The goal of this article is discuss some of the bigger changes to the league in 2026. The major factors this year include a rule change and one park alteration. We'll also touch on the future of FreelanceBaseball.com at the end.
ABS Challenge System
We start with the biggest rule change for 2026. Players are now allowed to challenge balls and strikes. Some early evidence from the minor leagues and spring training suggests catchers may be most successful at utilizing this system and may be allowed the most discretion by managers. Some teams may not even let their pitchers challenge.
This makes sense, as the catchers have the best view of the pitches. Better than even umpires. However, early returns have proven there is some level of skill involved. Without any information, a speculation on my part is wondering if catchers with plate discipline as batters might be the best at this? We'll have to wait to find out.
But what does this all mean?
Umpire tendencies and catcher framing value is not going away, but the spectrum separating the ends may narrow. Not every erroneous umpire call is going to be challenged and Patrick Bailey's ridiculous 25 Framing Runs (Statcast) are still going to matter, but to a lesser extent.
Picking up that value will be players (again, mostly catchers) who best utilize the challenge system.
You can find the spring dashboard with team and league wide trends right here.
There's also a leaderboard for both batters, catchers and teams this spring and well, despite these being two totally separate skills, here's that guy again...
Maybe the more things change, the more they'll stay the same.
Early on, it will be difficult to know how much to value each of these things.
Park Changes
There are really only two changes to discuss here and one of them is simply the Rays returning to the Trop. It's a much more pitcher friendly park than Steinbrenner Field. Expect pitcher numbers to improve and offensive numbers to decline for the Rays year over year. That's why we have wRC+.
The bigger mystery is in Kansas City, where they're bringing the fences in. Only Pittsburgh and San Francisco have been more difficult to hit the ball out of over the last three years. And when we talk about left-handed batters, only Chase Field's 77 park HR factor comes even close to Kauffman Stadium's 73.
It's not as rough on RHBs, who only have the 10th toughest in the league (93) and a big part of that is that Kansas City gets some nice winds out to left field during the summer.
Yet, batters from both sides will receive a similar boost with fences coming in around 9-10 feet from both right and left field. The walls are also expected to be around a foot and a half lower.
So more home runs. How many? We won't know right away. Better for RHBs than LHBs still, but the bigger question is overall run environment.
The sneaky little secret is that Kauffman was already a positive run environment. In fact, over the last three years (again via Statcast), it's 102 park run factor is tied for sixth highest in the league, along with six other teams.
Bringing in the fences will also have the effect of giving outfielders less ground to cover. Think of it this way. Colorado is still the highest scoring environment of the last three years with a 128 park run factor, but their 106 park home run factor is only tied for sixth highest.
Alternately, there are 15 parks with a home run factor of 102 or higher. Four of them have park run factors of 96 or less, which makes them bottom eight run environments.
Also, only one park has both a top five run factor and top five home run factor. That's Cincinnati. Dodger Stadium is the top home run environment in the league (127), but with just a 102 park run factor. Yankee Stadium is the third most power friendly park (119), but with a perfectly neutral 100 park run factor.
More home runs in Kansas City will not necessarily mean more overall runs for what was already a top one-third of the league run environment. We'll have to wait and see and maybe avoid playing totals in Kansas City early on.
Personal Announcement
I mentioned some potential changes in the last post, reviewing the 2025 season and I have signed on to provide content for another company in 2026. I could probably announce that now without concern and it's probably even obvious to many of you, but I'd prefer to wait until the last T is crossed and I'm working on my first assignment opening week. (But it may rhyme with Traction Wetwork.)
I am planning on keeping this site around another year, but don't know when or how I'll be using it going forward.
I may still post the occasional game or something I find interesting, sticking to baseball of course. Keep an eye on my twitter and bsky profiles for an update (@FreelanceBBall on both).
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