GOODYEAR, Ariz. – He may squat for a living, but catcher P.J. Higgins stands tall above all others at his position for knowing the strike zone and utilizing the automatic balls and strikes challenge system the best.
While Major League Baseball is allowing hitters, pitchers and catchers to use ABS challenges in 2026, the system was utilized in Triple-A full time last season and part-time in 2024. Higgins, who has been with the Reds' affiliate at Louisville the past two seasons, appeared to master not only how to use it but when to use it.
“I use it based more off strategy as opposed to just using it to use it," said Higgins, who is in Reds big league camp as a non-roster invitee. "I’ve been telling a lot of guys the game will dictate when I’ll use it, the situations especially later in the game in the most important innings. I use it more defensively than offensively."
According to Statcast data of ABS challenges in 2025, Louisville ranked first among Triple-A teams in fielding-team challenge success rate, being correct 68 percent of the time. A big reason for that success was Higgins.
On challenges when Higgins was behind the plate, he had a 48-14 record -- a 77 percent success rate. A number of the other catchers in the league were in the 50 percent range.
“It’s huge," Louisville manager Pat Kelly said of Higgins. "You can turn around some big counts sometimes. I always say 1-1 is probably the most important count. If you can go from 2-1 to 1-2, it’s huge. P.J. just has a knack for it, a really good vision, a good idea of what the zone is. I think it’s more of a challenge in Triple-A.
"The way the ballparks are and the way the cameras are, the ABS zone is not the same in every park. It takes an adjustment to find out whether the ball down is going to be called, whether the zone is extended on one side or the other.”
Why is Higgins better at ABS than others? Plenty of experience and understanding the strike zone helps.
“I’ve been doing it since the Covid shutdown," said Higgins, who was with the Cubs organization from 2015-23. "That’s when we really first started [using] Trackman, because we didn’t have umpires. We were doing a lot of live at-bats.”
For the first portion of the '24 season during each teams' six-game series, Triple-A allowed ABS challenges in three games, with the full ABS -- meaning automatic balls and strikes on every pitch -- being used for the other three.
“It was kind of like you’ve got three days to learn the zone of what it’s going to be behind there," Higgins said. "It’s like your cheat sheet and then you obviously experiment with the challenge. It was a combination of everything -- like old-school catching, how to set up, where you set up, the angles and stuff like that. I don’t think there’s a true art to it. I’ve had a lot of reps and I’m confident in learning the strike zone."
The Bats usually aimed to hold challenges for late-game and higher-leverage situations. On close calls early, when he knew he wouldn't be challenging, Higgins sometimes looked at Kelly in the dugout to confirm whether a pitch was a ball or strike. Between innings, Higgins often grabbed a tablet in the dugout to confirm what he saw.
“Especially the ones I think are close, I’ll go in and double-check it and base my visual off that way," he said. "And there’s some balls that I miss.”
Higgins, 32, isn't quite as skilled with ABS as a hitter, when it's easier to be more emotional about calls. In 2025, he was 3-for-9 on hitter challenges.
"Last year I had a ball that I thought was way out and it was damn near middle." Higgins said. “Balls that are close in to me, I think are strikes and tend to be balls. And [ones] away from me, I feel they’re balls but they’re strikes. My strike zone personally is sometimes shifted closer to me -- not the strike zone itself, but how I visually see it. So I have to be especially cautious.”
Entering Friday, Higgins is among the leaders at MLB Spring Training challenges with a 3-0 record. Although others have four wins on challenges, Higgins deserves extra credit because all three were on the edges of the zone and not obvious decisions.
"You’ve got to take away the pride a little bit and understand that even though you catch it well, it may not be a strike," he said.