{"id":624925,"date":"2026-03-15T11:28:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/624925\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T11:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:28:19","slug":"red-sox-newcomer-crushing-mlbs-abs-challenge-system-in-spring-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/624925\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox newcomer crushing MLB’s ABS challenge system in spring training"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Opening Day less than two weeks away (March 26), the Red Sox are getting the hang of the Automatic Ball-Strike system<\/a>, which officially became a part of Major League Baseball at the start of spring training.<\/p>\n

Teams start each game with two challenges, to be used by the pitcher, catcher, or hitter during their plate appearance. If a player challenges successfully, their team retains the opportunity to do so again. If a team is out of challenges in a game going to extra innings, they are allotted one challenge per inning.<\/p>\n

Answering manager Alex Cora\u2019s call<\/a> to be \u201cvery aggressive\u201d in preseason games to gain familiarity with the new tool, Boston batters have challenged 24 times; ironically, tied with their Opening Day hosts, the Cincinnati Reds, for eighth-most in the majors. Red Sox hitters have a 46% success rate (11 for 13) so far.<\/p>\n

Red Sox catchers have challenged 27 times, and their 59% success rate is the league median.<\/p>\n

Catchers Carlos Narvaez (5 for 7) and Connor Wong (4 for 5) have been successful in defensive challenges. Conversely, no catcher has been challenged more than Narv\u00e1ez; opposing batters are 6 for 12 while he\u2019s behind the dish.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s Willson Contreras<\/a> who\u2019s been at the ABS forefront. Boston\u2019s new first baseman leads American League hitters with five challenges, and his four wins are tied with Yankees\u2019 Jose Caballero for the most in the majors.<\/p>\n

In fact, in the team\u2019s first spring training game on Feb. 21, Contreras became the first player in franchise history<\/a> to challenge a pitch. Successfully, too. The reaction from his teammates<\/a>? \u201cPriceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, the catcher-turned-first-baseman said he felt his long career behind the dish would prove beneficial in overturning missed calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different when you\u2019re catching than hitting, but when you\u2019re a first baseman you don\u2019t know the strike zone, the umpire, anything like that,\u201d Contreras said. \u201cYou just know your strike zone, you\u2019ve been playing for so many years that you have an idea of what is (a) ball and strike. But it definitely helps, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The worst team in the early weeks of the ABS era may come as a shock. It\u2019s been a challenge, no pun intended, for the back-to-back defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Their catchers are 3 for 14 in challenges, a 21% success rate that\u2019s at least 22 points worse than every other club.<\/p>\n

Dodgers hitters\u2019 13 challenges are second-fewest behind the Detroit Tigers (10), but their 15% success rate (2 for 11) also ranks 30th.<\/p>\n

Willson Contreras says Red Sox had \u2018priceless\u2019 reaction to ABS challenge<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Opening Day less than two weeks away (March 26), the Red Sox are getting the hang of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[33243,5,48,789,790,4,151,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-624925","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-baseball","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-carlos-narvaez","12":"tag-connor-wong","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-spring-training","15":"tag-willson-contreras"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116232959180564774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624925","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=624925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}