8 MLB Players Who Should Have ABS Privileges Revoked
Even if only about a quarter of the 2026 MLB season is in the books, it's not too soon to say that the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System has changed the game for the better.
And yes, that's even with some players proving to be shockingly bad at using it to their advantage.
For research purposes and for plain ol' kicks and giggles, we're going to look more closely at eight players who should already have their ABS privileges revoked. Call it well-deserved punishment on account of how many challenges they've gotten wrong, and how.
We'll start with one pitcher before moving on to two catchers and five hitters.
LHP Gregory Soto, Pittsburgh Pirates
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ABS Claim to Infamy
There are only two pitchers who have challenged as many as three ball/strike calls. One of them is New York Yankees ace Max Fried, who's a respectable 2-for-3.
The other is Gregory Soto, who is 0-for-3. It's not a flattering comparison just on the surface, and that's before you consider that Soto has thrown [shifts some beads around on the abacus] 564 fewer pitches than Fried has.
What's Really Going On
Pitchers of all stripes should be using the ABS system only sparingly, if at all. Despite their bird's-eye view of the strike zone, their 37 percent success rate hints at either collective blindness or collective bias.
It's inexplicable that any relief pitcher would already have three challenges on the year, and one would hope that Soto has learned his lesson by now. Not one of his three challenges was after a pitch that was particularly close, with one even drawing a seemingly sarcastic smile from former Pirate Andrew McCutchen.
C Samuel Basallo, Baltimore Orioles
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ABS Claim to Infamy
It's not the total number of challenges Samuel Basallo has lost that's the problem here. He's only lost 10 from behind the plate, whereas 11 catchers have lost more.
Baseball Savant does track reasonable challenges for catchers, however, and that's where Basallo stands apart. Out of 65 chances to make such a challenge, he's gone for only seven. That's an 11 percent conversion that ranks last among catchers with at least 60 reasonable challenge chances.
What's Really Going On
Granted, including Basallo in this list on these grounds arguably goes against the whole conceit. If it's mainly reasonable opportunities he's whiffing on, the Orioles should want him challenging more calls, no?
It's not a bad argument, but it crashes into the reality Basallo just doesn't seem to have a good eye for the strike zone, period. The 10 challenges he's lost are all over the proverbial map, with the most egregious being a splitter that could have hit Chase DeLauter in the shin if it had been more inside.
C Edgar Quero, Chicago White Sox
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ABS Claim to Infamy
As bad as Samuel Basallo is at using the ABS, his actual overturn vs. expected overturn ratio is only -6.0 pitches. And that "only" is necessary because Edgar Quero is at -9.3, easily the worst among all catchers.
And this is even though he's done Basallo more than one better on reasonable challenges, taking 25 out of 77 chances to do so. As such, you probably know where this is going.
What's Really Going On
Yeah, Quero just plain makes bad challenges. Out of the 42 total challenges he's issued, he's won 18 and lost 24. No other catcher has lost more than 20.
Quero does seem to have a good sense of the width of the strike zone on his glove (i.e., left) side, as he's lost only one challenge in that vicinity. His challenge record is otherwise a smorgasbord of egregious misses. At one point, he even challenged a fastball that made Chandler Simpson do a Matrix-style evasion.
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CF Dane Myers, Cincinnati Reds
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ABS Claim to Infamy
Dane Myers is 1-for-6 on challenges so far in 2026. It's not a good rate, with really the only saving grace for him being that 10 hitters have had more calls than that overturned.
The real problem is how many challenges Myers has lost in the heart of the strike zone. He has three of those already, whereas no other hitter has more than two.
What's Really Going On
You can make the case that hitters like Myers should not have ABS privileges to begin with. He's a career .244 hitter with an 81 OPS+, so he's not exactly in The Show because of his bat.
But if the Reds don't want to have that talk with him, they can at least make it clear to Myers where his knees are. The three challenges he's lost in the heart of the strike zone have all been at the bottom, with all three resulting in the embarrassment of the whole baseball catching the ABS zone.
INF/OF Mauricio Dubón, Atlanta Braves
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ABS Claim to Infamy
Even though he has a solid 111 OPS+ this year, Mauricio Dubón is another guy whose ABS privileges should be limited, if not altogether nonexistent. He only has an 87 OPS+ for his career.
As it is, he's at -3.9 pitches for expected vs. actual overturns. Only one hitter has done worse—and don't worry, we'll be getting to him in a minute.
What's Really Going On
As with Samuel Basallo on the catching side, the frustrating thing at play here is that Dubón actually has gotten a fair number of good excuses to challenge. Yet out of 18 reasonable chances to challenge, he's taken only four.
That he's just 2-for-8 on challenges therefore tells you that he's made too many unreasonable challenges. He has a bit of a blind spot on the inner half of the zone, even if you have to hand it to him that the one slider from Taylor Clarke could have fooled anyone.
DH Gary Sánchez, Milwaukee Brewers
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ABS Claim to Infamy
Gary Sánchez isn't quite an everyday player for the Brewers. He's played in only 26 of their 37 games, and has yet to log even 100 plate appearances.
And as such, he's not the guy you'd expect to find leading all hitters with 14 challenges so far. And the bulk of those (eight, to be exact) have been unsuccessful.
What's Really Going On
If one is going to defend Sánchez as a serial challenger, one supposes there is his catching background. Catchers know the zone better than anyone on the field, and he still catches even though he mostly sees action at DH.
As a hitter, though, Sánchez needs to work on his depth perception. All but one of his 14 challenges has been against a pitch around the outer edge of the plate, and those account for seven of his eight losses.
1B Nolan Schanuel, Los Angeles Angels
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ABS Claim to Infamy
There are only seven batters who have made as many as 11 challenges. Gary Sánchez is obviously one of them, though he's not the only one of the bunch to lose eight challenges.
The other is Nolan Schanuel, who is only 3-for-11 on his challenges. In terms of actual overturns vs. expected overturns, only Mauricio Dubón and one other hitter (again, we'll get to him) have done worse.
What's Really Going On
To be fair to Schanuel for a second, he actually knows the strike zone better than most. He's walked in 10.7 percent of his career plate appearances, typically ranking in the top quartile among all hitters for walk rate.
Perhaps because of new player measurements, however, his sense of his own strike zone has clearly been thrown for a loop. His walk rate is down to just 6.3 percent, and his lost challenges are concentrated mainly around the bottom of the zone.
RF James Wood, Washington Nationals
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ABS Claim to Infamy
There's only one hitter whose actual vs. expected overturn rate on challenges is below the -4 threshold. That hitter is James Wood, and he's way below that threshold at -4.8.
Perhaps he's challenged "only" nine calls, but he's been right on only one of those. And that one successful challenge is out of 16 reasonable chances to use the ABS system, so his sense of his own strike zone is clearly out of whack.
What's Really Going On
Here's where we find another good excuse to play defense. Far from some normal strike zone, Wood's is huge by way of his 6'6" stature. Even Aaron Judge needed time to master his big strike zone, and he has eight years of experience on Wood.
The catch, though, is that Wood's challenges show a guy struggling not with the height of his zone, but with the width of it. That's the part that's the same for everyone, and thus the part he shouldn't be struggling with.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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