The Braves’ struggles with the new ABS challenge system have become impossible to ignore, and the numbers paint a rough picture for Atlanta.
Through the 2026 season, Braves hitters have posted an overturn rate of just 40%, the lowest in Major League Baseball. They also sit in the bottom third of the league in challenge rate overall, a sign they’ve been too reluctant to use the helmet tap when it might matter most.
That hesitation has shown up in the finer details, too. Jason Foster of mlb.com broke down how Atlanta has left opportunities on the table by failing to challenge pitches that were actually called strikes but should have been reviewed.
In Friday’s game at Philadelphia, Sean Murphy showed what the system can do when used well. He challenged a ball call on Didier Fuentes’ pitch to Justin Crawford in the bottom of the seventh, and the call was overturned to a ball. The sequence was tracked this way by ABS Auditor: “Ball -> Called Strike.”
Foster’s reporting also highlighted the idea of “reasonable” challenges. A reasonable challenge happens when at least one of three things is true: the original call was wrong, the pitch is within three inches of the strike-zone edge and an overturn would add at least 0.3 runs, or the pitch has an expected challenge rate of at least 20%.
Atlanta has not done well in that area either. The Braves rank 25th in MLB because they have challenged only 18% of reasonable opportunities.
On the flip side, just 64% of their challenges have met the “reasonable” standard, which ranks 23rd in baseball. In short, Atlanta has been too passive when it should have pushed and too loose when it should have held back.
Austin Riley recently said he disliked ABS on Mookie Betts’ podcast, and Michael Harris II has also talked about how tough it is to make that split-second decision. The Braves seem uncomfortable with the system as a group, but that discomfort is costing them. With October approaching, Atlanta’s lineup has to get sharper about when to challenge, because those calls can change momentum in a hurry.
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