Dodgers struggling with new ABS challenge system during spring training

PHOENIX –– Finally, the Dodgers have found something they don’t excel at.

In fact, to this point of spring training, they’ve been significantly worse at it than every other team.

This year, Major League Baseball is introducing an automated ball-strike challenge system (ABS) into regular-season play. And so far, during a trial run in Cactus League exhibition games, the Dodgers have flat-out stunk when trying to appeal pitches.

Dalton Rushing (right) has attempted the most challenges among the Dodgers’ catchers, going 2 for 6 on his attempts from behind the plate. AP

Overall, the team won just five of the 27 pitch calls they’d challenged entering play Saturday. Among hitters, their 15% success rate (2 for 11) is six points worse than any other team. Among pitchers and catchers, their 21% success rate (3 for 11) isn’t even half as good as the next closest club.

While the Dodgers have downplayed their concern over the early numbers, manager Dave Roberts said they are “going to do an organization forum on Tuesday to get our guys, our hitting coaches, our players to talk about some things, maybe some strategies.”

Roberts also acknowledged that, while many of the Dodgers’ failed challenges have been “borderline” misses, the team’s “idea of the strike zone individually, collectively just hasn’t been great.”

“I honestly don’t know the answer right now,” Roberts added, when asked about the root cause of such pronounced struggles.

With Opening Day less than two weeks away, the team will have to find some better answers quickly.

Granted, the Dodgers have approached the ABS system with a more exploratory mindset in camp. Strategy has not been a priority. Getting calibrated to the exact dimensions of the zone has.

“Even if we’re wrong, we need to use it just to figure out the tops and bottoms of the zone,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said earlier this spring. “A lot of us are still trying to learn it … Spring training is the time to figure it out, figure out your zone and see if you have a better idea of it [before the start of the season].”

Still, their grand total of five successful challenges this spring has felt somewhat jarring. Every other club has at least 12 overturned calls. The Yankees are setting the pace with 37.

“We’ve just got to get that education,” Roberts said. “We’ll be better. I’m certain of that.”

Individually, sample sizes have been minuscule for most of the players expected to be on the Dodgers’ MLB roster. Alex Call and Dalton Rushing are the only ones who have attempted more than one challenge, with Call 1 for 2 and Rushing 0 for 2. Rushing has attempted the most challenges among the team’s catchers, going 2 for 6 on his attempts from behind the plate.

Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing received some redemption Saturday when he challenged a ball that ABS showed had clipped the corner of the strike zone. Diamond Images/Getty Images

Their biggest lesson so far: Just how fine the margins between a ball and a strike can be.

Earlier this week, Rushing challenged a called ball while catching that was upheld –– with the ABS system showing it missed the zone by less than 1/10th of an inch.

“I would’ve bet my whole life that baseball was touching the zone,” Rushing joked with SportsNet LA afterward. “But that’s what spring training is for.”

On Saturday, Rushing got redemption when he challenged a ball that ABS showed had clipped the corner of the strike zone. As a scoreboard graphic at Camelback Ranch confirmed the successful challenge, Rushing playfully gave thanks by looking toward the sky.

It also remains unclear just how pivotal the ABS system will be when real games start. Teams are only allowed two missed calls before they run out of challenges. Most nights, overturned balls and strikes figure to have only a marginal impact on the outcome of games.

Nonetheless, it is one area the two-time defending champions are focused on improving before Opening Day on March 26.

“At the end of the day, we want to get it right,” Roberts said.

For now, they have nowhere to go but up.

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