Major League Baseball’s new ABS challenge system is going to create some chaos this season.
On Sunday, it produced its first ejection of the season when Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton was tossed from their 8-6 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
Twins manager Derek Shelton is first ABS ejection of season
With the Twins trailing the Orioles, 8-6, in the top of the ninth inning and Josh Bell facing a 3-2 count, closer Ryan Helsley’s pitch was initially called a ball, sending Bell down the first base line.
Bell would have represented the tying run with only one out and given the Twins a fighting chance to complete the comeback.
But with the Orioles still having a challenge remaining, Helsley could be seen immediately tapping his hat to initiate the challenge.
It was granted.
The call on the field was also overturned and called strike three for the second out of the inning.
This sent Shelton into a full meltdown because, in his opinion, Helsley did not call for the challenge in the allotted time.
Helsley clearly tapped his head almost immediately after the call, so Shelton was probably just expressing his frustration over having the call go against him.
There are also two managers that seemed like they would be likely candidates to be the first to be ejected for something under this system. New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone seemed like a logical guess just because he gets ejected over everything regarding balls and strikes.
Shelton would have been the second logical guess because during his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the only thing that seemed to truly bother him was pitch clock violations. So it absolutely makes sense that something like this would infuriate him.