ABS Didn’t Kill Pitch Framing—It Made It Even More Dangerous

We are less than a full weekend into the 2026 MLB season and—shocker—the ABS challenge system is already doing exactly what everyone thought it would… plus a bunch of stuff nobody really saw coming.

And the biggest early takeaway?

C.B. Bucknor… buddy… it might be time to update the résumé. I’m not saying hang it up completely, but maybe a nice little side hustle. Something low stakes. Farmer’s markets. Beer league softball. Or umpiring Rockies games, because no one cares.

Because the ABS system has basically turned bad umpiring into a live-action roast, and Bucknor is putting up MVP numbers early.

A few things we thought would happen are already playing out. Catchers are winning challenges at a higher rate than pitchers—groundbreaking, I know. It’s almost like they’re staring directly at the pitch and receiving it instead of guessing from 60 feet, 6 inches away. Pitchers are out there challenging off vibes. “That felt like a strike” isn’t exactly a strong argument when there’s a robot waiting to prove you wrong.

Hitters, on the other hand, are clearly a little gun-shy. You only get a couple of failed challenges, and nobody wants to be that guy who burns one in the 5th inning on a pitch that “looked outside” just for replay to show it clipped the zone. Fast forward to the 9th when someone actually needs it and—whoops—it’s gone. That’s the kind of thing that gets remembered in a clubhouse.

What’s been really interesting is the added layer during at-bats. This isn’t just pitcher vs. hitter anymore. It’s pitcher vs. hitter with the catcher fully in the mix and a built-in decision-making mini game happening in real time. Every pitch now comes with a split-second internal debate: do I trust what I saw, do I trust the ump, and is this worth burning a challenge? It’s basically poker with pine tar.

On the flip side, some of the doom-and-gloom takes didn’t show up at all. Games aren’t slowing down. The system is quick, clean, and doesn’t mess with the pace like people feared. And if anyone thought this would reduce drama, they couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, it’s added fuel. Now you’ve got hitters not challenging obvious misses, teammates reacting, and umpires getting exposed in real time. MLB knew exactly what they were doing here—this is content.

And then there’s the big one people completely missed: catchers aren’t becoming less important. If anything, they just got more valuable.

Pitch framing didn’t die—it evolved. Before, framing influenced the umpire. Now it influences the hitter. A perfectly framed borderline pitch doesn’t just steal a strike—it plants doubt. The hitter might think it missed, but it looked good enough that he hesitates, decides not to challenge, and just like that, the at-bat shifts. That’s a win that doesn’t show up anywhere except in the pitcher and catcher’s pocket.

Now layer in the fact that hitters are limited on challenges and already hesitant to use them, and framing becomes even more valuable. It’s not just about getting the call anymore—it’s about preventing the challenge altogether. That’s a whole new edge.

Wouldn’t be surprising at all if this starts showing up in contracts. Catchers who can combine elite framing with strong challenge success rates are going to get paid. Baseball has always been about percentages, and now there’s a whole new category of them.

At the end of the day, the game didn’t get simpler—it got smarter. More strategy, more psychology, more moments where guys have to make split-second decisions that actually matter.

And of course, there will always be exceptions. Unless, of course, you’re Aaron Boone. Then we’re just winging it.