NEW YORK — The Athletics had the highest success rate using the automated ball-strike system to overturn ball/strike calls during the first 10 days of spring training, winning 69.2% of challenges as teams prepared for its regular-season debut March 25.
The San Francisco Giants were second at 66.7%, followed by the Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres at 61.9% each, Major League Baseball said Monday.
The World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers had the lowest rate, winning 21.4% of ABS appeals. The Baltimore Orioles were at 25%, the New York Mets at 35.3% and Texas Rangers at 38.1%.
MLB’s overall success rate was 51.3%, with an average of 2.3 challenges per game.
The New York Yankees averaged the most challenges at 3.8 per game, winning 52.6%. The Minnesota Twins were second at 3.6 (winning 58.3%), followed by the Boston Red Sox at 3.2 (55.2%) and Colorado Rockies (55.6%) and San Francisco at 3.0.
Baltimore averaged the fewest challenges at 1.2. The Dodgers were at 1.4 and the Detroit Tigers were at 1.5 (46.7%).
MLB experimented with ABS during spring training last year and teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182). MLB began testing in the minor leagues in 2019.
Each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews, which were first used for home run calls in August 2008 and widely expanded to many calls for the 2014 season.
A team out of challenges for a game tied after nine innings would get one additional challenge in each extra inning.
