In the years since televised broadcasts of baseball games there has been constant pining for the ability to overturn poorly umpired ball/strike calls. Nothing’s worse than seeing a pitcher paint a corner
perfectly only for an ump to call it a ball in a critical moment except, perhaps, watching a batter with a keen eye take a pitch that’s clearly out of the zone only to be called out on strikes.
Major League Baseball has listened, and chosen to fix that problem…somewhat.
Today MLB announced that there will be a complicated challenge system put in place for the 2026 season, the details of which are listed in the below tweet.
Cool! Now there surely won’t be any problems making sure bad calls are overturned in big moments, right?
Right?!
Not exactly. Teams are limited to two challenges per game, though they can keep them if successful. The most important caveats, though, are that all challenges must be initiated immediately by the pitcher, catcher, or batter without the help of the dugout or other players, meaning players who feel wronged in the heat of the moment have all the challenge decisions to themselves.
So, if there’s a questionable zone early on and players choose to challenge calls, they damn well better be accurate in their own assessment of the zone lest they burn those challenges and render their teammates unable to challenge later in perhaps a bigger, more high-leverage spot. Teams will get an extra challenge in extra innings, however, but the limitations put in place by this are clearly designed to tip-toe the line between actually fixing the problem of bad calls and not bogging the game down (and slowing the pace of play) by granting players a greater number of challenge opportunities.
It’s a positive step, I’d opine. It doesn’t solve the problem of bad umpiring, but it’s a step. What will be interesting, though, is how quickly an umpire, batter, or pitcher getting egg on their face after a ill-fated challenge turns things into more of a quagmire, something that surely will happen at some juncture (read: immediately).
