MLB’s ABS leaderboards live

Major League Baseball’s new balls-and-strikes challenge system now has a live public leaderboard, turning every appealed pitch into a season-long stat. (espn.com) The tracker, updated through Saturday, April 11, ranks batters, pitchers, catchers, teams and umpires by challenge volume and success rate. ESPN’s early snapshot showed Philadelphia catcher J.T. Realmuto at 5 successful challenges in 5 tries, Seattle catcher Mitch Garver at 4 for 4, and several hitters tied at 100% in small samples. (espn.com) The system itself is limited: only the batter, pitcher or catcher can challenge a call, each team starts with two challenges, and a club keeps its challenge if the appeal is successful. If a team loses two challenges, it is done for the rest of the game unless extra innings begin, when a team with none left gets one for that inning. (mlb.com) Major League Baseball chose a hybrid model instead of full-time “robot umpires.” A human plate umpire still calls every pitch, and the computer steps in only when a player immediately asks for a review. (mlb.com) The technology behind the review is the same Hawk-Eye tracking system used for Statcast, and the strike zone is tailored to each hitter’s height. Baseball Savant says the zone is 17 inches wide, with the top set at 53.5% of a player’s measured height and the bottom at 27%, with the pitch judged as it crosses the middle of the plate. (baseballsavant.mlb.com) The opening week already produced the kind of moments the leaderboard is built to capture. José Caballero of the Yankees made the first regular-season challenge on Opening Night, March 25, against Giants starter Logan Webb, and the call was upheld. (mlb.com) The first successful challenge came one day later, on March 26, when Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez overturned a call in New York’s opener. MLB has also been cataloging these “firsts,” including the first game-ending overturned strike call. (mlb.com, mlb.com) The first ejection tied to the new system arrived on March 29 in Baltimore, when Twins manager Derek Shelton argued that Orioles reliever Ryan Helsley’s challenge came too late on a full-count pitch to Josh Bell. Shelton was tossed after the challenge was granted and the call was overturned to strike three. (si.com, mlb.com) Baseball Savant’s leaguewide dashboard showed 811 challenge attempts through April 10, with 441 overturned and 370 confirmed, a 54% overturn rate overall. Catchers and pitchers combined for more attempts than batters in that early data, which suggests teams are treating the system as a defensive tool as much as an offensive one. (baseballsavant.mlb.com) Major League Baseball tested the challenge format in the minors beginning in 2022 and used it in major league spring training before approving it for the 2026 regular season. The new leaderboard makes that experiment visible every day, one appealed pitch at a time. (mlb.com)