showed calls, and the zone graphic is barred from in‑stadium feeds except on monitors in the broadcast booth.
- Teams are bracing for a tactical and emotional learning curve after uneven spring‑training access last year, with clubs like Boston preparing to rely more on catcher‑driven calls and to preserve late‑game challenges.
- The system follows minor‑league and spring‑training trials dating to 2022, with reported overturn rates higher for catcher‑initiated challenges (56%) than for pitchers (41%).