MLB replay corrects listed calls, not every disputed judgment.

The ruleset and competition used here

This page covers Major League Baseball in 2026. Its baseline is the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball's 2026 Official Baseball Rules, especially Rule 8.02 on umpire decisions, together with MLB's current online Replay Review and Manager Challenge regulations, checked on 26 August 2026.

Rule 8.02(a) ordinarily makes an umpire's judgment decision final. MLB's separate replay regulations create a limited procedure for the categories listed below. They are MLB competition rules, not a universal baseball code for NCAA, high-school, youth or other professional competitions.

How to test a replay request

1. Name the call. The manager must identify each ruling to be challenged, not merely point to the play.
2. Check the list. Decide whether that precise ruling is reviewable; a reviewable event may contain a non-reviewable judgment.
3. Choose the route. Use an available manager challenge, or determine whether the crew chief may initiate review.
4. Apply the evidence standard. Compare the video with the ruling on the field; replay is not a fresh call with no starting presumption.
5. Reconstruct the result. If a call changes, place both clubs where they would have been had the correct call been made initially.

One play may contain several challenged calls

Each club starts most MLB games with one manager challenge. It starts an All-Star Game or postseason game with two. A manager may include as many reviewable calls from one play as desired in a single challenge, but must make the umpire aware of the specific calls.

If the replay official overturns at least one challenged call, the club retains the challenge even if another challenged call is upheld. If none is overturned, the club loses it. Once all available manager challenges are exhausted, the manager cannot initiate another review; late crew-chief authority is a different route.

Both managers may challenge different calls from the same play. MLB directs the replay official to consider them in the order the events occurred. If an earlier ruling makes a later challenge moot, the later call is not reviewed and that club is not charged.

The hands-up signal starts a 15-second decision period

The manager must hold up their hands immediately after the play to alert the umpires that a challenge is being considered. That alert is not yet the challenge. The umpire starts a 15-second timer, and the manager must request review before it reaches zero or the request is denied.

The manager must specify the call or calls but need not explain why each ruling is believed wrong. The replay official cannot use that request to search for unrelated errors elsewhere in the play.

Home-run calls have broader access

A crew chief may initiate review of a potential home-run call at any time without using a club's challenge. Beginning in the eighth inning, the crew chief may initiate review of any otherwise reviewable call, either independently or at the request of a manager who has no manager challenges remaining.

This does not make every eighth- or ninth-inning dispute reviewable, and it does not guarantee that the crew chief will grant a manager's request. Eligibility under the reviewable-call list remains the first test.

The categories MLB permits replay to decide

• Potential home runs: whether the ball left the field, struck a relevant object, stayed in play after striking a fence or railing, was fair or foul, or involved spectator interference at the boundary.
• Other boundary calls: whether a live ball left play, bounced out, struck a fence, railing or obstacle, involved spectator interference, or was caught near a stadium boundary.
• Specified fair/foul calls: only a batted ball that first lands at or beyond the set position of the first- or third-base umpire.
• Force and tag plays: whether a fielder tagged a runner or touched the base in time and whether the runner acquired the base.
• Outfield catches: whether an outfielder caught a fly ball or line drive before it hit the ground. The equivalent catch/no-catch ruling on a ball fielded in the infield is not eligible.
• Specified baserunning facts: whether a runner passed a preceding runner, touched a base, or scored before the third out.
• Hit by pitch: whether the pitch touched the batter, clothing or bat—but not whether it was in the strike zone or whether the batter attempted to avoid it.
• Tag-ups: whether a runner left early or properly retouched after a caught fly ball.
• Home-plate collisions: application of Official Baseball Rule 6.01(i).
• Double-play slide interference: application of Rule 6.01(j), rather than every kind of interference or obstruction.
• Boundary-call placement: the placement of the batter and runners after a boundary ruling.

A close call is not automatically an eligible call

Ordinary replay does not review the plate umpire's ball-or-strike judgment, a check swing, balk, infield-fly ruling, or a general obstruction or interference judgment outside the categories MLB has specifically listed. Nor can replay decide the non-reviewable part of a mixed issue: on a hit-by-pitch review, for example, video may establish what the pitch touched but not whether the batter tried to avoid it.

An on-field rules discussion is also different from replay. Under Official Baseball Rule 8.02(b)–(c), a manager who believes a decision conflicts with the rules may ask the umpire who made it for a correct ruling; that umpire may consult the crew. That process addresses rule application and crew information, not a manager's entitlement to video review.

A ball-strike challenge is not a manager replay challenge

MLB introduced the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System for 2026 Spring Training, championship-season and postseason games. It is separate from Replay Review: only the batter, pitcher or catcher may challenge a ball-or-strike call, and the player must signal immediately by tapping a cap or helmet, without help from the dugout or another player.

Each club begins with two ABS challenges, retains a successful one, and receives a challenge at the start of an extra inning if it has none remaining. Those ABS challenges do not replace or add to the manager's replay allotment. Thus “balls and strikes are not reviewable” remains true for ordinary Replay Review, but no longer means that every MLB pitch-location call is beyond technological correction.

