I’m writing this before the Yankees take on the Rangers Monday night, so it’s subject to change, but at this moment Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the worst player in baseball when it comes to the ABS challenge system. His 14 percent success rate is the lowest in the sport, and this weekend against the Astros we saw two dreadful examples.
The first one annoyed me — it’s an eight-run game in the ninth inning, this is about as close to stat-padding as you get in baseball. The second failed challenge is somewhat
offset by the fact that Jazz notched a single a couple of pitches later, but challenges are limited; once you fail you can’t use it again. Chisholm took away a potential review from another player on a call that wasn’t close.
I think Jazz is a pretty good player but it is perhaps time to concede that a guy with a near-20 percent career K-BB rate doesn’t have a great understanding of the zone. Chisholm makes his money by getting his A-swing off and hitting the ball into the gap, not by owning the strike zone the way a Juan Soto-type would. Suffice it to say, Jazz doesn’t get to challenge except in the most obvious of circumstances.
Chisholm isn’t the only guy that’s hurting the team on the review side of things though. The Yankees sit a tick below league average (47 percent) at hitter-induced challenges at 44 percent, and bang on league average on fielder-induced at 59 percent. For a team that has preached strike zone ownership for about as long as I’ve been alive, they’re sure not making any gains in this part of the game.
Four players have been a net positive in the challenge system, with Aaron Judge of course leading the way. The Yankee captain is 3-for-4 with reviews this year, and you could argue that the three-time MVP has been more cautious than he should be. Then again, he has won three MVPs without the challenge system, so while I’m sure he has the greenlight to review any pitch he deems necessary, it might just end up not being a part of his game.
Ryan McMahon and Trent Grisham have gone a combined 5-for-7 so far this year, and if Aaron Judge has a big, emerald-green flag, they have something that’s slightly paler but still very clearly a go. In general, I think challenges should be reserved for times there are men on base, the first pitch of the at-bat, or a potential final pitch. McMahon and Grisham can go outside that band slightly, but not wildly.
Then we have a middle grouping, of guys that have been neutral to slightly bad — the yellow lights. This includes Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton, and José Caballero, the latter of which has called for 10 reviews, the most on the team. I tend to think that Cabby does this as a bit of gamesmanship, in the same way that he refuses to engage the pitcher until the eight-second required mark. Still, these three guys have to sit within tight parameters like discussed above, but as long as they stick to ‘em, they can tap their helmets.
Then there’s the dunce caps. Ben Rice, Austin Wells, Cody Bellinger, and Chisholm have actively cost the team runs with their challenge attempts. They’ve combined to go 3-for-13, which would be a pretty cold weekend series at the plate, and is even worse off when it comes to challenging balls and strikes. For now, unless there’s a deeply egregious call or the entire game can change on the result — a Rob Refsnyder-esque situation — these guys should focus on getting the bat on the ball more than anything else.
