Two months after Opening Day, here are three things to keep an eye on around the world of baseball this Tuesday:
1. Angel Hernandez retires:
Umpire Angel Hernandez, a controversial figure in Major League Baseball for more than 30 years, is hanging up his hat. He issued a statement via MLB on Monday evening confirming his decision. Hernandez said umpiring in the majors was a “childhood dream” come true, but cited spending “more time with my family” as the primary reason for his retirement. However, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that Hernandez “reached a settlement to leave Major League Baseball,” effective immediately. Bob Nightengale of USA Today adds that the sides had “spent the past two weeks negotiating a financial settlement before reaching a resolution over the weekend.”
Hernandez was one of the most senior umpires in the league, but he has long had a reputation for making incorrect calls and unnecessary ejections. In recent years, he has been in and out of the headlines as he attempted to sue Major League Baseball for racial discrimination. He ultimately lost the suit and his subsequent appeal.
More on Hernandez and his retirement will likely trickle out in the coming days, such as statements from his fellow umpires and the commissioner’s office, and perhaps more news about the terms of his settlement.
2. Cristian Javier, José Urquidy to undergo imaging:
Astros manager Joe Espada says his starting pitchers Cristian Javier and José Urquidy will undergo imaging today (per Chandler Rome of The Athletic). The team will likely offer an update on their respective injuries ahead of tonight’s game against the Mariners. Javier landed on the injured list on Monday (retroactive to May 24) with right forearm discomfort. Urquidy, who has been out all season with a right forearm strain he suffered in spring training, recently left a minor league rehab start with the same issue: more forearm discomfort in his pitching arm.
The Astros have had to deal with several injuries to their starting pitchers this season, though thankfully for Houston, Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander are back in the rotation, as is Ronel Blanco, who was recently suspended for 10 games for violating MLB’s foreign substances policy. Hunter Brown and Spencer Arrighetti currently round out the big league rotation, while recent minor league signing Eric Lauer offers additional depth.
3. MLBTR chat today:
This past weekend brought the news of Ronald Acuña Jr.’s season-ending injury and a report that teams are planning for NPB star Roki Sasaki to be posted this winter. If you have any questions about how your favorite team is playing so far, or perhaps questions that look ahead to the July 30 trade deadline or the upcoming offseason, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will host a live chat with readers today at 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, and that same link will allow you to join in on the chat once it begins or read the transcript after it is completed.
When I read the news about Angel Hernandez last night, well golly, that’s the happiest I’ve been since I had a hemorrhoid removed.
1. Angel Hernandez retires:
And there was much rejoicing.
*waves tiny flags*
yaaaaayyy….
And they ate Robin’s minstrels…
It’s like spring skipped Summer, Fall and Winter and went right back to spring again.
Once he turned me in to a newt!
Did you get better?
After my gig in Aliens.
Thank you MLB!!!!!
Shame on you MLB for allowing this controversial ump to keep his job for 30 years.
It was the Union’s fault.
That’s where the blame falls.
Just another example of why Unions suck.
Best call of Angel Hernandez’s career
Probably the only correct one.
Second correct call. First was to become an ump given the retirement package he likely has …
Angel was a cancer in baseball.
Honor Angel’s retirement by eating a meal off the plate today.
That was excellent
Outstanding
@RunDMC – That’s SOLID GOLD!
Dude, that was LOL personified!
The Youtube channel, Baseball Doesn’t Exist, did a nice presentation about how Hernandez isn’t really the worst umpire and sadly enough, if he was umping in 2008, he’s probably be one of the more accurate umpires in baseball.
Nice to see some positive information about the guy. Sorry to see him go.
I wonder who wanted him gone. A specific player? Maybe a manager? Or did the owners go in one it and say get rid of the bum!
If Manfred wanted robot umps, which it appears he does, Angel was a great way of bringing it to the forefront. That being said, his calls were getting so much negative attention across the board that it’s hard to justify him. While I imagine no ump would speak against him, as he’s one of the few names that is recognizable, his quiet walk away could be a sacrificial lamb to stave off robot umps as Manfred looks like he has his finger on the button itching to bring into the league.
