For the Cubs, that meant they could test it only in select road games; Sloan Park was among the Cactus League parks without available Hawk-Eye and Statcast data. The Cubs also had more home games last spring because of their trip to Japan for the Tokyo Series, so some players, such as left fielder Ian Happ, never played in an exhibition game that had the ABS system available to test.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen it in action,\u201d Happ said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be important throughout spring to get a look at it and challenge. You\u2019ve got to see what it feels like, you\u2019ve got to get your bearings on your eyes. \u2026 It\u2019s a new system for all of us. I think the league will adapt, similar to pitch clock and everything. It\u2019ll be a quick transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs plan to have discussions throughout spring training on strategies for when to best deploy their ABS challenges in regular-season games. Manager Craig Counsell expects to hold a meeting at the end of spring training to create some structure around their ABS usage.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s most worried about the disputes that could arise: Was the challenge requested in time? Did the umpire not allow a team to challenge but OK\u2019d a similar challenge attempt by the other team?<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers are going to get this wrong, and we\u2019re going to get: Why didn\u2019t we challenge?\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be some of that. Maybe we\u2019ll find out it\u2019s pretty hard to be an umpire \u2014 I think that\u2019s probably what we\u2019ll find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
MLB data shows the ABS adds about one minute per game, estimating 15 seconds for every challenge. The key rules for this season:<\/p>\n
Challenges can be initiated only by the pitcher, hitter or catcher with a double tap on their head within two seconds of the umpire\u2019s call.
\nIf the umpire believes a challenge call was influenced by help from someone else, the request can be rejected.
\nEach team receives two challenges for a nine-inning game, with a team getting to keep its challenge if the call is successfully overturned.
\nIf a game goes to extra innings, a team will receive one challenge to use if it had none entering the extra inning, a process that repeats for each extra inning played.
\nUmpires have discretion to return a baserunner to a base if a pitch and challenge affects a play.
\nChallenges are not allowed if a position player is pitching.
\nAny part of the baseball touching the strike-zone box results in a strike<\/p>\n
MLB is instituting safeguards to curb cheating with the system. Pitch location data, like on MLB\u2019s Gameday app, will be delayed by roughly five seconds. Teams are prohibited from having their own ball tracking systems in their ballparks, so the only pitch data from major-league games will come from Hawk-Eye. A process will be in place for MLB to review all challenges to ensure there is no evidence of anything underhanded.<\/p>\n
In Triple A last season, games averaged 4.2 challenges with a 50% overturn rate, similar to the figures from 2025 spring training, when there were 4.1 challenges per game and a 52% overturn rate. The ABS strike zone features a 17-inch width, and the height will be based on the hitter\u2019s size. Every player will get a verified measurement at spring training to set the top and bottom of the zone.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CTC-L-CUBS1.jpg\")
The Automated Ball-Strike system is displayed on a screen behind the outfield during Cubs spring training at Sloan Park on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, in Mesa, Ariz. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy believes some pitchers could benefit from the more square shape of the ABS zone and get more clipped strikes in the corners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something we might try to play around with and see if we can take advantage of more of those type of pitches,\u201d Hottovy said. \u201cYou have an understanding of how you think it\u2019s going to work, but a lot of it\u2019s just read, react. How did that work? What can we do differently? And make those adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Understanding the zone and how balls in the corners could become more frequent strikes is part of the Cubs\u2019 spring process to get comfortable with the ABS system. Catcher Carson Kelly said the Cubs have talked about ways to train by receiving pitches off of a machine to test catching balls on the edge and making pseudo challenges in the practice setting to see if their eyes are reading the zone correctly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting addition to the game, but also it can come down to being very important,\u201d Kelly told the Tribune. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be very apparent when those big moments are happening and there\u2019s a big pitch that needs to be made, if they execute or if it\u2019s just off, it\u2019s worth the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs tested out the ABS system this week at Sloan Park, incorporating the full graphics reveal on the video board for each challenge. Players weren\u2019t restricted by how many times they could challenge during a live batting practice at-bat, like they will be in the regular season, because the Cubs want their veteran players to get comfortable using it.<\/p>\n
At one point from behind the plate, catcher Miguel Amaya challenged a Colin Rea pitch that was called a ball. The ABS replay confirmed the pitch was outside the zone \u2014 by 0.3 inches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the old school, let the umpire do his job kind of thing, but it\u2019s exact,\u201d Hollowell said of the ABS. \u201cIt sometimes feels like you\u2019re throwing into a shoebox, feels a little small, but we know it\u2019s probably accurate. I enjoy it from the accuracy standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MESA, Ariz. \u2014 For the first five months of Triple-A Iowa\u2019s 2025 season, right-hander Gavin Hollowell let his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[33243,66750,5,24,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-582781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-abs-challenge-system","9":"tag-automated-ball-strike","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116102895721582670","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}