JULY 16: The umpires presently expected not to participate are Tom Hallion, Mike Winters, Fieldin Culbreth, Phil Cuzzi, Brian Gorman, Jerry Layne, Scott Barry, Kerwin Danley, Sam Holbrook, and Gerry Davis, per Sean McAdam of BostonSportsJournal.com (Twitter link).
JULY 14: Eleven MLB umps have exercised their right to opt out of (or otherwise decided not to participate in) the 2020 season, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports on Twitter.
That’s a rather large number of umpires, in the context of the league’s typical overall roster. The present list includes about ninety umps in all.
The league had entered the season planning on 19 crews, as usual. That would involve 76 umpires. If anything, there’ll now be a greater need for reserves given the possibilities of individuals or crews requiring isolation due to the coronavirus situation.
While that’s a significant loss of experience, it shouldn’t be all that difficult to find alternatives. Given the unfortunate cancellation of the 2020 minor-league season, there will be no shortage of candidates from the lower ranks to take a step up to the ranks of MLB umpires.
Hoping Angel is one of them
Sadly, no
Dam that sucks and so does Angel
The less umps the better. Time to let technology call balls and strikes anyway.
Because there are no plays at the plate requiring umpires, right?
Oi vei.
And Kermit, and Joe west, Wish they would’ve taken the summer off
Please include Joe West and Angel Hernandez…
Don’t forget C B Buckner and Joe West. At least Kerwin Danley is out.
Danley- yes that’s a silver lining! I’ve often wondered how often MLB tests the vision of the umpires, esp those that are 40 yrs old+ Our eyesight gradually becomes near or far sighted as we grow older- I’d like to know how often their vision is tested
West and Hernandez are two of the most incompetent & arrogant fools that I’ve ever seen in any walk of life. The fact that they both still have jobs is mind blowing…they’re wrong more often than weather forecasts!
They have two important things going for them one is experience and the other is a union, if Joe West Angel Hernandez and Kermit perform the way they do it a regular job they would’ve been fired a long time ago
those AAA umps are probably giddy right now
I’m glad they finally get a chance. Many have waited year after year while incompetent guys like Bucknor and Hernandez block them out.
I hope they shine and MLB is able to get umpires based on performance in the future.
Amen
The fact that those two clowns still have jobs really highlights the downside of unions. How does a multi-billion dollar industry not have the ability to prevent incompetence from continuing to negatively effect the product it sells?
Overweight old guys? Probably a good idea.
This season could have been such a good opportunity to test auto-umps. And now we have an umpire too stubborn to wear a mask and could potentially cause the season to be cancelled
What? And what?
Is the HP umpire refusing to wear his mask too?
You guys I literally umpire Little League baseball for a living and I can confirm that everything is ok. We run tournaments with hundreds of ppl every weekend across multiple sites in my city alone with nobody there being in any real danger, while having nowhere near the amount of money MLB has for “extra protection”. I promise you if we can hold tournaments with far less safety equipment available to us and far more ppl, but yet safe as can be, MLB will be just fine.
Tournaments? Wow. That’s a really terrible idea.
We’ll probably see an uptick in performance, especially if West, Bucknor, Hernandez, or Eddings is opting out (although I know we’re already not that lucky with West).
There have been studies that show the younger umps are statically better than the older crowd.
Statically? Umps are supposed to be perfect with every call but yet you can make spelling errors? Look how easy it is to not be perfect
West is the worst
And he lives for it with his smirks
Joe West reminds me of Dave Hester from Storage Wars….they both really get off by being the most despised people in their field
Who knows, maybe we’ll find some good young umps from the minors to replace some of the poorer MLB umps (you know who they are).
Joe West is 63 games away from the all time record for games umpired.
I know anecdotally he’s terrible, but before I jumped into the Joe West discussion, I did a quick search to remind myself.
“…over the last 11 seasons [West] has averaged 21 incorrect calls a game, or 2.3 per inning.” (bu.edu/articles/2019/mlb-umpires-strike-zone-accur…)
WHAT?!?!
2.3 incorrect calls per inning!
Balls and strikes?
Theres no way. Joe west is known for having one of the best strike zones
?????? Ironman_4life must be the father of Joe West. I can only hope his comment was pure sarcasm lol
Wow. West’s strike zone is incredibly inconsistent, too. What is a strike one inning is a ball another. And if you dare try to correct him, he will not call another strike for your squad.
