On Tuesday September 23, 2025, insider Jeff Passan reported the MLB will institute a challenge system for balls and strikes in the 2026 season, and one person who is likely not happy is San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey.
The system, otherwise known as the ABS system, has been tested across the minor leagues in recent years and was even utilized during 2025 Spring Training.
In the new system, home plate umpires will still be the judge of every ball and strike call, without the assistance of technology. However, each team will receive two challenges to dispute calls by the home plate umpire per game, in which case, the ump will defer to the ABS system.
If a challenge is successful, the disputing team will retain that challenge. So theoretically, a team could challenge pitches an unlimited number of times in a game, if they keep getting it right. But every time a challenge is unsuccessful, the challenging team spends it.
The reason why Patrick Bailey is probably unhappy about this is because it renders his framing abilities less important. Framing means making borderline pitches/pitches outside of the zone look like strikes to umpires.
“It takes a lot off my plate in a bad way,” Bailey said back in July (h/t SF Standard). “I think it takes a lot of value from the catching position that’s already, in my opinion, pretty undervalued. So, yeah, I think you’re going to see a lot of catchers out of baseball with the ABS.”
Bailey is one of the most valuable defenders in the MLB, and will likely win his second consecutive Gold Glove in 2025.
But since batters can now challenge his framed pitches, Bailey will likely steal significantly less strikes for the Giants’ pitching staff.
It Could Be Worse For Bailey
To be fair, this isn’t the worst news for Bailey. Robot umps will not call every pitch, so Bailey’s framing ability will still matter. Getting the initial strike call from the umpire is still important and, since challenges will come at a premium, if he makes the pitch look like a strike to opposing teams, they may decide not to challenge certain borderline pitches.
Bailey’s framing ability also shows that he knows the strike zone. And as the catcher, he also now has the ability to challenge pitches that he thinks are strikes that the umpire calls a ball.
So while he may not be able to steal strikes the way he used to, he definitely could prevent the opposing team from getting free balls.
He’s also still a valuable defender outside of just pitch framing. His ability to catch runners stealing and his pitch blocking have also proven to be very valuable for the Giants.
So it’s not like, in the wake of this news, the Giants are going to cut him loose later today or Bailey’s career is over or anything like that. He’s still going to have a spot on the Giants’ roster in 2026, barring some major changes in free agency or on the trade market, in which case another MLB team will certainly pick him up.
News Makes Another Giants Move More Interesting
On Monday September 23, 2025, the Giants brought catcher Jesus Rodriguez to San Francisco. They didn’t add him to the active roster, but they did give him a task: to observe and learn ahead of the 2026 season.
That seemed like the writing on the wall for Giants backup catcher Andrew Knizner, who will be a free agent at the end of the season.
But could the Giants have also been preparing for the ABS system news?
Bailey is a much better catcher than Rodriguez but Rodriguez has been tearing up the minor leagues with his bat. This season, he has hit .307 with 7 home runs and 59 RBI. He has also never hit worse than .294 in his 6 minor league seasons, and has a .309 career batting average.
He’s the kind of backup who could seriously threaten Bailey’s playing time next season, especially against left-handed pitching. Bailey’s defensive impact is the one thing that could get him the lion’s share of reps over Rodriguez, but if his defensive impact shrinks due to ABS, his bat could be seen as even more of a liability.
What do you think, Giants fans? Can Patrick Bailey adjust to this new era of baseball?