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MN Twins Completely Dominating MLB Umpires
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- MN Twins Completely Dominating MLB Umpires
Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images
After the Minnesota Twins have gone through a tone of change over the past year. Not only did they completely renovate their roster at the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline , but they followed that up with replacing both their manager and top Pohlad, before ultimately parting ways with team president Derek Falvey.
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Meanwhile, Major League Baseball went through its own swath of changes and controversies during the offseason, as the league prepared for another major rule change, not to mention a likely work stoppage in 2027.
On the field, all eyes have been on the new ABS Challenge system , which allows players to challenge umpire ball/strike calls as many times as they want each game, until they get two wrong.
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Minnesota Twins vs MLB Umpires – ABS edition
Much like the pitch clock before it, ABS Challenges immediately altered Major League Baseball in a way that few rule changes do. But so far, fans, players and managers seem mostly happy with the results and implementation, the latter of which has been rather seamless .
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Not only has ABS already proven extremely useful in overturning those egregious misses by umpires behind the plate, but it’s been utilized in some incredibly heavy late-game situations already.
For example, in the 8th inning of Wednesday’s Twins win over Detroit , catcher Ryan Jeffers made TWO successful challenges for his reliever, Cody Laweryson, the second of which resulted in strike three on Gleyber Torres — stranding two Tigers on base of a close game that Minnesota went on to win 8-6 .
The Twins win the ABS Challenge to get out of the 8th inning jam!
📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/58YmiJvmWn— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 9, 2026
Of course, some teams have used their challenges more effectively than others. And while it’s still very early in the season, no club has been better at overturning umpire ball/strike calls via ABS challenge than the Minnesota Twins.
The Twins have been aggressive about their challenges, showing little hesitation to tap the top of their head and signal for ABS early and often. Through 12 games, that approach has paid dividends.
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MN Twins taking advantage of ABS like no other MLB team
Not only have the Minnesota Twins produced the most ball/strike challenges of any MLB team so far this season, with 42 total challenges (second most is 31 – Marlins) but they are also near the top of the list in terms of success rate too.
Out of the Twins 42 ABS attempts so far this year, the Twins have won an impressive 25 of those challenges — good for a 59.5% success rate. While that number ranks 9th in the league, overall, none of the teams above them have more than 28 total challenges (see table below).
Twins lead league in ABS Challenges:
– Overturned (25)
– Lost (17)
– Runs Gained (+5.5)
– Runs Gained above Expected (+3.1)
With 12 games, they are losing 1.4 challenges/game: try not to leave challenges on table
Twins are avant-garde; a matter of time until they all catch up— Tangotiger 🍁 (@tangotiger) April 9, 2026
Looking at the larger ABS picture, it’s clear no team has been better at using the new game day technology than the MN Twins, who have seven more successful challenges on the season than any other team, and 13 more successful challenges than their opponents.
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The craziest ABS stats over at Baseball Savant for the Twins, however, is their 5.5 runs gained by ABS and 3.1 runs gained vs expected, both of which sit far and away higher than any other team in Major League Baseball. In a distant second place for gained vs expected are the Atlanta Braves , at just 1.1.
| Rk. |
Team |
Gained |
Chal. |
Runs |
Off. |
Off |
Def |
Def |
|
| 1 |
Twins |
3.1 |
42 |
5.5 |
22 |
2.2 |
20 |
3.2 |
|
| 2 |
Braves |
1.1 |
26 |
3.1 |
14 |
1.4 |
12 |
1.7 |
|
| 3 |
0.9 |
26 |
2.6 |
12 |
1.3 |
14 |
1.3 |
||
| 4 |
Royals |
0.9 |
24 |
3.2 |
10 |
0.8 |
14 |
2.5 |
|
| 5 |
0.9 |
22 |
3.1 |
13 |
1.0 |
9 |
2.1 |
||
| 6 |
Marlins |
0.7 |
31 |
3.6 |
7 |
0.7 |
24 |
2.8 |
|
| 7 |
0.7 |
22 |
4.0 |
11 |
1.5 |
11 |
2.5 |
Twins’ ABS secret weapon — (C) Ryan Jeffers
So, what’s the Twins’ ABS secret? Well, they are aggressive in their approach and urge pitchers NOT to challenge , an approach that certainly helps. But really, their success lies within is in their secret weapon, catcher Ryan Jeffers.
Of the 42 challenges by Minnesota this season, twenty have been induced by Twins catchers. Of those 20 defensive attempts, Twins catchers have won a whopping 14 of them — a 70% success rate .
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Jeffers’ personal success rate is 67% (10-for-15). Of his ten correct challenges behind the plate, EIGHT of them resulted in a strikeout, including TWO last night alone.
Ryan Jeffers the K god! pic.twitter.com/8U27IdSKlO
— Ted (@tlschwerz) April 9, 2026
ryan jeffers when he catches a strike and hears "ball" pic.twitter.com/qDAfDdRQpV
— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) April 9, 2026
Related: Pohlads Cutting More Than Just MN Twins Payroll to Save Money
While that 70% isn’t the best defensive overturn rate in the league, the Twins are the only team in the top six with more than 14 challenges attempted, at 20. But without Jeffers’ knowledge of the strike zone, Minnesota is just an average ABS challenger… that probably uses it too much.
Instead, mostly thanks to Jeffers, they are absolutely dominating MLB umpires to start the 2026 season. To continue this level of success, Minnesota will have to adjust their approach based on who is wanting to challenge.
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Matt Wallner , for example, has been among the league’s worst ABS users so far this season, winning just one of his four challenges, through 12 games.
Ironically, Wallner’s only successful challenge this season was the first ABS challenge in Minnesota Twins history first ever. The below video is not that one…
Matt Wallner has made some really bad challenge decisions of late… pic.twitter.com/uCMLp20zeE
— Ted (@tlschwerz) April 8, 2026
Aggressiveness may be MN Twins competitive advantage
To end last season the Minnesota Twins attempted a new level of aggressiveness on the basepaths, as a way to manufacture more runs . That has continued this season, and spilled over to the new ABS challenge system.
Part of the discussion on Thursday’s Fox Sports 1 broadcast centered around each MLB managers’ ability to empower their players to challenge. No manager has embodied that sentiment more than Derek Shelton (unless you are a Twins pitcher).
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