MLB managers should be challenging a lot more in 2023

In 2022, Showalter challenged 33 times and got 26 overturned calls (tied for the most in MLB). That’s 0.20 challenges per game and 0.16 calls per game overturned in the Mets’ favor. Through 55 games in 2023, he has challenged 11 times — also 0.20 challenges per game.

Far more meaningful, however, is that those 11 challenges have resulted in just two calls overturned — 0.04 per game, or one-fourth last year’s rate — tied with Padres manager Bob Melvin, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and Angels manager Phil Nevin for the fewest successful challenges this year. After finishing last season with the highest success rate, Showalter has the second-lowest success rate this season, and only Melvin has challenged effectively less often.

The point is not to pick on Showalter and the Mets; rather, the disparity between last season and this — and the stakes of every favorable call for a team with high expectations enduring a slow start — help to illustrate that the league at large doesn’t seem to have adapted. In 2022, MLB managers as a whole issued 0.22 challenges per game at a 49.0% success rate, which means that 0.11 calls per game were overturned based on manager challenges.

Remarkably, through a third of the 2023 season, managers are challenging calls at exactly the same pace, 0.22 per game. But with the time to internally review a play slashed, they’re less successful, getting just 45.8% of calls overturned.