Rangers and Rays series is out to show why the ABS system is necessary

The Automatic Balls and Strikes challenging system is a practice that involves replaying calls on the field to assess whether the pitch was in the zone or not with either the pitcher or batter being able to challenge the call on the field.

Rob Manfred seems to be on a mission to get this in as soon as possible. We got a glimpse at how it would work in spring training to mixed player and fan results.

If Laz Diaz was attempting to show why the ABS challenging system was necessary, he did his job very well. This series against the Rays featured probably the worst strike 3 call in MLB history.

The timing of this couldn't have been better or worse with this depending on which side of the systems implementation you are on. Evan Drellich of The Athletic has reported that Rob Manfred officially be proposing the implementation of the ABS system this offseason and it is likely to arrive in 2026.

The calls in this Rays and Rangers series were questionable to put it lightly. With 1 out and nobody on in the bottom of the 4th, Jake Mangum took a 1-2 count slider from Tyler Mahle and had arguably the worst called strike 3 in baseball history go against him.

The call benefitted the Rangers that needed more calls in their favor after an abysmal May. This call was similar to the one in 2013 vs the Rays that got Joe Nathan his 300th career save as well.

There is no reason for a called strike over half a foot off the plate to be a strike. Once the technology was implemented at any level it was really only a matter of time before it was implemented at the MLB level.

Baseball is a game entrenched in tradition. Adding technology that could add even more delays similar to instant replay can be seen as a detriment by diehard fans.

Slowing games down goes against the new initiative by the MLB attempting to get games going as fast as possible. This does seem like it may be rushed but we won't really know how it works until we see it in the regular season or playoffs.

Players like Jake Mangum don't deserve to put in all this prep work to execute correctly just for guys like Laz Diaz to take the bat out of their hand. This system could benefit or hurt any team any night but calls like these should have a way to be overturned if possible.

It will be interesting to see the pace of when this system gets implemented considering there were recent reports of 2027 being the start date for its implementation. With the calls we saw all series this week, it would not be shocking to see it start as soon as next year as Evan reported.

Monitoring the updates regarding the system and the MLB and MLBPA debates of its existence will be an ongoing story. It would be shocking to not see it next year.