The 2025 Major League Baseball season is on the way as spring training has begun and players have been getting back on the field.
After an exciting 2024 season, the 2025 campaign hopes to bring the same kind of energy.
MLB has implemented plenty of rule changes in recent years, including the pitch clock, bigger bases and limiting mound visits, and this year brings yet another change.
The automated ball-strike challenge system, or ABS, will go through a test run in spring training to see how it goes.
MLB insider Ken Rosenthal revealed when the ABS could be in big league ballparks.
“You have to give 45 days’ notice to implement a rules change. It used to be a year. … You’re not going to implement this thing in the middle of the season,” Rosenthal said, via Foul Territory.
.@Ken_Rosenthal & @alannarizzo discuss the new ABS system which is coming to spring training ballparks, and could be in MLB ballparks as soon as 2026. pic.twitter.com/HnOnlYEGWP
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) February 20, 2025
While Rosenthal doesn’t say that the new system could be used in the 2026 regular season, he does say the 2025 season is out of the question.
If the ABS goes smoothly in spring training and the tweaks that need to be made get made, then fans could potentially see it implemented as soon as 2026.
Rosenthal also mentions that he is curious to see what other things the new rule would bring that people might not be aware of at this point.
He gives an example of replay being intended to make corrections on outrageous calls, but it now has been used to call out runners if they come off of the base for a split second.
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