Latest MLB rule change could be a nightmare for SF Giants catcher Patrick Bailey

MLB has announced that beginning next season, the ABS (automatic ball-strike) Challenge System is going to be implemented for all games. This could be bad news for SF Giants catcher Patrick Bailey who is the best pitch framer in baseball.

According to advanced statistics, Bailey is far and away the best pitch framer in baseball. No one is better at making a borderline pitch look like a strike and that value could be taken away, or at least limited, since now batters will be able to challenge strike calls.

SF Giants could get burned by new MLB ABS Challenge System

MLB experimented with this system in spring training this year at select ballparks. There will still be umpires behind the plate, but under this new system either the pitcher, catcher, or batter can initiate a challenge and each team gets two challenges per game and retains the challenge if they are successful.

This is better than if the home plate umpire was taken out of the equation entirely with a fully automated ball-strike system because pitch framers like Bailey will still be able to frame pitches and get strikes with the way they catch the pitch if a team is out of challenges or maybe if it is early in a game and a team does not want to burn a challenge.

Bailey himself said he is not a fan of the ABS system. Plenty of other catchers who thrive on being pitch framers probably feel the same way even though this does not completely take away their ability to frame, it may just limit it to a certain extent.

Since Bailey came into the league in 2023, no one has been better at framing pitchers. No matter where the pitch is in the zone, what type of pitch, or whether it comes to ensuring a pitch in the zone is accurately called a strike or getting pitches outside the zone called a strike, he is the best and is incredibly elite. Given his offensive limitations, even though he has been better at the dish as of late, his value really comes from his defense so it is understandable why he will not be thrilled by this change.

Perhaps there could be some positives though since Bailey himself will be able to challenge pitches. Even with how good he is at framing, there are still pitches that should be strikes that umpires call a ball so with Bailey's supreme knowledge of the strike zone behind home plate he could still get pitchers extra strikes by successfully challenging pitches called a ball.

We will see how this all plays out once the system is implemented next year, but at first glance it seems like the ABS system will probably be a net negative for Bailey and the Giants.

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