The only thing that Atlanta Braves fans ask from umpires it that they are consistent and get reasonably close with their calls. There are few worse feelings to think that the fix is in from the beginning when one team is getting calls an inch off the plate while the Braves' pitchers are getting squeezed. For many, the ABS challenge system cannot get here soon enough. However, a new wrinkle has been added to the ongoing MLB umpiring saga and it is decidedly a mixed bag especially when former Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud's words are taken into account.
As the league awaits the installation of the balls and strikes challenge system, the league seems to have made a move to get umpires to actually call the strike zone in the latest labor agreement with the Major League Umpires Association that flew under everyone's radar. In the new agreement, the controversial "buffer zone" for umpires in terms of grading calls went from two inches to 3/4 of an inch. All of a sudden, umpires can calls balls and strikes when their money is on the line.
Overall, this should be a positive change as the strike zone won't vary as much from umpire to umpire. However, d'Arnaud, who is now with the Angels, is not happy as he believes that umpires across the league have just shrunk their strike zones and are missing calls that should be going in favor of pitchers. In his own words, "Everybody’s zone has shrunk. Every (umpire) across the league.”
Travis d'Arnaud is not a fan of MLB umpires' new strike zone
Now, there is obviously going to be some bias when it comes to opinions here. Hitters are obviously going to like a smaller, more precise zone while pitchers and catchers are going to hate it. Aggressive hitters may not as thrilled as those that work deep counts. Pitchers with fringe command and big time stuff may be the demographic that hates the change the most as it is already hard to get their calls right.
However, there are some more obvious concerns with this change. First, it seems like the change caught everyone off guard as details are sketchy as to how it was communicated to players/teams. Some executives are feeling burned as they would have prioritized different players if they had known zones would be more strict. There is also the problem that it feels like umpires as a whole overcorrected as d'Arnaud seems to have done some research to suggest that as many as 250 more strikes were called balls during the first week of the season compared to 2024's opening week.
At the end of the day, this is going to be a mostly moot point relatively quickly. Everyone knows that the ABS challenge system is coming and the good umpires are going to keep getting calls right and the bad ones are going to see their calls overturned over and over again until they get it right or get another job. Still, this change could have some bizarre impacts on the 2025 season that no one saw coming.