Royals reaching point of no return with Elias Díaz's ABS struggles

Major League Baseball received quite the shock to their rules this season after the ABS challenge system was implemented to aid in the calling of balls and strikes for the first time in the regular season. Sure it had been there for spring training in previous season and tested out in the minor leagues, but all in all, this was a massive change for many.

The Kansas City Royals have benefitted from having one of the more confident catchers behind the plate in Salvador Perez to help create their ABS culture. And all has gone well for the captain in this regard to start the season, as his 75% challenge success rate ranks fifth amongst all big league catchers with at least 10 or more challenges made so far.

However, there's more than one catcher on the roster and the spotlight has fallen on the Royals' other veteran backstop for all the wrong reasons after Wednesday's loss. Elias Díaz has not fared the same as Perez when it comes to the new challenge system and many fans have taken aim at one at-bat in particular in the first inning of their latest 6-5 loss.

With White Sox rookie extraordinaire, Munetaka Murakami at the dish in the bottom of the first inning, starter Seth Lugo was peppering the zone with strikes, but the problem was home plate umpire Jen Pawol wasn't calling all of them as strikes. After a first pitch strike, pitches two, three and four all comfortably caught the top of the strike zone, but were called balls. And Díaz challenged none of them.

This resulted in Murakami hitting a single on a full count. And as Jack Johnson of the Locked on Royals pointed out on X, at least one of those needed to be challenged.

While Díaz ended up getting away with his lack of ABS judgement in the opening frame, he did not escape fan outrage, as the Royals faithful were not impressed with the former All-Star.

And as mentioned already, it's been a rough start to the year for the veteran in terms of adjusting to the new reality of ABS. Among all catchers to make a challenge this season, Díaz's 33% success rate is tied for the third lowest rate in baseball.

When the Royals inked Díaz to a minor league contract this spring, many thought his presence behind the plate was his calling card to reaching the big leagues. The 35-year-old had only been above-average at the plate in the eyes of wRC+ once in his career, way back in 2018 with the Pirates when he posted a 114 wRC+.

However, last season, he proved his MLB worth with Padres with average or above average marks in framing rates, pop times, runner caught stealing above average and blocks above average. While Díaz still looks fairly similar in that regard in his third catcher's role so far in Kansas City, the game has changed since 2025. ABS is part of defending and he's proving he's not catching on to it. When your bat is below average, like his 93 wRC+ mark indicates, fringe major leaguers like him have to do everything in their power to find value for their club elsewhere.

Outside of Salvador Perez, Royals have struggled with ABS to start the season

As it stands entering Thursday night's series finale in the Windy City, the Royals sit smack dab in the middle when it comes to ABS challenge success rates from a fielding perspective. However, while their 58% success rate is a passing grade, it's been Perez carrying the weight of this catching crew.

We've already discussed Díaz and the fact he's gotten two thirds of challenges wrong, but backup catcher Carter Jensen hasn't fared much better with just a 45% success rate after 20 challenges made.

The Royals seem to have a winning gameplan on paper when it comes to navigating the early years of the ABS in the big leagues, however they're proving to have some holes in their game already.

Again, the ABS Challenge System is largely new for everyone, but to be a team that deploys three catchers on their 26-man roster and sacrifice utility elsewhere on the roster like the Royals do, a one-for-three hit rate with their backstops in such a new key metric like ABS challenges isn't something to boast about.

Jensen has the excuse of developing as a major league game caller as rookie. However, a backstop with as many innings behind the dish as Díaz has, there's not many excuses to be made for him. He simply needs to be better than his 33% success rate to start the year.

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