David Lennon: All eyes on ABS as teams decide how to navigate new system

Three hours before Freddy Peralta’s first pitch on Opening Day, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was asked a familiar question. It was one he had fielded numerous times during spring training but soon would be acting upon for real.

Had the Mets put any regular-season rules in place for their deployment of the new automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system?

“We have some guidelines here,” Mendoza said. “I’m not going to get into details, obviously. But we used the six weeks in spring training to make sure that guys got plenty of reps — not only when we play games, but training environments — and we feel good with where we’re at.

“We told them to be aggressive at the beginning of camp, and then we started educating those guys as camp progressed. We got to go out there and we got to play baseball. I don’t want guys to be umpires or thinking about whether they’re going to call [the pitch] or not. That’s the bottom line here.”

And with that guidance, the Mets made history Thursday when Francisco Alvarez executed MLB’s first successful ABS challenge. With the Mets leading 5-2 in the third inning, the catcher questioned a full-count fastball to the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz that was called ball four by umpire Adrian Johnson. On review, the pitch easily clipped the inside edge of the zone by almost the entire width of the baseball, giving Peralta a huge K for the second out.

“I knew right away,” Peralta said. “I think that we were both on the same page. I was about to do it, too.”

That’s been the ABS conundrum from the jump: Should teams even allow their pitchers to challenge?

Plenty of pitchers already have said they won’t, Chris Sale and Sean Manaea among them, primarily because their vantage point isn’t as good as that of the guy behind the plate. Not only do pitchers have the multitude of moving parts, but they’re focusing on getting into a defensive position. The catchers actually have a more accurate view of the pitch than the umpires do.

The least qualified to challenge? Probably the batters. Case in point: Marcus Semien, who soon ruined the Mets’ perfect ABS record with a failed attempt in the eighth inning. Down 0-and-2 in the count, he took a slider at the top of the zone that was confirmed to be strike three.

It’s worth pointing out that the very first ABS challenge, which took place the previous night during the Yankees’ MLB opener against the Giants, also was a failed attempt by a hitter, Jose Caballero.

While manager Aaron Boone had suggested during spring training that it would be preferable to save the challenges for high-leverage situations, Caballero pulled the trigger on Logan Webb’s opening pitch of the fourth inning with the Yankees ahead 5-0. On review, the strike call was upheld as the fastball barely nicked the top inside corner of the zone. Two pitches later, Caballero grounded out.

“I wanted to go for it,” he told reporters. “I thought it was a little higher than what it showed, but at least it was close.”

Afterward, Boone said he didn’t have a problem with Caballero’s decision, but his leniency likely was due to the Yankees cruising to a 7-0 win. If that had been a tighter game, or if they had lost? Boone likely would have struck a different tone.

Caballero didn’t get the overturn, but his helmet was authenticated and shipped to Cooperstown for Hall of Fame posterity.

Obviously, the whole ABS system is going to be a work in progress and a very high-profile experiment, which has prompted MLB to set up its own publicly available data tracker at baseballsavant.com. It’s a helpful tool that is updated daily with success rates, broken down by positions and the players’ names.

Through Friday’s games, there had been a total of 60 challenges, with 58% of the calls overturned (35) — a resounding endorsement of the new system. The fielders (pitchers and catchers) were the most successful with a 63% overturn rate (25-for-40).

Only two pitchers — the Phillies’ Zach Pop and the Astros’ Roddery Munoz — had challenged calls, losing both bids.

On the catcher’s side, the White Sox’s Edgar Quero was the most prolific, going 3-for-4 on challenges. The Royals’ Salvador Perez was the best at 3-for-3.

The batters had it down to a coin flip with a 50% overturn rate (10-for-20), and none of them had challenged more than once.

On Friday, Aaron Judge joined the party in a big way. After letting a few questionable strikes go unchallenged in Wednesday’s opener, Judge tapped his helmet after a low 1-and-0 slider was called a strike by umpire Chad Fairchild. The call was overturned — by one-tenth of an inch, the tiniest measurable increment — and five pitches later, Judge hammered a two-run homer that broke a scoreless tie in the Yankees’ 3-0 victory over the Giants.

“I’m a hitter — I’ve got to focus on hitting,” Judge said. “I’m not going to try to challenge every single one I think is close. But if there’s a big spot where I think I’ve got a chance to flip the count, I’m going to do it.”

Throughout his career, the 6-7 Judge routinely has been victimized by called “strikes’’ on shin-high pitches, so it wasn’t shocking to see his first challenge involve one at the lower edge of the zone, even if by the smallest of fractions. But the margin doesn’t matter. The important thing is just being right.

Dodgers go back-to-back (again)

Despite the availability of every measurable stat in this age of analytics, popularity can be tough to quantify. Perhaps the best data to help determine such a thing is jersey sales, and it’s hardly surprising that Shohei Ohtani heads into this season as MLB’s champion in that category for the third straight year. These rankings, provided by MLB, take into account jersey sales since the end of the 2025 World Series, which probably helps explain why Yoshinobu Yamamoto sits in the No. 2 slot, marking the first time a pair of Japanese players have occupied the top two spots.

Pete Alonso and Nolan Arenado are the only two names on the list who changed teams this offseason, with the former Met signing a five-year, $155 million deal with the Orioles in mid-December. Switching jerseys probably helped boost Alonso’s status, as he was ranked No. 17 at the end of last year’s regular season. Aaron Judge was No. 2 before slipping below Yamamoto this winter.

1. Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

2. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers

3. Aaron Judge, Yankees

4. Cal Raleigh, Mariners

5. Mookie Betts, Dodgers

6. Nolan Arenado, Diamondbacks

7. Freddie Freeman, Dodgers

8. Pete Alonso, Orioles

9. Roman Anthony, Red Sox

10. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs

11. Kyle Schwarber, Phillies

12. Enrique Hernandez, Dodgers

13. Bryce Harper, Phillies

14. Juan Soto, Mets

15. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays

16. Francisco Lindor, Mets

17. Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta

18. Paul Skenes, Pirates

19. Josh Naylor, Mariners

20. Christian Yelich, Brewers

‘Terrific’ collection

The late Tom Seaver recently made headlines for the family auction that sold off a number of his baseball-related possessions, most notably his 1969 World Series ring ($854,122), a 1973 NLCS ring ($201,300) and a replica of his 1992 Baseball Hall of Fame induction plaque ($170,000).

But a large bulk of Seaver’s collection was donated to the Hall of Fame upon his passing in 2020, and those artifacts will be presented in a new display that will open in Cooperstown during the July 24-27 induction weekend, when Carlos Beltran, Jeff Kent and Andruw Jones will be enshrined.

Among the Seaver artifacts to be included:

1967 Rookie of the Year award

His three NL Cy Young Awards (1969, ’73 and ’75)

The baseball from his first MLB victory, a 6-1 win over the Cubs on April 20, 1967, and the one from his 3,500th career strikeout on Aug. 9, 1985

His Mets home jersey from the 1977 season

The knee pad worn to protect his right knee, which scraped the ground during his signature “drop-and-drive” delivery.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.