Brewers, Rays Enter First ABS World Series With Few Challenges Expected

The first World Series played with the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System opens Friday night with a curious subplot already sitting in the dugout. The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays have reached October’s last series by squeezing every edge they can find, yet neither club has shown much appetite for a hitter tapping his helmet to question a pitch.

Game 1 of the World Series is scheduled for Friday at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX One. Behind the plate, the Brewers’ William Contreras and the Rays’ Liam Hicks figure to have plenty of input on how ABS is used. At the plate, however, Andrew Vaughn and Yandy Díaz may be the men to watch.

Two clubs saving their challenges for defense

Milwaukee and Tampa Bay have treated challenges very differently depending on which side of the ball they occupy this postseason. As hitters, they have converted only four of 43 available overturned calls, a rate of 9 percent. As fielding teams, they have used 21 of 40 opportunities, or 53 percent.

The split is not chiefly about whether they recognize missed calls. It is about whether they are willing to spend a challenge. All seven offensive challenges have come from Milwaukee. Tampa Bay has not challenged a pitch while batting during the playoffs, despite having several calls it could have reversed.

That restraint has left both league champions at the bottom of the postseason field in offensive ABS value. Milwaukee has been slightly better than average when its full challenge record is considered, largely because of its defense. Tampa Bay ranks last overall, weighed down by its refusal to challenge at the plate.

A season-long habit for Vaughn and Díaz

Vaughn and Díaz are the only two hitters among 139 players with at least 25 possible overturns in 2026 who went the entire regular season and postseason without issuing a single challenge. Vaughn allowed 36 potential reversals to pass. Díaz let 59 go.

1. In June, Díaz explained that he did not want a challenge decision competing with his job as a hitter. “I don’t like it,” he said. “When I get to the plate, I need a hit, not a challenge. Maybe sometime in the World Series, but not now.”
2. Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy had laid out his own standard in February, saying players should initially have freedom to challenge, but that the privilege could be removed after repeated poor decisions in bad situations.
3. Rookie Brewers outfielder Luis Lara eventually lost that freedom after going 2-for-7 on challenges and collecting only 7 percent of the available run value attached to his opportunities.
4. Murphy said late in the season that Milwaukee had “taken him offline,” joking that the club needed a reverse magnet to keep Lara’s hand away from his helmet.
5. Lara has not challenged since an unsuccessful attempt on Sept. 7.

Milwaukee’s reluctance was evident over the full season. The Brewers made the second-fewest batting challenges in baseball while ranking third in defensive challenges. They finished last in the share of available offensive overturns they attempted, at 13 percent, and converted only 18 percent of their possible ABS run value.

That was especially striking because Milwaukee had more incorrect-call opportunities than any club: 401. Those chances carried an estimated 60 runs of possible value, second-most in the sport, but the Brewers gained only 10.7 runs from them.

Both clubs were tied for 21st in regular-season overturn rate at 46 percent. The difference between an overturn percentage and run value is context: the count, inning, runners and score determine how much a corrected pitch may actually matter. The Brewers and Rays have not merely missed a few calls; they have frequently declined to test calls that might have changed an at-bat.

Díaz passed on a pivotal October moment

Díaz has had five playoff pitches ruled incorrectly that he could have challenged, the most on Tampa Bay’s roster. He has let every one stand.

1. In the seventh inning of ALCS Game 4, Tampa Bay led Cleveland 2-1 with two runners aboard and nobody out.
2. Díaz faced a two-strike pitch that appeared to miss the zone, and his immediate reaction indicated that he knew the call was wrong.
3. He did not tap his helmet, even though the situation carried the kind of scoring potential that can swing a postseason game.
4. Díaz struck out, and Cleveland held on for the victory.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said the club’s late-game reminders are not a blanket instruction for hitters to stay quiet. When Tampa Bay has a lead in the sixth or seventh inning, the Rays want to preserve challenges for the catcher. Still, Cash said an offensive appeal should be considered in an at-bat that is “run-scoring” or “game-changing.”

Four of Díaz’s five unchallenged opportunities came in situations where Tampa Bay was protecting a lead late, fitting Cash’s preference to hold a challenge for defense. The Cleveland sequence, though, was the sort of spot that invites a second look.

Contreras and Hicks have made the system work

There is no question that the Brewers and Rays see value in ABS. They simply trust their catchers to find it.

Tampa Bay leads all postseason clubs with 2.4 runs gained from defensive challenges. Milwaukee is second at 1.1. Contreras has recorded 12 overturned calls, the most of any catcher this October. Hicks has been responsible for three of the seven highest-impact challenge moments of the postseason.

One of Hicks’ biggest calls came in ALCS Game 6. With two runners on base, his challenge turned a would-be 3-2 count into an inning-ending strikeout, erasing a potentially dangerous plate appearance before it could grow.

Murphy acknowledged before the National League Division Series that the postseason makes every decision feel heavier. He said players naturally understand that October is different, and that adding too many restrictions about when they may or may not use ABS can crowd a hitter’s mind.

That tension now follows Milwaukee and Tampa Bay into the World Series. The system has not been designed to overturn every borderline pitch or remake baseball’s rhythm. It exists for the relatively small number of calls worth contesting, and its first Major League season has shown that it can correct those misses.

There have already been reminders that a game can end on an overturned call, including a postseason finish involving Philadelphia catcher J.T. Realmuto. There have also been endings that left a challenge unused. Arizona’s Ketel Marte watched a high strike end a July game despite teammate Tim Tawa urging him from second base to challenge. On that same day, Jackson Chourio allowed a slider to end a Brewers ninth-inning rally even though Milwaukee still had two challenges available.

Contreras and Hicks should be ready when the World Series puts a disputed pitch in their mitts. The more intriguing question is whether Díaz, Vaughn or another hitter will finally take on the responsibility they have avoided all year. A World Series ending on a successful challenge would be memorable. One ending because a hitter never tapped his helmet might be harder to forget.