Major League Baseball’s Joint Competition Committee  voted this week to bring the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System to the big leagues following several years of use in Minor League baseball, including in the Columbus Clippers’ games, and in MLB Spring Training and the All-Star Game this season.

“The previous rule changes that have been adopted by the Joint Competition Committee have had staying power and created momentum for the game,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We used the same process with ABS that started with listening to fans, conducting extensive testing at the Minor League level, and trying at every step to make the game better.”

During the first year of the two-year test period in Triple-A baseball, the International League, including the Clippers, used two “robot” balls-and-strikes strategies. In the first three days of a typical six-game series, the ABS called balls and strikes by transmitting its determination to the home plate umpire.

In the next three games of the series, teams were able to challenge the umpire’s call a limited number of times. This past season, the Clippers used only the challenge review. Once a player questioned the umpire’s call, the review was initiated with a graphic on the video board. It was almost always quickly shown and evaluated. This is the process that will be adopted by the MLB in 2026. 

Teams will get two challenges in each game with the ability to add a challenge in each extra inning if the team is out of challenges. The challenges can only be made by the pitcher, catcher, or batter and must be made immediately without assistance from the dugout. Teams only lose challenges if the umpire’s call is upheld.

Of course, there is a sponsor for the ABS system. The system will be “powered by T-Mobile” because it will run on a 5G private network from T-Mobile for Business’ Advanced Network Solutions.