2026 venue exception: MLB's April implementation guide said ABS would operate in every game at an MLB ballpark but not at the Mexico City Series, Field of Dreams game or Little League Classic, because those three games were outside MLB parks and lacked the required infrastructure.

“Stands” does not mean “confirmed”

MLB uses three descriptions. A call is confirmed when the video supports it, changed or overturned when clear and convincing evidence shows it was wrong, and stands when the available video does not supply enough evidence to change it. A blocked angle can therefore produce “stands” without proving the field ruling correct.

MLB says replay officials are expected to decide within two minutes, with exceptions permitted; it is not an absolute two-minute expiry that automatically ends every review.

Replay reconstructs what likely would have happened

If a call changes, the replay official has discretion to place both clubs in the position they would have occupied had the correct call been made on the field. That can change outs, runs and runner locations. Placement is not automatically the last base each runner reached while reacting to the incorrect call.

A manager's later strategic decision that was influenced by the incorrect call is nullified; the manager may reaffirm or change it after the replay result. The replay official's decision is final. MLB states that club personnel who continue to argue the contested call or replay decision once review has begun are to be ejected, and a replay judgment cannot be protested.

A blocked angle leaves a stolen-base out in place

Situation: the runner is called out stealing second. The manager timely identifies both the tag and the runner's acquisition of second as the challenged call.

MLB 2026 ruling: the tag play is reviewable. If no angle clearly shows whether the hand reached the base before the tag, the call stands and the club loses its challenge. “Stands” expresses insufficient evidence; it does not convert the close field ruling into a video-confirmed out.

One challenge addresses two force plays

Situation: on a ground ball, the manager disputes the force out at second and the force out at first and identifies both before review.

MLB 2026 ruling: both reviewable calls may be included in one manager challenge. If replay changes the first call but confirms the second, the changed call means the club retains its challenge. Officials then reconstruct the outs and runner positions produced by the corrected sequence.

Hit-by-pitch video answers only the contact question

Situation: the plate umpire awards first base, and the defense challenges that the pitch struck the knob of the bat rather than the batter's hand.

MLB 2026 ruling: replay may determine whether the pitch touched the bat, the batter or the batter's clothing. It may not decide whether the batter made a sufficient attempt to avoid the pitch. The decisive question must stay within the reviewable contact category.

A potential home run does not require a club challenge

Situation: in the third inning, a drive strikes near the top of the outfield wall and remains in play; the crew is uncertain whether it cleared the boundary.

MLB 2026 ruling: the crew chief may initiate a potential-home-run review immediately, even if neither manager challenges and without charging either club. The replay result may require the officials to award a home run or place the batter and runners to reconstruct the correct outcome.

The challenge count can change by event

MLB's standard allotment is one manager challenge in most games and two in All-Star and postseason games. The 2026 World Baseball Classic used the 2025 Official Baseball Rules, adopted the MLB Replay Regulations, gave each manager one replay challenge outside the Championship Round and two in Championship Round games, and did not use ABS.

That WBC variation should not be projected onto other international, college, school or youth baseball. Use the regulations appointed for the actual competition, including any tournament amendment or replay-technology limitation.

Five claims to avoid

• “A successful challenge reviews the whole play.” It reviews the specific eligible calls identified and accepted for review.
• “Everything is reviewable from the eighth inning.” Crew-chief authority expands, but the reviewable-call list does not.
• “If a call stands, replay proved it right.” “Stands” may mean only that the evidence was inconclusive.
• “MLB teams now have three replay challenges.” The two 2026 ABS challenges form a separate pool controlled by eligible players.
• “Replay automatically awards every base reached.” The replay official reconstructs the likely result of the correctly called play.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• Office of the Commissioner of Baseball — Official Baseball Rules, 2026 edition, Rules 6.01(i), 6.01(j) and 8.02
• Major League Baseball — current Replay Review Regulations: reviewable calls, crew-chief authority, evidence, outcomes and placement
• Major League Baseball — current Manager Challenge Regulations: allotments, 15-second procedure and multi-call reviews
• Major League Baseball — Joint Competition Committee notice, 23 September 2025: ABS Challenge System approved for 2026
• Major League Baseball — 2026 ABS implementation guide, 13 April 2026: procedure, allotments and venue exceptions
• World Baseball Classic, Inc. — 2026 tournament rules: 2025 OBR baseline, replay allotment and no ABS

Checked on 26 August 2026 against the 2026 Official Baseball Rules and MLB's live replay-regulation pages. MLB publishes the detailed replay procedure separately from the numbered Official Baseball Rules; the live pages do not display a separate season label. MLB's September 2025 ABS adoption notice announced broad 2026 use, while its April 2026 implementation guide identified three non-MLB-park exceptions; this page follows the later implementation detail. Event regulations may supplement or modify the MLB baseline.