Reds manager Terry Francona plans to opt out of elective participation in the automated ball-strike challenge trial during spring training but is willing to let Cincinnati’s minor league players accustomed to the procedure use the system.

ABS allows pitchers, hitters and catchers an immediate objection to a ball-strike call. Major League Baseball is not fully adopting the system — which has been used in the minor leagues — this season but began a trial Thursday involving 13 spring training ballparks. Teams are allowed two challenges per game, which must come from on-field players and not the dugout or manager.

“I’m OK with seeing our younger kids do it because they’ve done it,” Francona said. “It’s not a strategy for [the MLB teams], so why work on it? I don’t want to make a farce of anything, but we’re here getting ready for a season and that’s not helping us get ready.”

ABS was used for the first time at Camelback Ranch in Thursday’s spring training opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

For nearly a half-century, the New York Yankees‘ facial-hair policy kept the visages of some of the world’s most famous baseball players whisker-free. Over the past week, with a nudge from a new player and the advice of an All-Star cast, team owner Hal Steinbrenner changed the face of the Yankees. Literally.

“Everyone was kind of stunned,” said Yankees closer Devin Williams, whose desire to sport his signature beard helped spur the rule change that will allow players to wear more than a mustache. “There were a few guys who had heard it was being discussed and a possibility, but that it actually happened — I’m just looking forward to it growing back.”

The announcement by the Yankees on Friday morning that players would be allowed to grow a “well-groomed beard” sent shockwaves through the sport. The draconian rule instituted in 1976 by then-owner George Steinbrenner had been maintained for more than a decade and a half since his death, and Hal Steinbrenner, his son, had shown no signs of relenting.

When Williams showed up to Yankees spring training in Tampa, Florida, last week for the first time after arriving in an offseason trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, he finally came face-to-face with his longtime nemesis: a razor. Never had Williams thrown a pitch in the major leagues without at least a healthy layer of stubble. After shearing his beard, he looked in the mirror, didn’t recognize who was looking back and eventually took his concerns to Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

Williams later relayed the frustration to general manager Brian Cashman, who listened to his points — about how players who feel their best will play their best, about the hypocrisy of a policy implemented to promote clean-cut players applying only to facial hair below the upper lip — and agreed. Steinbrenner then sat down with Williams, and the moment to push for a facial-hair revolution had arrived.

The inconsistent application of the policy — from Goose Gossage’s Fu Manchu to later-than-5-o’clock shadows on the faces of Thurman Munson to Andy Pettitte to Roger Clemens — was just the beginning of the argument for change. There were concerns that players might pass up opportunities to play for the Yankees because of an attachment to their beards. Steinbrenner heard the case and Monday discussed with a cast of stars — alumni Ron Guidry, Pettitte and newly minted Hall of Famer CC Sabathia plus current players Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton — how they saw it.

In the days thereafter, Steinbrenner came away from the conversations convinced: No longer was banning stubble worth the trouble.

“Winning was the most important thing to my father,” Steinbrenner said. “And again, if somebody came and told him that they were very sure that this could affect us getting the players we want to get, all we’re trying to do every offseason, right, is put ourselves in the best position to get a player that we’re trying to get. And if something like this would detract from that, lessen our chances, I don’t know. I think he might be a little apt to do the change that I did than people think because it was about winning.”

Steinbrenner and Cashman announced the change to the team Friday morning — and the players responded with appreciation.

“It’s a big deal,” said Cole, who had worn a beard with his past two teams, Pittsburgh and Houston. “I just threw today, and no one cares. Nobody is talking about how I look. I feel like I obviously, being a Yankee fan [growing up], wanted to emulate everything the Yankees did, so it was kind of cool that I was able to shave and be a part of that legacy. And then it’s also really cool at the same time that we’re transitioning to a different legacy to a certain extent, moving forward.”

Williams will be moving forward by not shaving. He said he expects his beard to grow back in two to three weeks. While he believes his past facial hair “was pretty well-groomed,” he’s happy to cut it shorter if the team desires “because it’s nice to feel like you’re being listened to.”

“Hal took the time to hear Devin out, spoke with other players and made a decision that I’m sure was very difficult,” said Nate Heisler of Klutch Sports Group, Williams’ agent. “The Yankees showed today why they are one of the best organizations in professional sports.”

No longer are they the most fresh-faced. Free agent signings with bearded pasts — from Cole to Stanton to left-hander Carlos Rodon to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to reliever Tim Hill — are free to return to their hirsute ways. Homegrown players can celebrate no-shave November eight months early. And Boone — once himself a cleanly shaven Yankees player — summed up the mood in the clubhouse for everyone.

Said Boone: “It was time for this.”

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Juan Soto homered in his first spring training at-bat for his new team, hitting a solo shot to left-center field in the first inning for the New York Mets against the Houston Astros on Saturday.

Soto signed a record 15-year, $765 million contract this offseason, moving across New York from the Yankees to the Mets.

He hit second in the order Saturday, between Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, and drilled a 426-foot homer on a 2-1 pitch from left-hander Colton Gordon. The following inning, Soto drove in another run with a ground ball.

Soto entered Saturday’s game with a career .302 average and 13 home runs in 86 spring training games.