Entering Week 3 of the ABS system: Which umpires, teams and players thrived and struggled

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Using info from taptochallenge.com, a site that uses Statcast data to track ABS developments, we can chronicle the system’s impact. The two umpires with the most challenges are Andy Fletcher and Mike Estabrook, with 17 and 12 calls challenged, respectively. Of those calls, Fletcher has had 15 overturned and Estabrook, 11. Here’s a look at the seven umpires with the highest overturn percentage among those who have been challenged at least five times. Some umpires fared well despite the added scrutiny. Will Little was one of them, with 10 challenges against him, but only one overturn. Jordan Baker has the second-most challenges (eight) initiated against him, with just two overturns. Here are the eight umpires with the lowest overturn percentage among those who have been challenged at least four times: The one call Little got wrong is number three in the following screenshot. It was initially ruled a ball before the catcher challenged: Seventy players have a 100 percent overturn rate, but only two (Dingler and Mark Vientos) have made more than two challenges. Dingler is the leader with eight. Four of those came in Sunday’s series finale against the Cardinals. In the table below are the top 13 players whose overturn rates are not 100 percent. Catchers once again make up the bulk of the list; only three of the players are not catchers (non-catchers highlighted in green). The Angels’ Logan O’Hoppe leads all players with 10 successful challenges. He was more aggressive in the last week, with eight challenges in the Angels’ three-game set against the Mariners this weekend. Seventy-four players have yet to win a challenge this season. However, many of those players have between one and two challenges. Only one player (Luis García Jr.) has made more than two challenges. The table below shows players who have won at least one challenge, but rank at the bottom for overall overturn rate. Among the 13 lowest-ranking players, seven are catchers (non-catchers highlighted in green). Chicago White Sox backstop Edgar Quero is baseball’s most aggressive player overall (13 challenges), but he makes this list. A week later, no team is perfect when it comes to ABS challenges and every team now has at least one challenge to its name. The Twins continue to be baseball’s most aggressive team when it comes to challenges, initiating a whopping 32. They made nine of them on Wednesday in a game against the Royals that featured 11 total challenges. They won eight. The Red Sox continue to be one of the teams with the fewest challenges. After finishing Opening Day weekend with eight challenges, the Red Sox added just five more to their ledger. Part of that is by design, with manager Alex Cora saying that he doesn’t want Boston “to be the team that challenges the most.” Instead, “we want to be the most efficient.” The Red Sox sit near the bottom of the pack in overturn rate. After witnessing the first ABS-related ejection of the year from the mound, Orioles pitcher Ryan Helsley was part of another notable ABS moment — what happens when you run out of challenges in a high-leverage situation. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T WANT TO RUN OUT OF CHALLENGES pic.twitter.com/HSt5WVH7N6 — Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 5, 2026 Trying to preserve a tie game and force extra innings, Helsley immediately tapped his head after a four-seam fastball that would’ve struck out Nick Yorke was called a ball. But the Orioles were already out of challenges, having burned one in the second inning and the other in the top of the ninth. Helsley was correct; the 99.1 mph offering (pitch seven in the above chart) was indeed a strike and should’ve resulted in the second out. Instead, play continued and Yorke smacked the next pitch for a walk-off double. Few players have been as unsuccessful at ABS challenges as Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who sits at 4-for-10. The AL MVP runner-up made waves with this challenge that wasn’t particularly close. [Highlight] Cal Raleigh challenges a called ball so far out of the zone that they don't even bother to show the distance byu/handlit33 inbaseball Though the numbers paint Raleigh as a bad decision-maker, the reality is far from that. Take, for instance, this challenge that was upheld on a ball that was outside by less than 0.1 of an inch. Mariners' Raleigh challenges the called ball. Call is confirmed by < 0.1 inch. byu/Dast_Kook inbaseball And this challenge against the New York Yankees’ Ben Rice on a ball that barely missed clipping the bottom of the strike zone. Raleigh is on the right track, which is what you’d expect from a catcher who finished last season in the 93rd percentile of framing. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Johnny Flores Jr. is a Senior Editor for The Athletic covering MLB. Johnny has covered baseball since 2018. Before joining The Athletic, Johnny was an Associate Editor at CBS Sports and Bleacher Report, as well as an Editorial Producer and Reporter at Major League Baseball’s MLB dot com. Johnny attended the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and originates from Coachella, CA.