This is the greatest thing to happen to the game in the modern era
Angel Hernandez’s goal was to become such a problem that MLB would force him out with a very nice parting gift. Success.
Lord – Agreed, and he had likely planned the racial discrimination lawsuit for a long long time.
I doubt the additional “terms of the settlement” will ever come out though, as the confidentiality is typically part of an NDA.
Fever, I hadn’t read your comment and basically said the same thing.
dewey – No worries, great minds think alike ;O)
I wouldn’t expect anybody to read through every comment prior to posting, I certainly don’t do that.
Fever, on another front do you think Sale will remain healthy and if he does, will be tire in August and September like he did previously? I’m actually rooting for him but he does have a history of tiring.
dewey – I would never attempt to predict any player’s health, other than to say that Sale is due for a healthy year after 6 injury-plagued seasons.
As for tiring, I’d lean toward no because he is pitching with at least 5 full days rest between every start.
Thanks. Hope not because he showed he wanted to pitch in Boston. Just unfortunate. That said, he throws so hard and reminds me of Bruce Hurst in that both got tired at the end. In 86 when Hurst was great it was because he missed half the season. Hopefully Atlanta continues to monitor Sales.
Um, that’s what an NDA is. It’s a Non-Disclosure Agreement.
coop – Yeah I could have worded that sentence better, my bad.
@Fever, I’m surprised there wasn’t any buzz this was coming because apparently Angel hadn’t umpired a game since May 7th.
Lord – I’m guessing umpire assignments aren’t followed that closely by media, I know I don’t keep track of the umpiring crews. I have a hard enough time keeping track of the players! LOL!!
I knew he would retire when they said the automatic strike zone tech was coming to MLB.
This has nothing to do with that. The owners have wanted him out for a while now. And look, he fricken sued MLB. If you sued your employer, don’t you think they would love to get rid of you? And anyway, Manfred said it likely won’t be ready until 2026.
coop – Right you are about suing current employers, and it affects even future employers. Would I hire someone who has a history of suing their employer? Heck no, fear of lawsuits is real in preventing being hired.
Finally they posted an article about Hernandez
On behalf of #thetroops, I think we can all agree that Memorial Day shall from this point be celebrated instead as the day that Angel Hernández left baseball.
Never has an ump been so bad the league had to pay him to retire. This is Chris Davis levels of umping!
It’s called “addition by subtraction” – frequently your organization gets stronger simply by getting rid of a problem employee.
That was for the union.
Yay the second worst umpire is gone. Doug Eddings is still out there ruining games.
CB Bucknor says “Yo!”
2nd best news in a while
Best news was hearing manfred is retiring
Too bad we have to wait 5 yrs for that
STRIKE. your out of here. If I was in the umpire union I would force the crappy ones out, so you don’t get replaced by the robo umps.
I don’t understand why the union protects weak performers. Unions typically protect salaries and workforce size.
@astros_fan_84 Jeff passan was saying the last time they were on strike the mlb fired all of the crappy ones, so they put something in the contract to protect them, also angel has sued the mlb for discrimination so probably didn’t want to open that can of worms. We definitely won’t hear the whole story but he got a deal and was forced to resign.
I spent 32 years representing management where we had 4 unions. They try to protect everything and anything… and if an employee is terrible, its management’s fault of course.
Unions want more money for less work, end of story. They could care less about quality.
Most carpenters’ Unions require certain levels of skills before you can join. And, of course, they require higher compensation for better skills.
Whereas business wants more work for less money and doesn’t give a darn about quality. Interesting system we live in.
If your business doesn’t give a darn about quality, your business is the problem.
Unions protect weak employees in every business. Unions reward tenure not quality of work.
Union already approved ABS as long as no loss of jobs overall.
CB Bucknor, you’re up.
Doubt we as fans will ever know the structures and union bylaws of umpire contracts but there’s no way it’s a guaranteed lifetime gig. There’s either no performance review during contract negotiations, no system in place to develop qualified candidates to replace bad umps or most likely both along with a long list of other lack of oversight type issues from the league. This is probably the biggest reason why an automatic strike zone system should be put in place.
Isn’t it just wonderful that people are paid to go away due to their overall incompetence?
