Cardinals' Masyn Winn explains his stubbornness to challenge umpire strike zones

The Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System has been one of the largest updates in Major League Baseball and still has skeptics who believe the home plate umpire should have the only say. As with all changes, it took some getting used to, but the overall sentiment towards the system seems positive. The strategy that goes with using these challenges differs from team to team, and for the St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn, it is all about unselfish behavior.

Teams have not really detailed their overall strategies towards using the two given challenges, but the common theme is for hitters to tap their helmet on a decisive pitch, like a strikeout or walk, or for an egregious call. There have been hiccups with the system, of course, with some umpires having a shorter time for batters to call for a review or others getting challenged a dozen times in one game. Whatever the thought process for the team, Winn thinks that other hitters in the lineup can benefit from a review more than he can.

Masyn Winn leaves the reviews up to the Cardinals' big hitters like Jordan Walker and Lars Nootbaar

In a great article that goes into the art of the review on FanGraphs, author Matt Martell was able to get some teams to break their silence on the ABS challenge system from coaches and players. While there are organizations who teach caution when tapping the helmet, manager Oli Marmol is quoted as saying, "They have the freedom to use it whenever they want. Very rarely do we have to step in and talk about a challenge that was used in an inopportune time..." According to Marmol, the other hitters in the lineup are the ones who get on each other if they felt that the review was used in a bad spot.

Cardinals hitters are more stingy in using the review, with the young lineup challenging a total of 62 pitches this year, which is 27th-most in the league. The Minnesota Twins have tapped the helmet 101 times to lead the league, with the Cleveland Guardians in a distant second place with 87 reviews. Part of the hesitancy on the Cardinals' part could be because of how inexperienced the lineup is in the big leagues as they trot out the youngest roster in baseball. In those challenges, the Cardinals have won exactly half, putting their 50% success rate at 10th in baseball.

On the player side, Masyn Winn has challenged a total of two pitches all season. Baseball Savant has tracked the ABS challenge system all season and has compiled some good statistics relative to the usage. Savant has created a stat called "reasonable challenges," and Winn has had 31 such pitches fall under that category. That number is the 26th-most in baseball, but Winn has still only decided to review two of them. That 6% challenge rate is tied with Brice Turang for the lowest in the league among hitters who have seen at least 20 pitches labeled as challengeable. Reds rookie Sal Stewart has seen 39 such pitches and challenged 21 of them, being successful on all but one.

When asked about his lack of reviews, Winn was straightforward in saying that other hitters in the lineup stand to benefit from the review more than the shortstop. While he believes in his strike zone knowledge, he says that too many pitches are a coin flip and with just two challenges available all game, he would rather save them for power bats or the catchers when playing defense.

"I’d rather save them for guys like Noot[baar] in big situations, guys like [Jordan Walker] that can really do some damage with that extra strike. I like to save them for the defense, too. There are so many times where I feel like our catchers do a great job and they don’t get the call, so I want them to be able to have the luxury if we do have one to burn."

Masyn Winn

What is interesting about this quote specifically is that Lars Nootbaar only returned from the injured list a couple weeks ago, and, while we know he has great zone knowledge, he has yet to use a challenge in seven reasonable opportunities. As for Walker, he is one of the worst users of the review system on the team, being successful on just two of eight challenges thus far in his comeback season. Whom he should have said he is saving them for is Ivan Herrera, who has won 60% of his hitting reviews and 64% of his challenges as a catcher.

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