Major League Baseball announced this week that it will move to the new automated ball-strike system (ABS) in 2026. This is a monumental shift in baseball and will take away the egregious calls by human umpires in favor of allowing hitters/pitchers/catchers to make challenges on questionable calls.
With the new decision, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked about the challenge system and his thoughts on the upcoming rule change.
Yankees' Aaron Boone shares thoughts on ABS
Per Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News, Aaron Boone had this to say about ABS:
"'Hopefully it's something that is a good thing for Major League Baseball,' Aaron Boone said of ABS," Phillips wrote. "He reiterated that he’s 'not totally on board with it,' but he said the league has implemented a lot 'really successful' changes in recent years. Boone doesn’t think it will have a huge impact on catcher framing, and he hopes it's something that gets Aaron Judge a few pitches a year."
Human umpires will still be central to the game, but it's time for change in Major League Baseball, as too many games are decided by umpires not being able to call balls/strikes as they should be.
While Boone may not be totally on board with it, this is a good change for MLB, and the consensus amongst many baseball fans is that it's necessary for the game. And Boone is a guy who enjoys getting thrown out of meaningful games early on in the game, and this hinders his ability to do that.
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