Paul Articulates - Challenges to the leadership

Way back before the 2026 season started, I wrote a piece (find it here) to talk about the rule changes that were to be implemented this year.  Of those rule changes, the most intriguing was the introduction of the Automated Ball Strike (ABS) system.  It had been tried in the minors, and with some refinements it would be brought to MLB.

This year, each team is allowed two unsuccessful pitch challenges per game (1 more awarded in extra innings).  If challenges are successful, it does not reduce the two.  These challenges can be issued by the pitcher, catcher, or batter.

The key point in that article was that MLB clubs would need to develop strategies to deal with the ABS.  Since teams would only get two incorrect challenges per game, the cost of using a challenge and failing is high if they are used two early.  Therefore, deciding who can challenge and when they can challenge would need to be clearly communicated to the team.

I don't see much evidence that the Mets have developed and implemented such strategies.  It seems like every batter has the discretion to use a challenge when they feel it is warranted.  We have seen batters unsuccessfully use challenges in the early innings much too often.  This puts the team at a disadvantage in the later innings when a challenge is needed in a high leverage situation but none is left.

As evidence, I present this table from Baseball Savant, which shows that fourteen different Mets batters have challenged pitches so far this year, with less than a 50% success rate.  That puts the team at a disadvantage, and the coaching staff should be laying down some rules.  Yet we see that Marcus Semien was allowed to challenge a dozen times with a very poor 42% success rate.  Are they afraid to pull a veteran player aside and ask him to trust the umps for the good of the team?  In a team that seems to be dominated by analytical judgements there is no one pointing out that we are hurting ourselves?

This is a struggling team that is still looking for some momentum.  They must take advantage of every opportunity to try to tilt the scales and here is one staring them in the face.

As a team, the Mets are a mediocre 13th in successful challenges from the batters' box even though there were only 8 teams in MLB that have challenged more.  I look to Carlos Mendoza as the person that needs to control this by putting more restrictions on who can challenge and when.  Personally, I only trust Juan Soto and AJ Ewing to have a good enough understanding of the strike zone have free reign to challenge.  The rest should be limited to high leverage situations where the difference between strike and ball may influence the outcome of the game.

Defensively, the Mets have fared a little better.  Catchers have challenged 77 calls with a 53% success rate.  Luis Torrens has had the most success with a 56% rate on his 41 challenges.  Pitchers have only challenged 6 times (4 successful), which is what a disciplined team would expect.  Pitchers have the worst vantage point to see where a pitch would cross the plate since they have no side angle to measure depth.

Overall, the Mets rank 20th of 30 teams in successful ABS challenges.  I see this as opportunity lost.  I see it as a leadership failure to understand the effectiveness of individual players and control how the challenges are used.  It is not unlike the allowance of undisciplined at-bats with runners in scoring position - if players are not being coached to improve their performance in these areas then it is not reasonable for us to expect things to get better.