MLB's New Ball-Strike Challenge System Being Tested In Spring Training Is Wonderful And Cannot Be Installed Soon Enough

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Change in baseball is almost always met with major pushback. Remember the outcry when the little Nike swoosh got added to jerseys? How about the pitch clock? Olds nearly walked away from the sport altogether. Update? We're all in one piece still and better for it. Well, get ready for one more big change coming soon —a balls and strikes challenge system. 

Look at how beautiful and easy this is below. 

I could cry. That's literally everything we need. Just eliminate the egregious calls from home plate umpires and make it so it doesn't interrupt the game. That Jazz Chisholm strikeout that turned into a walk was so seamless and effective. By no means should that have been called strike three. Instead Jazz was awarded first base which would have happened if the umpire had a correct set of eyes. 

Another example of this working so well happened in an Angles-Diamondbacks game. The catcher tried to frame a pitch two balls off the plate in there to catch the black. Initially it tricked the umpire, but an immediate challenge fixed the error. Simple, quick, easy. This is the way. 

Does anyone watch those two clips and get upset at the game being messed with? While I'm sure Klemmer could find a reason to complain, I felt that was pretty quick and harmless. A simple tap of the head from the catcher, hitter, or pitcher will trigger the challenge. Dugouts will have no say in the matter as it needs to be instant to keep the game rolling. 

Right now the limit for each team is two challenges, but if you get one right you keep it so in theory if you're really good at this you can just keep unloading on the umpires. Juan Soto may never get a call wrong. 

Unfortunately this will not be a thing for the regular season in 2025 as you need a 45 day notice for all rule changes going into a season. The league needed to test this out during Spring Training first before fully implementing it, but I think it's gone very well. I'd be stunned if this wasn't a thing on Opening Day 2026 and I cannot wait.