PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 Major League Baseball first defined a strike zone in the late 1880s, when the game shifted away from a batters\u2019 ability to call for a \u201chigh,\u201d \u201clow\u201d or \u201cfair\u201d pitch at the start of a plate appearance. What qualified as a \u201cfair\u201d pitch \u2014 over the plate between the batter\u2019s shoulders and at least one foot from the ground \u2014 morphed into over-the-plate pitches not lower than the knee and not higher than his shoulders as an official strike.<\/p>\n
A rule-book zone has evolved from there, but anyone watching the game from anywhere on the field, dugout or even at home knew the strike zone depended on who was umpiring and sometimes even who was on the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the strike zone was pretty tight when you\u2019re a rookie, and then as you got older, if you treated the umpires appropriately, they would give you a few calls here and there,\u201d said Padres manager Craig Stammen. \u201c \u2026 Now they\u2019re just judged on that box and the ABS and the strike zone, and the strike zone is much tighter than it used to be. We\u2019ve seen videos back in the \u201890s and even videos when I first started playing. The strike zone was definitely a little bit bigger. It\u2019s smaller now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That has been among the chief observations as pitchers, catchers and hitters wrap their heads around a new strike zone governed by the incoming Automated Ball-Strike System that will debut starting next week in the regular season.\u00a0 The dos and don\u2019ts will be refined throughout the year, but the decision to challenge an umpire\u2019s call begins with understanding what a strike is now.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUT-L-Padres-Spring-D8-090.jpg\")
The scoreboard show the new ABS system during a protested call as the San Diego Padres played against the Seattle Mariners during a spring training game on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. Major League Baseball is adopting the review system starting next season. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The strike zone is just as wide \u2014 17 inches \u2014 as home plate.\u00a0The top-to-bottom measurement of the zone has shifted from midway between the shoulder and pants to the hollow of the kneecap to 53.5% of a batter\u2019s measured height without cleats to 27% of a batter\u2019s height. Determining a strike has also changed from a ball passing through any part of a 3D box over the plate to a 2D box at the middle of the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing your zone is going to be crucial,\u201d Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be even more crucial for the pitchers.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Peoria,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUT-L-padresST-2-23-049.jpg\")
Peoria, AZ \u2013 February 23: Freddy Fermin #54 of the San Diego Padres catches a pitch during a spring training game against the Milwaukee Brewers on February 23, 2026 in Peoria, AZ. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why the Padres\u2019 hitters have made a point of having their machines fire baseballs at the top and low points of their zones in the cages in Peoria. A catcher can\u2019t possibly retain the specifics of that information for each hitter \u2014 on top of tendencies and such in scouting reports \u2014 so Freddy Fermin has developed a rule of thumb for setting targets for his pitchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I focus on,\u201d Fermin said through interpreter Jorge Merlos, \u201cis just where their hip is, kind of work from there, and see what the strike zone is afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teams can challenge ball-strike calls twice per game, though they retain the challenges if they\u2019re correct.<\/p>\n
The expectation is that hitters will only challenge egregious calls and in impactful situations late in games. Pitchers will likely be encouraged \u2014 if not flat out directed \u2014 to leave their decision to challenge up to the catchers sitting directly on top of the strike zone.<\/p>\n
Michael King\u2019s body language in his most recent start appeared to have some influence on catcher Rodolfo Duran winning two challenges on Friday.<\/p>\n
One pitch nicked the top of the zone. The other landed easily in the upper right corner.<\/p>\n
King agreed that the catcher is going to have the best view, especially because the top and bottom of the zone can fluctuate from, for example, the 5-foot-6 Jose Altuve to the 6-7 Aaron Judge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel more confident in and out because that hasn\u2019t changed,\u201d King said. \u201cBut top and bottom, when you\u2019ve got Altuve up there and then Aaron Judge up there, it\u2019s going to be totally different. I think it\u2019s really hard to calibrate based on where it\u2019s crossing for a hitter for my eyes to be able to challenge those pitches, because I\u2019m usually throwing to the catcher and seeing where the catcher catches it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard top to bottom, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Padres knuckleballer Matt Waldron said he hopes his specialty pitch will get more calls at the bottom of the zone when reviewed by ABS. It may be tougher for someone like Nick Pivetta to continue to get calls at the top of the zone. Pivetta gets about 20 inches of rise on his four-seam fastball.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me personally,\u201d Pivetta said, \u201cthat one really kind of makes me a little more uneasy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUT-L-padres-training-007.jpg\")
Nick Pivetta #27 of the San Diego Padres pitches against the White Sox during their spring training game at the Camelback Ranch on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Ariz. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Added pitching coach Ruben Niebla: \u201c(Pivetta) still doesn\u2019t understand and we don\u2019t understand what that\u2019s going to look like. At the end of the day, he gets a lot of great performance at the top of the zone and that\u2019s not something we\u2019re going to shy away from.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hope is that Pivetta\u2019s four-seamer is too enticing for hitters to lay off, because there\u2019s no more hoping that umpires can be coaxed into seeing things your way.<\/p>\n
They either will or they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s no sweet-talking ABS.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not a brown-noser, but I didn\u2019t do anything to make (the umpire) mad,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cPut it that way. I just tried to treat them with respect. I felt that if I showed them respect, they gave me respect back. And my attitude, honestly, as a pitcher, was the umpire didn\u2019t exist in my world. Whatever he called, that was the call. It was almost like ABS was back there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever he called, that was a call, and it was my job to move on to the next pitch, and so hopefully that\u2019s how a lot of our pitchers view it (now).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 Major League Baseball first defined a strike zone in the late 1880s, when the game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-630832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116252766352385802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630832","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=630832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}