The Pirates have struggled with ABS. How can they get better?

PITTSBURGH -- As a new installation in Major League Baseball, every team is figuring out how to use the Automated Ball-Strike system to its advantage. Yet only the Pirates rank in the bottom three for challenge percentage both behind the plate and in the batter’s box.

Seventy-five games into 2026, Pittsburgh ranks 30th in both successful challenges from the hitting side (36%) and as the fielding team (46%), tallying an overall 55-for-137 mark. Players receive a scatterplot report of the previous day's metrics to their phone daily. But how else can Pittsburgh turn the tide and make ABS more of a competitive asset?

“Whether it's the second inning or the seventh inning, it can totally flip an at-bat and impact the game,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “...The only way they're going to learn is to go for it, use it.”

Pitching coach Bill Murphy told MLB.com that the club prefers, like many organizations, that its pitchers don’t challenge. Pirates pitchers have challenged eight times, winning only once.

Murphy said one challenge for his catchers is the pitch velocity they’re dealing with. The Pirates’ staff ranks second in the Majors with an average pitch velocity of 91.2 mph.

Earlier this month, Pirates catchers practiced with the system during early work before a game, using the ABS on the Jumbotron.

“You're starting to see people evolve and do a number of different things,” Murphy said. “At the beginning of the year, I think the hitters had the advantage, especially young hitters, because they've come up through it. But I think we're at a tipping point now where pitchers are able to do some things, catchers are able to do some things, and I think the advantage that one may have had at the beginning of the year will be mitigated to a degree.”

The Pirates’ lineup is filled with experienced veterans, like Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn, who saw ABS coming to the Majors since iPads began being used in dugouts. Others, like leadoff man Spencer Horwitz, experienced it for themselves in the Minor Leagues.

When introducing the system to its players in Spring Training, Pittsburgh led multiple classroom sessions where the hitting department showed each player their strike zone. Horwitz estimates his strike zone has changed three different times across the last few years, and Lowe said his strike zone is lower at the top of the zone now than ever before.

Horwitz, who is 2-for-9 on challenges, feels the approach to improving is similar to talking about the opponent -- simply using word of mouth in-game to understand the zone. Other hitters, like Nick Gonzales, feel you must follow your intuition.

“I've been in the situation where you really want to challenge, but you're scared, and you don't,” Gonzales said. “Just trusting your gut and trusting your instincts.”

As 2026 rolls on, players continue to grapple with the right strategy to efficiently and successfully use their two challenges. When learning the system in Spring Training, O’Hearn’s main question was the importance of a challenge available in the late inning.

Multiple Pirates batters see the importance of being more cautious of early-game usage to ensure there is a challenge available for their catcher later in the game. O’Hearn, who is 5-for-11 on challenges, said if he’s convinced the call was wrong, he’ll go for it. Otherwise, he prefers to wait for a full count or when runners are in scoring position.

Other batters, like Bryan Reynolds and Marcell Ozuna, are more inclined to use the challenge, using it a team-leading 15 and 14 times each, respectively. One strategy is for certain with the Pirates: Use them.

“If you finish the game with two challenges, what's the point? It doesn't give you an award. You don't roll over them for the next day,” Horwitz said. “You should 100% at least use both of them during the game, whether it's the seventh inning, first inning or ninth inning.”

In looking for answers, Pittsburgh’s hitters are leaning on its analytics department. The Pirates are taking deeper dives into where pitches are being called strikes, and more specifically, which pitches, for each pitcher.

“It's a new rule with a lot of different variables,” Lowe said. “It’s just trying to work out the kinks.”