Should Blue Jays fans be excited or worried about this impending MLB rule change?

Every year, Major League Baseball look for ways to help make the game better. As a result, they often try to implement new rule changes to enhance the flow of the game, as well as making things more fair from a competitive standpoint. In recent years, that has included the installation of the pitch clock and setting limitations to defensive shifts to name a few.

For the upcoming 2026 season, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has proposed to implement the automated challenge system for calling balls and strikes. Each team would receive two challenges that could be signaled by the hitter, catcher or pitcher. Once a challenge is called for in real time, the electronic analysis of the pitch in the strike zone would be used to determine whether the call was made correctly. Any overturned calls would result in the team keeping their challenge.

Should Blue Jays fans be excited or worried about this impending MLB rule change?

With that system potentially in place as early as next season, it brings up the question of whether it would benefit or hinder the Toronto Blue Jays? Should Blue Jays fans get excited or become much more worried about the rule?

After all, one of the top catching framers in the game during the past few seasons happens to be none other than the Jays’ very own Alejandro Kirk. Kirk's skills have been a work of art when it comes to making pitches that fell out of the strike zone look like strikes with his elite framing. The 26-year-old catcher had been among the top five backstops in the league in this distinct category during three of the past four seasons.

In fact, this year, Kirk is actually leading the MLB in framing pitches with a 49.3% strike rate and six catcher framing runs according to Baseball Savant. Not to be outdone, even teammate Tyler Heineman is among the top 21 catchers in the league in the category.

Consequently, Jays fans should be more worried than excited starting next year, as opposing teams could take advantage of the new challenge system to negate Kirk in his exceptional ability to frame pitches. That is because each successful challenge allows the team to retain their challenge, which could lead to the excess usage of the system by opponents to take away the Blue Jays’ advantage that they have had for many seasons now.

There is an argument to be made, saying that it could even out as the Blue Jays’ hitters would get the benefit of the doubt during their plate appearances. Unfortunately, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and company haven’t been among the league leaders in having balls being called for strikes in recent years. That honour belonged to the likes of Seiya Suzuki, Wilmer Flores, Steven Kwan and many others. As a result, using advanced technology to get the calls absolutely right doesen't seem like it will benefit the Blue Jays.