New MLB Rumors Reveal Umps 'Quietly Stewing' Over Being Held to 'Near-Impossible Standard' With ABS

Through the first two weeks of the 2026 MLB regular season and the new automated ball-strike challenge system, umpires are not happy about the standard by which they are being judged against.

Per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, some umpires are "quietly stewing" because of what they feel is the "near-impossible standard" they are now being judged by.

Since the MLB regular season started on March 25, there have been 653 challenges to date with 351 calls overturned (54 percent). Pitchers/catchers have been significantly better in challenging calls with a 59 percent success rate, compared to 48 percent for batters.

The ABS challenge system has been used in the minors since the 2022 season. It was adopted for use in MLB games for the first time this year.

Despite the technology allowing MLB to instantly determine a ball-strike call upon appeal, people in the league don't want to see it fully take over.

"I hope not," Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told USA Today's Bob Nighengale. "I think the human element is super important. I don't want to lose the catcher catching a close pitch and being frustrated, but not willing to challenge. That element of the game I think is important."

One benefit of the challenge system, as Hinch pointed out, is "benches are a lot quieter during the game" because there's less complaining directed toward the umpires.

Michael Hill, MLB's senior vice president of on-field operations, said in a statement to Rosenthal that umpire accuracy on ball-strike calls so far this season is at 93.5 percent, up from 92.7 percent through the same number of games in 2025.

Teams are given two challenges at the start of each game, with the ability to retain them if a contested call goes in favor of the challenging team. The current record for most challenges in a game is 11, between the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals on April 1. The Twins challenged nine calls, with eight being overturned.

Even though that's an extreme example, it is a case of the umpires not having much of a leg to stand on. If you're missing that many calls within the course of a game, the criticism is warranted.

This entire system is new to everyone and will take some getting used to, but like everything, over time it will become simpler. It might even work to a point that umps are more dialed in to what constitutes a ball and strike as defined by the MLB rulebook instead of the eye test.