This season, MLB players will be tapping their cap to signal that they’re challenging a pitch call with the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System. However, Atlanta Braves left-hander Chris Sale won’t be among the players doing so.
“I will never challenge a pitch,” Sale said Friday when asked about the ABS Challenge System. “I’m not an umpire; that’s their job. I’m a starting pitcher. I’ve never called balls and strikes in my life. Plus, I’m greedy, and I know that. I think they’re all strikes. The catchers nowadays — the way they catch the ball, the way they receive it — they make them all [pitches] look like strikes. … I like pitches that are on the corner that might be a little off in the heat of the moment, especially when you throw a good pitch … they [catchers] make a lot of balls look like strikes, and I don’t want to take away one of those challenges that might be needed later on in the game — and I’ve dealt with it before.
“Across all games in my entire career, there [have] been balls called strikes and strikes called balls, and you just kind of deal with it. Now, if my catcher has something to say about it, I’ll leave that to him, but I’ve dealt with both sides, and I’m fine to kind of keep dealing with it.”
The ABS Challenge System, which Sale appears to be dead set against using, has been implemented at the MLB level for the 2026 season. Each team gets two challenges apiece, with only the pitcher, catcher and hitter able to challenge an individual pitch call from an umpire by tapping their head. Once one of the three players does so, a T-Mobile replay of the pitch will promptly determine whether the pitch was in the strike zone and play resumes.
The system has previously been used in the minor leagues and was also used in the 2025 MLB All-Star Game.
Last season, Sale recorded a 2.58 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 165 strikeouts, 4.0 wins above replacement and a 161 ERA+ in 21 appearances (20 starts) and 125 2/3 innings pitched with the Braves. He missed 10 weeks due to a rib injury but was still named an All-Star.
The Braves acquired Sale, now a nine-time All-Star, from the Boston Red Sox in the 2023-24 offseason. Following an injury-plagued stint in Boston (2017-23), Sale proceeded to win his first career Cy Young Award with the Braves in his debut season with the franchise, winning 2024 National League Cy Young honors after leading the NL in ERA (2.38), strikeouts (225), WAR (6.2), ERA+ (174) and wins (18).
Atlanta is coming off a 2025 campaign that saw it miss the playoffs and post a losing record for the first time since 2017, going 76-86 and finishing fourth in the NL East.
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