How Dodgers are preparing for advent of ball-strike challenge system

PHOENIX –– When it comes to the new ball-strike challenge system being implemented in Major League Baseball this year, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts doesn’t yet have any hard-and-fast rules for his players.

But on Friday, he offered a few general guidelines.

“I think right now, I feel comfortable with the catchers doing the challenges versus the pitchers,” Roberts said on the eve of the Dodgers’ Cactus League opener –– in which they will get to test the new automated ball-strike system (ABS for short) for the first time.

And what if a pitcher decides to challenge a call?

“He’d better be right,” Roberts said, laughing.

Such is the new dynamic players will face with the advent of ABS. Starting this year, the automated reviews will give each team the opportunity to challenge at least two ball-strike calls per game. And unlike normal manager challenges on all other types of play, an ABS review can only be initiated by a hitter, catcher or pitcher –– who may do so by tapping their head within two seconds of each pitch.

Once a team loses two challenges, its players won’t be able to dispute any further calls in a game (unless there are extra innings, in which case teams will be awarded another challenge opportunity).

“I think it’s good that we’re practicing it in spring,” Roberts said. “We’re having conversations about leverage and how to use it to our advantage.”

The ABS system, which relies on Hawk-Eye ball tracking cameras within ballparks to determine whether a pitch was in the strike zone, has been a long time coming. 

Since 2022, it has been tested in the minor leagues, where players and teams came to prefer having a limited number of challenges per game over allowing the system to make every pitch call, no matter what.

Last spring, MLB gave it a trial run in big-league spring training games, gathering feedback that was used to craft the specifics for its regular-season rollout now.

“I think it should benefit baseball,” Roberts said.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

One of the big points of previous dispute regarding ABS usage: the strike zone itself.

Veteran third baseman Max Muncy noted that, in early versions of ABS that he experienced while on minor-league rehab assignments in recent years, the top of the zone seemed atypically high –– differing significantly from the way many human umpires called the game.

“There were some pitches that, I’d go back and look at the iPad just to see (if they would be called strikes),” he recalled. “And there were ones literally at my eyes that it would say is a strike, just because of how the zone is measured.”

Now, however, MLB has made some tweaks.

Compared with data compiled from actual umpires’ calls, the top and bottom of the ABS zone have been made slightly tighter (“That stinks a little bit,” Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow joked). The league has also been measuring players’ heights this spring for ABS purposes, so each batter will have a zone proportional to their size.

“They’re doing things to make it better, I think,” Muncy said. “But there’s no way to tell until we actually get it.”

For the Dodgers, that process will start Saturday, providing a new subplot to follow over the course of the season.

Now, just like batting average and on-base percentage, players will undoubtedly have their challenge success rate tracked –– by media, coaches and front office analysts most of all.

Their ability to judge the right time in a game to challenge calls will also be scrutinized, introducing a new strategic element to every at-bat.

“You really have to know when you should challenge and when you can’t,” Muncy said. “Like, if it’s the third inning, 0-2 count, two outs and there’s no one on, and there’s a pitch that’s called on you that’s maybe borderline –– even if you’re right, is that really gonna change that much? And if it’s the eighth inning, full count, bases loaded and a pitch is borderline, even if you’re wrong, to me that’s an OK time to challenge.”

To Roberts, it means that “some hitters have to be honest with themselves” in the heat of the moment and avoid risking challenges at the wrong time simply out of frustration with borderline calls. 

“That goes with baseball IQ,” he said. “Understanding when you challenge, when you don’t.”

And for pitchers like Glasnow, it means leaving the responsibility largely up to the catchers, who have the best view of the zone from right behind the plate.

“Now, if it’s super obvious, I might (still challenge a call),” Glasnow added with a chuckle.

If he does, as Roberts cautioned, he just better be right.