Interesting ABS Challenge Results Revealed After Opening Day Weekend

MLB's new Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System made its regular-season debut on Opening Day last week, and after the first weekend of action the league released some early numbers that are pretty interesting.

Of the 175 challenges made across Opening Weekend, 54%

 were overturned. 

How the ABS Challenge System Works and Who's Using It

Each team starts every game with two challenges. 

If the challenge succeeds and the call is overturned, the team keeps the challenge. 

Lose it, and it's gone, unless the game goes to extras, when each team gets one additional challenge regardless of what happened in regulation. 

The ABS Challenge System Powered by @TMobile was used for the first time in regular season MLB games during Opening Week. Here is a refresher of the rules and statistics collected over the past 5 days:

Total challenges: 54% overturn rate (175 attempts)
Catchers: 64% overturn… pic.twitter.com/2n6DtT2Sc5

— MLB (@MLB) March 30, 2026

Only catchers, batters, and pitchers can call for a challenge, and the verdict comes back almost instantly via Hawk-Eye's high-speed camera technology, which tracks the ball with a margin of error of about one-sixth of an inch. 

Catchers have been the most aggressive and most successful users of the system so far, challenging 92 times with a 64% overturn rate. 

Batters challenged 78 times and succeeded 42% of the time. Pitchers have barely touched it, making just five challenges with a 40% success rate. 

The crowd reaction element is already exactly what the league hoped for, as the challenges have stadiums groaning or cheering based on what flashes on the video board.

Early Winners, Early Losers, and the Umpires Drawing the Most Attention

The New York Yankees have been the early standouts, going 10-for-11 on challenges through their first four games. 

In Monday's series opener against the Seattle Mariners, New York overturned five strike calls in the first four innings alone, including a Giancarlo Stanton challenge that showed a pitch missed the bottom of the zone by less than 0.1 inches. 

Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals went 4-for-4 on his challenges, the best rate among high-volume users, while J.T. Realmuto and Austin Wells were each perfect on three attempts. 

ABS Challenge Results So Far:
Batters 33-for-78 (42%)
Catchers 59-for-92 (64%)
Pitchers 2-for-5 (40%)

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 30, 2026

On the other end, the Houston Astros went 0-for-6 and the St. Louis Cardinals went 0-for-4, meaning both teams burned their challenges and got nothing in return. 

As for the umpires, Chad Whitson had all seven of his challenged calls overturned in a single game between the Yankees and San Francisco Giants.

C.B. Bucknor, who has been a lightning rod for criticism for years, had six of eight calls overturned, including a back-to-back challenge sequence from Eugenio Suarez against the Boston Red Sox that went viral almost immediately. 

The system has only been in place for five days and it's already producing some viral moments.

Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images