Phillies

Bringing Back J.T. Realmuto May Have Been Worth it Just for his Newfound ABS Challenging Skills

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 5th, 2026 · 3:43 PM EST

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This is pretty gnarly. Phillies / Red Sox in Florida this afternoon and Jesus Luzardo struck out two guys in a row on challenges initiated by J.T. Realmuto:

Jesus Luzardo finished the first inning with back-to-back strikeouts after two successful JT Realmuto challenges that turned called balls into strike 3s.

ABS is game changing for baseball. Think about how different this inning would’ve been without this new feature in baseball… https://t.co/loqxIKeqdE pic.twitter.com/XdzEEM6zpJ

— js9innings (@js9inningsmedia) March 5, 2026

Upon further replay, Luzardo is also tapping his hat for the second one, so they can probably split the credit there, but that’s a good eye from J.T. Two for two in the first inning alone. He may reclaim the best catcher in baseball title (BCIB) solely for his work in challenge initiation. Honestly can’t wait to see what the data looks like when the regular season begins. It’s really interesting to think about having a veteran catcher back there vs. a younger catcher in terms of nailing these ABS calls and getting some significant leverage out of a new system. Think about the difference that it could make in a playoff situation where every ball and every strike matters.

Timing it out, the first challenge took nine seconds. The second one took about seven seconds. That doesn’t seem too long at all. It doesn’t seem to kill any kind of game flow. It’s going to be much less impactful on overall game flow than the pitch clock, for instance. This seems like something we’ll get used to rather quickly. Hopefully.