FORT MYERS, Fla. — Harrison Bader watched a pitch from Erasmo Ramírez go by Thursday afternoon — a called strike from guest umpire Michael Cuddyer — and heard yells of “Challenge! Challenge!” from behind him.
The outfielder tapped the top of his helmet, triggering a graphic of Target Field to pop up on the Hammond Stadium scoreboard. On the graphic, a box popped up signifying the strike zone.
The location of Ramirez’s pitch was shown — it was just outside — and the call was overturned, eliciting cheers from the teammates that had encouraged him to challenge the call. Given new life, Bader hit the very next pitch out of the ballpark.
This is how the automated ball-strike challenge system works, and on Thursday, the Twins’ major leaguers got their first taste of it after years of usage in the minor leagues. Major League Baseball will be testing out the system in games this spring in anticipation of perhaps implementing it in the big leagues.
“I hate the fact that we’re going to really enjoy it this spring and then not going to have it this season,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “I think it’s really going to be good for us ’cause it’s not going to change the game drastically. It’s going to eliminate the big, egregious missed calls. It’ll be a fun new strategy.”
Manager Rocco Baldelli hasn’t gotten too far into thinking about strategy for the system because it’s not going to affect his team this season. But with exhibition games starting on Saturday, the Twins started preparing for it in live batting practice.
Each team will be given two challenges per game, but teams only lose them if they’re wrong. So, if a team always challenges correctly, it has as many as it wants. Only the batter, catcher and pitcher can initiate a challenge — signaled by tapping the hat or helmet — although the Twins suspect catchers and hitters will be the ones calling for it, rather than pitchers.
“I have zero career challenges,” said starting pitcher David Festa, who has seen the system in use in the minor leagues. “Just in case it’s a brutal challenge, I don’t want to feel like I’m begging out there. For me, also, kind of falling off (the mound), you kind get that weird side angle. With the catcher, I just let him handle that because he’s got the best view.”
Once a challenge of an umpire’s call is initiated, Hawk-Eye tracking technology will be displayed on the scoreboard, showing everyone in the ballpark a final ruling on the pitch.
Through its experimentation in the minor leagues, the league has found that a challenge takes about 17 seconds to complete.
“It’s coming and it’s coming soon, I believe, so yeah, I’ll be interested in watching how it plays out,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We should use this as a really good learning opportunity, get some time with a system that will be different. Guys will be wondering ‘Should I be challenging this? Should I not be?’ ”
There’s plenty of time for the Twins to get into who should challenge, when, in what situations and all the other strategy questions down the line. But should this go well, there’s chatter that it could be implemented at the major league level as soon as next season.
“You want to give the big league guys a full sample size of what it looks like before you throw it into every single game and you want to make sure you get it right,” Jeffers said. “I fully understand that. But I think we’re really going to like it. One day after using, we’re all in on it.”
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