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The 2026 MLB season is officially underway, but not without one of the biggest changes in sports history.
After a century and a half of the complete human element behind the plate, batters, catchers and pitchers will now have the ability to contest balls and strikes. The challenge should be almost immediate, and each team receives two and keeps the good challenges.
Baseball Hall of Famer CC Sabathia once predicted that someone would hit .400 if there was a fully automated strike zone. Although baseball isn’t there yet, the 250-game winner believes an increase in offense will come.
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The scoreboard displays an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge sponsored by T-Mobile during the spring training game between the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 16, 2026 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photos by Mark Cunningham/MLB via Getty Images)
“If you just watch the games, you see how much these guys know the strike zone and the pitchers have to actually throw the ball over home plate,” the New York Yankees legend said in a recent interview with PK Press Club Digital. “I think it will increase the offense. Just watching these games in spring training and seeing how much these guys really know the strike zone. I think it can only help on offense, and honestly make all the calls good.”
With the system, however, the art of pitching is being adjusted. To begin with, pitches must be strikes, and breaking balls from home plate may not go the pitcher’s way.
But several pitchers took advantage of throwing curveballs at the top of the zone, an unorthodox pitch that would normally be called a ball due to an odd angle combined with human error, but the ABS system could allow their strikes.
Sabathia, showing his bias, admitted that he probably would have left the challenge to his catcher, but added that he would have had to adapt to the system.
New York Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia (pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first inning at Yankee Stadium. (Andy Marlin/USA TODAY Sports)
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“I would have just wanted to make sure my backdoor slider was on the plate and it was a strike. It would have been a little bit of an adjustment for me, but I always wanted to make sure the calls were going correctly,” he said. “We were getting the right calls every time, so I wouldn’t have had any issues with ABS.”
This is a major change in baseball, which has undergone several rebuilds. Perhaps none before the ABS system has been bigger than the pitch clock. And while it’s a thorn in the side of baseball purists, Sabathia is a big fan.
“It’s been huge to get the guys out of the stadium, to get the fans back into the stadium during the week, during the school year, because you know the game is going to end in two and a half hours. It’s made a huge difference, not only in the gameplay and the speed of the game, but also in the way the fans can watch it and digest it. I would watch two games at a time, now I don’t, because you can kind of miss something. I really like the way the game is going now, the way the guys are keeping pace, no one is complaining about the clock, it’s a natural thing now.
New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia waves to fans during his ceremony before the game between the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. (Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports)
The ABS system was implemented during last year’s spring training after years of experimentation in the minor leagues and Arizona Fall League.
The rule changes, which began in 2023, have proven beneficial for MLB as attendance has increased in each of the last three years, with first attendance increasing in consecutive seasons since it occurred in four consecutive years from 2004 to 2007. It is also worth noting that there has been an increase in single-admission doubleheaders and that last season two teams played in league ballparks minor.
