Why two Brewers starters will benefit from ABS system more than the average pitcher

The Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System is coming to Major League Baseball in 2026. After years of speculation about "robot umpires" displacing their human counterparts and a series of trial runs in Spring Training and the minor leagues, MLB has decided to implement the ABS system during the regular season this year.

However, fans of the human element of baseball, more specifically umpiring, need not worry, as the robot overlords aren't completely replacing home plate umpires just yet. Rather, each team simply has two opportunities to challenge a ball or strike call throughout the game, maintaining their challenges so long as they are successful. The challenges themselves take no more than 10 seconds, so it's unlikely that the ABS system will have a large impact on game time, just years after MLB's brilliant decision to implement the pitch clock cut down game times significantly.

Teams have already started game-planning how they will approach the ABS system in 2026, leading many players to look inward and determine whether or not they are the type of player who should be allowed to challenge a ball or strike call. While the offensive side of the new ABS system remains something that teams and managers will have to hash out, most clubs have decided that defensively, only the catcher will challenge calls. Technically, the catcher or pitcher can call for a challenge, but the catcher generally has a better view and understanding of the strike zone, which is why many teams are electing to leave the responsibility in the hands of their backstops.

While the strategy of when and when not to use the new ABS system slowly gets worked out, there are two Milwaukee Brewers pitchers who are bound to benefit from the implementation of the challenge system one way or another.

Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick expected to benefit greatly from new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system

An excellent analysis from the brilliant minds of Eno Sarris, Dan Hayes, and C. Trent Rosecrans over at The Athletic revealed which pitch in 2025 was most frequently called a ball when it was actually a strike. Their analysis found that high fastballs were often called balls when they actually clipped the zone. Be sure to check out Sarris, Hayes, and Rosecrans' excellent article, which is available over at TheAthletic.com and linked below for your convenience.

Which MLB pitchers are going to benefit most from the Automated Ball-Strike system?

The trio at The Athletic also researched which pitchers had the most high strikes called balls in 2025, and two Brewers' starters were among the leaders: Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick. Intuitively, it makes sense. Both Priester and Patrick live at the top of the zone with their respective fastball shapes, often trying to start a pitch out of the zone and land it on the corners. Whether it be a cutter that clips the corner or a sinker that drops into the top of the zone, pitches that appear out of the strike zone, but sneak into the top of the zone at the end are difficult for umpires to call.

Assuming Priester and Patrick continue to live on the corners with their fastballs, and William Contreras, Gary Sánchez, or whomever is behind the plate for the Brewers effectively calls for challenges on pitches that are initially called balls, both Milwaukee starters should benefit from the new ABS system more than the average pitcher.

Once umpires start to adjust to the strike zone, specifically by calling the top of the zone more accurately, pitchers like Priester and Patrick will only benefit even further. Both have excellent control of their fastballs -- the pitches that are most often thrown at the top of the zone -- and are certain to take advantage of the fact that pitches that were once frequently called balls will now be rightly converted to strikes.