I don’t understand why MLB isn’t just using the Robots Ump this year. I mean if there was ever a time to do if for the safety of the players and Umps this is it. Really hard to argue against it this year.
There is an umpires union to deal with.
And data collection to fine-tune accuracy.
Who cares a bout a damn union when we are trying to save lives??
The unions do. All of’em.
What are they going to do? Go on strike? I don’t think the scab robot umpires would have much to fear.
Will there not be the same amount of umps though? Someone’s gonna be at home plate calling the plays and relaying the robots calls.
This season is going to be a disaster in every way, shape and form.
Was 1981 a disaster? So sixty games is enough.
Was any player that you know of hospitalized?
I’m afraid for managers and coaches, but I don’t see this as a disaster.
So why do you think it will be a disaster?
Umm,, IIRC, 1981 was a strike, not a pandemic.
This doesn’t seem to affect healthy 30 year olds, so why is this going to be a disaster on all levels.
You think a 30 year player will have a career treating infection?
You think they can play through it though? If half the Dodgers get it and they run their AAA team out there for 10 games and go 1-9 and miss the playoffs by a couple games, is that not a disaster of a season across the board? Where did anyone say we’ll see career ending infections?
poor example. the Dodgers AAA team would probably be able to hang with most of baseball.
Half the 85 Cubs were injured. No one cared but Cubs’ fans.
Doesn’t affect healthy 30 year olds? Tell it to Freddy Freeman.
Halo, everything about the season just spells out waste of time to me. Not sure it needs to be explained? Players sitting out. Umpires sitting out. People sick. No fans in stadiums. Road broadcasters not traveling. And yes, finally, 60 games is a joke, and everyone needs to quit bringing up 1981. How is that remotely similar to 2020?
As a child, my little league team only played 20ish games, but that trophy we won counts just fine in my book.
Dude, are you being forced to waste your time on the season? For me, the summer is wasted without baseball. I’m so freaking bored I watched some dumabss show on Bravo last night after I simmed about two dozen games on DMB.
ImAdude – I agree 100%. Not sure how some people aren’t getting this
Run for your lives
Where are you running and why?
I’m just here to see how many people hope it’s Joe West and/or Angel Hernandez
success achieved!
Can’t wait for the computer umpires calling balls and strikes
The robo is for balls and strikes only. The human umpires would still be on the field. Home plate ump would receive info electronically on pitch calls. There’s never been talk of only using “robots” without humans. Never.
cbssports.com/mlb/news/robot-umpires-how-it-works-…
Yes but if they don’t have to call balls and strikes they don’t have to be right on top of the catcher. They can easily distance themselves
Read please
On a side note…. if anyone is interested, the Rangers will be live streaming their intrasquad game today at 6:00 pm Texas time on Rangers.com. Not sure if other teams are doing this or not. Might be a good chance to see some young players. Heard that Calhoun is probably out with Hip Flexor, and we know about Chirinos’s ankle.
not a Rangers fan but might watch all the same
Joe West should not be allowed to take the field in 2020 without a mask. Period, end of story. This is just another example of West’s narcissism jumping out. He has always believed he was more important than he actually was.
If he doesn’t and gets the virus he will be off the field. Personal responsibility. His choice, regardless of how anyone feels about it.
he will never reach Leslie Nielsen status as an umpire Frank Drebin
Unless he can sing the national anthem.
Are umps not tested? No reason to wear a mask if you don’t have ro.
I’m so pro mask. Since asymptomatic people can have this, and spread this, everyone needs to wear a mask.
However, if people are being tested everyday, what are the odds of them spreading it? It caught so early. Is it detectable before a person can spread it?
I don’t know.
I can’t imagine umping home (which I did when I was younger, plus I played catcher when I was a player) with a mask. I’ve read that oxygen deprivation while wearing a mask is real.
There are huge doubts about asymptomatic spread right now.
There are huge doubts about asymptomatic spread right now
‘Doubts’. That’s the problem. There is so much we still don’t know. This might be true, that might be false.
Who knows anything?
Two days ago.
Studies have shown that people can be contagious in the first several days of having the virus, before they show symptoms. One study actually estimated that more than 40% of novel coronavirus cases were transmitted in the presymptomatic phase.
