A batter absorbing a called strike outside the zone without pushing back is the rarest and most complete win a catcher can manufacture. It means the framing was convincing enough to discourage the challenge before it happened. The ABS challenge system was supposed to hold umpires accountable. Instead, it has given baseball something we're calling a three-part report card for catchers.
First, can their framed strikes survive review? Second, can they recognize missed strikes and turn them into outs? And third, can they make hitters so convinced of the call that nobody challenges at all? Some catchers excel in one category, while a few excel in all three. Some are entirely failing. Let's take a look at our ABS catcher scorecard.
ABS has created a three-part report card for catchers
- Framed strikes that hold up under ABS review: How well do a catcher's umpire calls hold up when the batter challenges them? A pitch framed to earn a legitimate borderline strike will survive Hawk-Eye review. A pitch the umpire called a strike because the glove made it look closer than it was will not.
- Ball calls challenged and converted into outs: This is offensive. When the umpire misses a legitimate strike and calls it a ball, does the catcher recognize it and successfully challenge? Every won challenge that flips a ball to a strike is a potential stolen out, and some of them turn potential walks into punch-outs.
- Strike calls hitters never challenge: This is the rarest. Pitches outside the zone, called strikes, that the batter never challenges at all. These are the most complete framing wins in baseball. The batter had challenges available and chose not to use one. The catcher made the presentation so convincing that the batter absorbed the loss without pushing back. Savant tracks them separately. Each one is worth roughly eight runs per 100 pitches to the pitcher.
How catchers are performing against the ABS scorecard
- Batter Win Percentage Against: How often batters successfully overturn the catcher's called strikes (lower is better)
- Fielding Win Percentage: Catcher's success rate challenging ball calls (higher is better)
- K-Flips: Ball calls converted to strikeouts via challenge
Catcher | Team | Batter Win % | Catcher Win % | K-Flips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cal Raleigh | Seattle | 14% | 60% | 7 |
Salvador Perez | Kansas City | 37% | 75% | 6 |
Tyler Stephenson | Cincinatti | 43% | 70% | 10 |
Dillon Dinger | Detroit | 43% | 70% | 9 |
Carson Kelly | Chicago Cubs | 46% | 84% | 13 |
Edgar Quero | Chicago White Sox | 56% | 48% | 4 |
Adley Rutschman | Baltimore | 76% | 53% | 2 |
Cal Raleigh's 14 percent batter-against rate is the most striking number in the table. Opposing batters have challenged 22 of his umpire calls and won three. His called strikes are almost always real strikes. Opposing batters have burned 19 challenges against him for nothing. Carson Kelly's 84 percent fielding win rate is the other anchor: 13 of his 27 challenge wins this season turned potential walks into outs. He has committed 32 challenges and burned five. No one with a comparable workload is closer to his accuracy.
The contrast at the bottom is just as instructive. Batters are winning 76 percent of their challenges against Adley Rutschman. Eleven of those wins saved a batter from a strikeout. The pitches the umpire called strikes for Rutschman's pitchers are, evidently, often not strikes. The calls that felt like framing wins are getting erased in real time by the batter's tap of the helmet. Edgar Quero leads all catchers with 67 fielding challenges and has won fewer than half of them, sitting eight wins below expectation while burning challenges that can't be recovered in close games.
The catcher acing baseball's new test
Salvador Perez is the clearest example of what elite looks like across all three components. He holds batters to 37 percent on challenges against him. His pitchers' strike calls stand up. The zone he presents is the zone he gets. He wins 75 percent of his own fielding challenges and generates unchallenged framing wins on top of both. His pitchers get the calls they earn, the missed calls get corrected, and some of the pitches outside the zone never even get disputed.
That last category is the one the challenge data alone can't capture. The ABS system only corrects mistakes the batter decides to fight. The silent framing wins, outside the zone and unchallenged, represent a catcher making the entire situation convincing enough that no fight comes.
Stack all three components and you get the most comprehensive picture of what a catcher does for a pitching staff that baseball has ever been able to build. The zone knowledge was always the job. Now there are three ways to prove you have it.
Data from Baseball Savant, June 8 2026
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