PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Throughout Florida and Arizona, players are working to adjust to Major League Baseball’s Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System, which will debut this season.
While ABS offers a modern solution to correct calls, Juan Soto and Nolan McLean have apparently figured out an alternative method: a little game of Rochambeau.
When McLean and Soto disagreed on a call during live batting-practice session Friday, they engaged in a quick game of rock-paper-scissors. Soto won the contest, earning a ball on a pitch that could have gone either way.
“First time for everything,” Soto said, letting out a big laugh as he spoke about it.
The exchange happened organically. When McLean threw a fastball to Soto, umpire J.P. Arencibia initially called a ball inside. McLean threw his hands up and challenged, but no clear resolution came from the dugout. Rather than belabor the issue, Soto stepped toward McLean, extended his fist and shook it downwards once: the universal symbol for Rochambeau. McLean grinned and engaged with Soto, who let out a yelp as he won the exchange.
“That’s my first one,” McLean said afterward. “I’ve got to work on my game, I guess, rock-paper-scissors.”
The sequence highlighted a roughly 10-pitch at-bat in which McLean threw Soto nothing but fastballs. Although Soto ultimately grounded out to end the at-bat, he did take McLean to the warning track with a fly ball in a previous plate appearance.
“He was like, ‘Man, I was waiting on some kind of spin, and you never threw it to me,’” McLean said of the latter at-bat. “I guess I was playing a little bit of mind games with him. It was a lot of fun.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza described both McLean and Soto as ultimate competitors -- the types of players who take live batting practice in mid-February extremely seriously. That goes for the at-bats themselves, as well as their unorthodox ways of settling them.
“It was for sure on there,” McLean said of the pitch in question. “Juan’s got pretty good eyes though, so I’ll take his word for it.”