The first check-swing challenge in the history of professional baseball took place at the Arizona Fall League on Tuesday. New York Mets prospect Drew Gilbert, playing for the AFL’s Scottsdale Scorpions, believed he didn’t go around on a 3-1 pitch. The third-base umpire called it a swing anyway, prompting Gilbert to tap his helmet and initiate a review.
In this first case, it proved a success: The review ultimately showed Gilbert did not break the 45-degree plane.
“Guys like it, we’ll see,” Gilbert said. “I mean, obviously they’ll need a little more trial and error. But it’s a good idea.”
Major League Baseball is testing a check-swing challenge system in the AFL this fall, using cameras installed at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, home of the Salt River Rafters. As the check-swing rule stands now, if the manager or the catcher believes the home-plate umpire’s judgment is wrong, they will point to the first- or third-base umpire to appeal. Whatever that ump says is final. Under this new camera-aided system, however, there’s another level of review. Catchers and managers still appeal to the first- or third-base umps, but if the players disagree, they can now challenge and go to the video to see if the swing crossed the 45-degree threshold that differentiates a check swing from a full swing.
The Scottsdale Scorpions and the Salt River Rafters were informed prior to their game Tuesday that a check would likely be called a swing, simply to try out the technology. Players would then have the ability to call for challenges.
“I didn’t really know until about 10 minutes before the game,” Gilbert said.
During the Arizona Fall League, Mets prospect Drew Gilbert became the first player to challenge a check swing call
(via @baseballamerica) pic.twitter.com/CVioqV2uSz
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) October 23, 2024
Only hitters, pitchers and catchers may challenge a check swing, and each team is afforded two challenges per game with an extra third if two are used by the ninth inning.
Will this show up in the majors anytime soon? No. The check-swing challenge system is nothing more than proof of concept at this time, a person familiar with the development told The Athletic.
Among the rule changes that underwent preliminary testing at the AFL in the past include the pitch clock, which has since been implemented in the majors, and the automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system, which has been installed at all Triple-A venues each of the past two seasons. Salt River Fields at Talking Stick is the only AFL stadium with the high-frame cameras crucial to the Hawk-Eye system used for ABS and Statcast data in big-league ballparks.
MLB’s official baseball rules do not offer any definition for a check swing, only that a strike is a pitch “struck at by the batter.” The practical definition is when a batter swings short of the first-base line (for righties) or the third-base line (for lefties). That ambiguity does lead to some lingering questions as these tests get underway.
“There was a couple questions that I would have, like I think the computer probably couldn’t recognize those type of swings where a guy is starting to swing and then almost gets hit by a pitch,” Scottsdale Scorpions manager Dennis Pelfrey said. “The barrel could go there but having feel for the game, most umpires aren’t going to call that a swing but it very well could be from the computer standpoint.”
Before MLB approved the pitch clock at the highest level, it was tested in more than 8,000 minor-league games, the person with knowledge said, to shore up loopholes. A pitcher could step off of the mound and a batter could call time to exit the batter’s box anytime, for example, in the rule’s early stages. It’s too early to tell when or whether the check-swing challenge will make its way to the minors.
But Pelfrey imagined a perfect world in which the system would be available for baseball’s biggest games.
“The check swing, in my opinion, is a really difficult call for the umpires because the bat’s in and out of the zone so fast,” Pelfrey said. “A lot of times, I feel like it is a guess for them. But I think if we have those challenges in some of the biggest moments of the game — in the World Series in the ninth inning, if a guy gets rung up on a check swing — we can at least challenge it to see.”
(Photo of Gilbert: Nick Cammett / Diamond Images via Getty Images)
