SAN FRANCISCO — Major League Baseball entered a new era on Wednesday night when the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system made its regular-season debut. A Yankees player made the first challenge in league history. It just was not the one most people expected.
Aaron Judge struck out four times in the Yankees’ 7-0 Opening Day win over the Giants at Oracle Park. Two of those strikeouts were called third strikes, meaning the umpire, not Judge’s swing, ended the at-bat. In both cases, Judge walked back to the dugout without tapping his helmet to trigger an ABS review.
It was Jose Caballero, the Yankees shortstop, who stepped into the history books instead. And it raises a question that will follow Judge all season: when the technology is there to fight back, why didn’t the reigning AL MVP use it?
Caballero makes first ABS challenge in MLB history
The historic moment came in the top of the fourth inning with the Yankees already leading 5-0. Giants starter Logan Webb threw a 90.7 mph sinker on the upper inside corner that home plate umpire Bill Miller called a strike. Caballero immediately tapped his helmet to initiate the first ABS challenge in regular-season MLB history.
The 12 Hawk-Eye cameras at Oracle Park confirmed Miller’s call. The pitch clipped the corner and the top of the zone. The Yankees challenge failed, putting Caballero down 0-1. He grounded out two pitches later.
“I wanted to go for it,” Caballero said after the game. “I thought it was a little higher than what it showed, but at least it was close.”
Caballero said the Yankees have been discussing challenge scenarios for weeks during spring training. He added that the team plans to be aggressive with the system throughout the season.
“I think it’s really good,” Caballero said. “It keeps everyone accountable and gives us a chance to really see if we’re good with the zone or not.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone did not second-guess the challenge.
“It was really close. I didn’t have an issue with that one,” Boone said.
Judge let two called strikes go unchallenged
While Caballero was willing to test the system, the Yankees captain was not. Judge took a called third strike from Webb in the second inning and another from reliever Keaton Winn in the sixth. Neither time did the Yankees slugger tap his helmet.
The second-inning strikeout left Trent Grisham stranded at third base. In a closer game, that decision not to challenge could have been costly. With the Yankees ahead 5-0 by the fourth inning, the stakes were lower, but the pattern was notable: the best hitter in baseball had two opportunities to use the league’s brand-new technology and passed on both.
Judge finished 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, two swinging and two looking. It was the first time in his career he went hitless on Opening Day and the first time he struck out four times in a game since Sept. 28, 2024. He became the first reigning MVP to earn a golden sombrero in a season opener, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
Had Judge challenged either called strike and won, he would have kept the at-bat alive and potentially avoided the dubious record. Instead, it was Caballero who made history with the ABS system, even if his challenge came up short.
How the ABS challenge system works
The ABS challenge system was approved by MLB’s Joint Competition Committee in September 2025 after years of testing in the minor leagues dating back to 2019. It was also used in major league spring training in 2025 and 2026.
Under the rules, a pitcher, catcher or batter can challenge any ball or strike call by tapping his hat or helmet immediately after the pitch. There is no input from the dugout. The result is displayed on the stadium video board within seconds. Each team gets two challenges per game. An incorrect challenge costs one. A successful challenge is retained.
During spring training this year, 2.6% of pitches were challenged, with an overall success rate of 52.2%. Catchers had the highest success rate at roughly 60%, while hitters were closer to 46%.
Caballero’s challenge was the only one in Wednesday’s game. The Yankees never used their second challenge, and the Giants did not challenge at all.
A footnote Judge would rather forget
The irony is that the ABS system was designed partly to protect hitters from bad calls. On a night when the Yankees captain took record four strikeouts and two of them were called, the technology sat unused by the Yankees player who had the most to gain from it.
It was Caballero, who also drove in the first Yankees run of the season with an RBI double in the second inning, who had the courage to tap his helmet first. The Yankees shortstop said afterward it was “cool” to make baseball history but wished “it was the other way around.”
Judge will almost certainly make up for Wednesday’s performance as the long season unfolds. But when the 2026 ABS history is written, it will be Caballero’s name at the top of the page. And it could have been Judge’s.
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