Ball-Strike Challenges In MLB Could Be Coming Sooner Than You Think

Could Major League Baseball allow managers to challenge strikes and balls in the near future?

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred appears to be on board with a seemingly successful experiment underway in select Low-A Southeast games, where each team is allowed to challenge three pitches.

“Went down and saw the challenge system,” Rob Manfred told The Athletic’s Evan Drellich on Thursday. “I have to say, I saw three challenges in the minor league game, the first one was so darn fast, I missed it. ‘What happened?’

“I mean, it was like four seconds, literally. I kind of like that. I mean, four seconds is a pretty good replay change. So you know, we need to continue to work on that. There are difficult issues surrounding the strike zone that affect outcomes on the field. And we need to make sure we understand those before we jump off that bridge.”

There is no rule change imminent, but the concept seems to be moving in the right direction.