Derek Shelton was ejected for questioning the ABS system

Since there's always a first time for everything, yesterday (Sunday) in Major League Baseball saw the first ejection related to the ABS system in MLB history.

And that ejection went to Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton during the ninth inning of his team's 8-6 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

With one out and a runner on first base, Josh Bell appeared to draw a walk on two separate occasions. First, a pitch by reliever Ryan Helsley was called a ball, but catcher Adley Rutschman challenged the call and the decision was overturned.

Then, after a foul ball brought the count to three balls and two strikes, Helsley's pitch was called a ball. This time, it was Helsley who challenged, and the call was overturned to a strikeout. Instead of having two runners on base with one out, the Twins still had only one with two outs.

“He's arguing with the robots. You can't defeat the robots” is an incredible call https://t.co/dKnImrSve2

— Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) March 29, 2026

Shelton was furious. He wasn't disputing the pitch, which hit the strike zone, but he didn't think Helsley had challenged the call quickly enough.

You could see Shelton saying something like “it's too late” as he protested to the umpires. He was then ejected by home plate umpire Chris Segal.

However, looking at the play a little more closely, you can see that Helsley touched his cap immediately after the umpire's call, though he did so in a rather unconvincing manner before waiting a second and tapping his head again to confirm his decision. It's possible that Shelton only saw the second instance.

With the new ABS system, players must request a challenge by tapping their heads immediately after the play.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.