ARLINGTON — Two things struck us Tuesday morning after hearing the revolutionary news that MLB has decided to institute an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system – or as they are otherwise known “robot umps,” – for the 2026 season.
First, because we may be a bit warped: This is really gonna hurt Bruce Bochy’s chances of catching Tony LaRussa on the all-time ejections list (to which Bochy later assured us: “Oh, I’m gonna catch him”). We’ll see, he’s four back. And this is going to tamp down ejections.
Second, Wyatt Langford, the most discerning of Rangers hitters, stands to be among baseball’s biggest beneficiaries.
“I’m definitely excited,” he said in the Rangers’ clubhouse prior to Tuesday’s game against Minnesota. “I personally feel like it’s going to help me.”
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He should be even more excited than that.
Entering Tuesday, over the course of his short two-year career, umpires had called 111 pitches out of the zone strikes, according to MLB’s own Statcast system. It was the 14th most blown calls in baseball. In 15th? Baseball’s most discerning and best hitter, Aaron Judge.
He was abused so badly as a rookie, even MLB had to make amends and eventually squeeze out Angel Hernandez for perhaps the three most egregious blown strike calls — plural — in a single at-bat in Houston last year. Google it if you need a laugh.
This year, he ranks 25th in baseball with 49 blown calls. He’s the only Ranger in the top 90, which probably also says a little about the club’s plate discipline or, more accurately, the lack thereof. But, hey, that’s a story, or theme, for another day. Like the whole offseason.
In the meantime, there is this: Inaccurate ball-strike calls may be the only thing standing between Langford and an .800 OPS, which would mean the difference between this being another step in the right direction and a leap into full-fledged stardom.
Look at the most impactful of those calls. Langford had six called third strikes, two of them on full-count pitches. He had five 1-1 counts go to 1-2 on pitches when balls were actually out of the zone. And he had 19 0-0 pitches turn into 0-1 counts on mistake calls. He’s 4 for 28 in those plate appearances with two walks. Here’s the difference between Langford after 1-0 vs. 0-1: A .987 OPS vs. a .573 OPS. After 2-1 vs. 1-2: .725 vs. .494. It’s a huge swing. If even half those pitches go in Langford’s favor it stands to swing his season OPS by 15-20 points. He entered Tuesday at .778.
“The 1-1 pitch might be the most important in baseball,” Bochy said. “If it’s not, the first pitch is. This should be a huge benefit for Wyatt.”
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Bochy is in favor of the change. He was impressed by the system in spring training and he came away with a favorable view. Hasn’t changed since March. He welcomed the news on Tuesday. Well, it beat talking about the other topics, such as potential official elimination from playoff eligibility and which players are officially shut down (as of Tuesday that list included Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Sam Haggerty).
For the record, teams will start games with two challenges that can be made by pitcher, catcher or hitter. If replay overturns the call, the challenging team retains its challenge. If not, a challenge is lost. There will be some strategy to using these, similar to replay challenges. Don’t want to use them too early. Don’t want to use them on relatively meaningless pitches. Don’t want to allow them in the hands of everybody because there are guys who now ground out to shortstop and immediately cup their hands at first base to urge the dugout to challenge.
As a team, the Rangers were mixed on their input to MLB’s committee. Player rep Josh Jung said that, unsurprisingly, hitters were very much in favor of it and pitchers, not so much. Ranger pitchers entered Tuesday with 361 charitable strike calls, 14th in the majors, right around league average.
The Rangers are going to have a whole lot of offensive issues to address this offseason. For a second straight season, they’ve shown no ability to hit the fastball. They seem to hunt breaking balls too much, instead of being on time to drive fastballs and reacting to spin. They swing too often and walk too little. It will keep them busy.
But the news on Tuesday that ABS is coming is bound to help one of their best players get even better.
Every little bit helps.
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