LA Angels Weekend News Crash: Greatness

The Incredible Shrinking Slugger: What MLB’s New ABS Measurements Really Revealed

For decades, MLB height listings were treated like dating profile stats: add an inch or two for “professionalism.” But in 2026, the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system officially turned into the league’s most honest tape measure—and the results are a game-changer for the record books.

The Death of the “Tall Tale”
To calibrate the new electronic strike zones, MLB required every player to be measured—no shoes, no hats, just the cold, hard truth. While we all suspected some “creative” accounting, the data revealed some serious league-wide shrinkage. 

While Jose Altuve remained at his long-standing 5’6″, other players saw their “paper” heights vanish. Red Sox infielder Caleb Durbin saw his height drop from a 5’8″ college listing down to an official 5’6 ¼”. Further up the scale, the drops were even more drastic: 

• Gavin Lux: Slipped from a listed 6’2″ to a measured 5’11”.
• Bo Naylor: Dropped from 6’0″ down to 5’9″.
• Alex Bregman: Has progressively “shrunk” from 6’0″ in 2024 to his official 5’10” measurement this season.

Sure, some of these guys might have had their egos bruised when their official height dropped three inches overnight—but there’s a massive silver lining: their strike zones shrank along with them. In the ABS era, every inch you “lose” at the doctor’s office is a pitch that’s now an inch further away from being a strike. A bruised ego is a small price to pay for a few more walks. 

The “Center of the Plate” Revolution
The biggest technical shift, however, isn’t just the height—it’s where the ball is measured.
For over a century, the strike zone was a 3D pentagon starting at the front of home plate. Human umpires almost always called the pitch based on where it crossed that “front door.”

The 2026 ABS Change: The zone is now a 2D plane measured strictly at the midpoint (center) of home plate.
This is a nightmare for “sweeper” sliders and big curveballs. A pitch that clips the very front corner of the plate but breaks out of the zone by the time it reaches the midpoint is now a ball. Conversely, a “back-door” slider that starts outside but hooks into the midpoint is a strike. 

The Verdict
The 2026 season has proven that the “eye test” is dead. Between the corrected heights of stars like Aaron Judge (whose massive 21-inch zone is still 3.5 inches taller than Altuve’s) and the shift to the midpoint measurement, the cat-and-mouse game between pitcher and hitter has been completely rewritten.

In the ABS era, it doesn’t matter how tall you say you are on your baseball card—the computer knows exactly where your knees are. With this advantage gained – we might start actually seeing real heights of players posted in college and high school.
But if they ever post a dating profile, I think those heights might be exaggerated again.