Oxygen deprivation while wearing a mask is an old wives’ tale. How do doctors perform 8-12 hour surgeries in masks? The mask is just a filtration system for particles and not gasses. Oxygen easily gets in when you breathe and CO2 is easily expelled when you breathe out. I’m sure there is some wacky study out there that says O2 deprivation could happen while wearing a mask, just like you could potentially get CO poising while driving your car. I believe in actual science and proof. If life saving surgeons can wear masks safely, that’s more than good enough for me!
I am wishing the very best health to everyone.
Cut the number of umps to 2 (first and second). Have robo umps at home (so no ump). If a call is missed, there will be replay anyway.
Better for social distancing, better calls, and fewer people to impact the bubble.
You still need the home plate ump for plays at the plate, catching balks, calling balls fair or foul down the line, bunted balls that hit the plate, etc. if the home plate ump was taken away, there would be 10+ replays per game just to get calls correct that the home ump would normally make. It would slow the game way down and we don’t need that!
Since the minors aren’t happening this would be a terrific opportunity for minor league umpires reaching the show. There is a good news scenario here.
The umpires with the longest time employed in the Major Leagues were the ones with the most incorrect balls/strikes calls. If this subset of Umps come from that pool, The MLB ought to be better off this year without them
if you are a twins fan you must want to get rid of phil cuzzi, too!
As much as people like to rag on umpires I hope we never move away from human called balls and strikes. Wood bats and human umpires are needed if we want to have any historical importance to the game in present time.
Do we put an asterisk on everyone’s statline once robo-umpires take effect? Surely we’ll have to distinguish the time when batter OBP and pitcher BB/9 were so low due to those human umpires.
If actually necessary, wouldn’t the asterisks be applied to the time before calls were accurate?
You think a robo strike zone is going to lead to more walks?
Maybe initially as pitchers adjust to something different. Pitchers would have a uniform strike zone no matter the stadium, time of day, or umpire. I would imagine after some time that would be beneficial for strike throwing.
Bad calls are missed both ways now.
google.com/amp/s/fanbuzz.com/mlb/worst-mlb-umpires…
This article touches on where most of the mistakes/bias’s occur. Pretty interesting.
Thanks for that link jbig
Right now somewhere near Angel Stadium the best MLB umpire in modern day history is sitting by his phone waiting for the call to return. He’s tanned, rested and ready.
Baseball fans everywhere are waiting for the return of …E N R I CO P A L L A Z Z O
Enrico Pallazzo sadly passed away. But Joe West is saying his death is counted in the Covid death total.
Get rid of them at home plate which should of been done 2 years ago and problem solved. Oh sorry I forget Manfred isn’t used to solving problems just talk about them and do NOTHING
I’m sure Angel will work. We aren’t going to be that lucky. West already blew one call when he said he didn’t believe in the virus. Many more to follow
It’s time to retire these 80 year old divas before they ruin MLB even more than what they’ve done.
Jane Fonda is an MLB ump?
They act like it
How does Ange Hernandez keep
His job ? How does he get picked for post season ? I know he sued for discrimination but as a fellow Cuban I can say he is an embarrassment. Every time they show one of his awful calls I cringe. There has to be a way to get rid of the bad ones. There have to be dozens of guys ready to take his spot in the minors.
This opt out stuff is really getting tiresome.
I hope the minor league umps take your jobs for good….
Personal health decision. It’s none of your business.
Because this stuff affects everyone, of course it’s our business.
However, people in this country have a right to medical privacy…. even during a pandemic.
The poster called it tiresome. Obviously there is an agenda there. People need to stuff that crap.
I didn’t agree with his point, but oh my goodness, the more info we all have the better. Because during a pandemic, we are all in this together.
Jeff – replacing the umpires physically isn’t the issue. The experience they have, no matter how minimal, is the reason they and not the minors umps are in the majors. NHL experienced this issue in the 90’s – “have another donut” became an infamous line causing ‘replacement officials’ to be called in. Disastrous for game.
Angel please go
I take away two main points from this article:
1- These umpires make too much money, relative to their performance, if they can opt out of working for a year
2- Umps are just as bad at reading baseball’s ideological shifts. There couldn’t be a worse time to prove they’re not needed at work than when work is strongly considering replacing their position anyway. Hats off to ya!
Where’s Joe West? That fat boy would be a prime candidate for Covid.