Angel Hernandez retiring really should be its own article. Such a happy day in baseball.
I am sorry Angel, “Hispanic” is not really a race OR a “minority”. They control an entire continent an a huge chunk of another. You were not made a crew chief because YOU SUCK at your job.
MLB offered him a boat load of money to retire.
@ruff kuntry I bet the union told him to retire because of the media attention, he will probably be a talking head for the mlb network when there’s a call that’s getting challenged.if he’s goes less people will be calling for robo umps even if there’s 5 others that suck as bad
Now that would be hilarious. Let’s go to our eye in the sky Angel Hernandez for his ruling on the instant replay.
@stormintazz I bet you it’s going to happen, the dude got some kinda deal you don’t abruptly retire during the season, and say you want to spend more time with your family when your 61. I’m not against it either he can’t screw up the game anymore.
Gentleman.. any of you remember Ron Luiciano?? Not sure how good or bad he was as umpire but enjoyed his rifts with Earl weaver… also I remember he would shoot you OUT on a close play….. Big John McSherry and the animated Terry Tata.. and his SO punch out… Damn I’ve watched too much baseball growing up!!!l
I wonder if the all the recent attention to his horrible calls via social media had something to do with it…it seemed like every time I was on TikTok or saw a Youtube short he was popping up. Although I never get tired of seeing the Kyle Schwarber explosion.
I would think so. Social media ridicule is not a good look. My algorithm exposed me to a non stop diet of Hernandez mocking this year. I wonder what it cost them to get rid of that problem.
So the first Latino umpire- and an extremely fair and humble ump- retires, and MLBTR posters celebrate
Foul ball.
The same posters who will celebrate when Arte- the first Latino owner in MLB history and the one who brought Anaheim their first and only championship- sells the team.
Strike 2.
Angel’s “childhood dream” became everyone else’s nightmare. Good riddance!
Angel out…automated strike zone in!
The man who single handedly robbed Armando Galarraga have the biggest achievement of his career finally retires. Good riddance…
I believe that was Jim Joyce.
Poor Angel was so bad he’s now getting blamed for calls that he had nothing to do with. Yes, it was Jim Joyce. (and to be fair, Joyce handled that entire situation with dignity and class….I’m sure nobody, including Galarraga, feels worse about that call than Joyce).
Yep and his 10-foot wide strikezone on Livan Hernandez in the 1997 World Series was unforgettable.
Speaking of bad umps back in the day…two words: Eric Gregg.
Didn’t want to mention being an also full figure man but his livan Hernandez game was epic!!!
Boy, I hope the door hits him on the way out. And he’ll find a way to say the door checked it’s swing.
LOL. He has to SEE the door first.
Thank you!
In the past few weeks, MLB has signed a streaming deal with no blackouts and gotten rid of Angel “Hellen Keller” Hernandez. #Winning
I miss Gary Darling (most f bombs ever!) and Lance Barksdale.
MLB had to do something with Hernandez. It could have gotten ugly on the field at some point.
This call doesn’t need any type of review
Hernandez was hands down the worst ump I’ve ever seen in the 55+ years I’ve been watching ball games both for his bad calls and his demeanor. And yes, I’ve seen CB Bucknor, Country Joe West, Eric Gregg, etc.. Honestly, I don’t know what took MLB so long to just buy this guy out. There’s no need for calls of racism or union bashing here. He was just a lousy ump who was bad for the game.
God challenges the Devil to a Baseball game
“How can i lose?” God says “i have all of the best players up here”
“How can i lose?” the Devil says “i have all the Umpires down here”…
Angel Hernandez= worst umpire since Eric Gregg
Articles keep calling Angel Hernandez “controversial” because they don’t want to say, “arrogant pile of garbage.”
This does not pass the smell test. We might be getting the result we all wanted but we’re not getting the full story here. If all it took was a payout, approach Laz Diaz, CB Bucknor and whoever else is severely underperforming.
Next up, CB Bucknor and the clown ump that throws his chewing gum all over the field.
Good for Angel Hernandez! Retire and spend time with your family! I’m sure you missed them too all these years…probably missed them more than the average mlb umpire. Woefully, and utterly missed them sometimes.