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.
To quote Curly Bill: “Well… Bye.”
Joe – Which was the better news, this retirement or Joe West’s?
FPG I’d take West over Angel any day. West has the advantage of being a fellow North Carolinian.
At least West was a good ump in terms of balls & strikes. This Angel was a devil when it came to making judgment calls. Both inflamed situations unnecessarily but I’d take Country Joe over Hernandez any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Joe – Safe to say your favorite ump was Richie Garcia?
LOL! He should be in the HOF.
As long as West didn’t try to sing.
As someone else noted, West wasn’t regarded as a bad umpire. He was annoying because he’d insert himself into the game, so we’d all notice him more when he blew a call, but overall he rated pretty well. Not the case with Angel Hernandez.
Next up: Laz Diaz!
@the coop, @joe
Yeah, I liked country Joe too. Did lots of under the radar stuff for kids, and held his ground under pressure. His stand off with Bumgarner was high noon classic stuff.
Hernandez would exacerbate the problem, toss the player/coach and look like a clueless tool in the process.
Hoping Hernandez is DDA’d to little league for a season and a half in order to get the payoff.
In hindsight that might be unfair.
On the kids….
Steve Palermo was the best ump I ever noticed. Truth be told, those who do their job well shouldn’t be talked about that much.
This! The better the umpire, the less you know their name.
How many of you have heard of Pat Hoberg? How about Quinn Wolcott? Ryan Wills?
Exactly!
Jocko Conlan?
Joe, I clown on Angel’s umping abilities all day… But, You know, Angel really wasn’t that bad of a person, just a terrible umpire. I was at a reds/Indians game in Cincy about 5 years ago and Angel had 3b and my son and I were sitting on the 3b line and in between innings he came over and talked to fans and had multiple conversations with my son asking him what positions he plays and all the old school BS about listening to his parents and stuff… I thought that was pretty cool.
Lord, I was going to say next up: CB Buknor. That guy has attitude problems. I can still recall Lou Piniella’s epic meltdowns that were usually instigated by CB.
Fever,
usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/05/28/angel-her…
Oops… well done Joe!!!
Now if CB Buckner follows him out the door, we all need to go buy a lottery ticket.
Will be interesting to see what terms come out as to the agreement. Most will probably not come out due to a confidentiality section but I’m guessing the league paid for him to leave in exchange for an agreement that will prevent further suits.
100% they had to pay him to leave. He’s so arrogant and delusional that he likely has no concept of just how awful he is. When players have the ability to challenge balls and strikes he would sue the tech companies and claim they are racist.
If they use the same challenge system in MLB they have in AAA right now, games would take 4+ hours with Hernandez behind the plate.
And Laz Diaz.
Like yesterday. That guy is terrible.
Reading that this morning was like getting a birthday present from MLB.
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.
Did their presentation use the actual data that is widely available and which shows beyond a shadow of a doubt how bad he was?
@semut
Yes, they did. They even pointed out that one of the games he umped, he actually did better based on the MLB rating than the X/Twitter Umpire Report card.
Meanwhile, fans are using their emotions to rate someone. I wonder who has the data and who has the crybabies.
MLB paid Hernandez GTFO and they have the data. He really was as bad as fans AND players believe he is.
This is 2024, not 2008. And if pigs had wings they would fly.
The best umpires won’t miss 3 calls in 4 innings in the playoffs, or striking someone out on 3 pitches a foot off the plate (I’m still amazed at angels last blunder behind home plate)
@sad tormented neglected mariners fan
True, but I don’t think you’ve watched Maddux pitch or most of the umpires in the 90s that were given 3 inches off the plate as strikes. If we’re crying about baseball umpiring today, imagine how terrible it was back in the 20s.
@ justsaying
That’s data. MLB has seen an increase in umpire accuracy since the beginning of the pitch tracking era in 2008, umpires have improved their accuracy in calling balls and strikes every single year. Accuracy has gone from 81.3% to 92.4%. If an improvement of 11.1% in 15 years doesn’t sound particularly big, consider it this way: incorrect calls have been cut by nearly 60%.
blogs.fangraphs.com/we-may-never-find-out-how-good…
80%? During a game there is over 200 pitches . That means 40 pitches are are called incorrectly. That totally changes the game.
Bring on automation.
@Non Roster Invitee
MLB says it’s not ready, even for 2025.
Its ready. Has been for years. Go watch a AAA game. Its working well there. Both full ABS and the challenge system that is used on weekends.
If you believe Manfred, I have beachfront property in Arizona I would like to sell you.
While the automated ump will have its day, that 80% figure was 15+ years ago, not yesterday. Most umps get a couple wrong, expanding the zone a bit. It’s the egregious umps that are really inappropriate.
Not a couple wrong unless you’re talking about one inning. Just watch a game and mark down how many pitches are called incorrectly. I have and it’s more or less around two dozen.
When I umped college baseball I had to score 90% or I would get written up. Too many write ups and back to high school ball you go.
His problems weren’t exclusively ball/strike though. He had a randomly quick ejection thumb some days, his checked swing calls were often wrong and his laconic style when challenged just infuriated people even further. There are many younger, less famous umps doing a far better job these days and it’s well past time to let them move up. Thanks Angel, enjoy the time with the grandkids, here’s your watch.
@crise
I’ve watched a few umpire ejections recently that were not linked to him and it’s odd that you’re bringing this up for him. How is it possible that the umpire ejects Boone from the game when a fan said something to the umpire? This seems to be more of a problem with umpires in general having a greater sense of importance than they really have.
@DrDick
I’m his business partner. We’ve been working to make sure baseball strike zones are bad to bring in robo-umps that we’re invested in to make money.
It worked. ABS is coming. It will be here in the next CBA.
Its Angel’s account, everyone else must be wrong, no way he fooled so many eyeballs actually watching the game. Its clearly a mistake by us ALL for the past how many decades?? Good riddance. I bet there’s way more than 1 YouTube channel showing exactly how “great” he actually was. People believe literally anything they see on the internet over what they see IRL, SMFH.
@Joe Kerr
So, a random internet user raging about bad calls vs. data? It’s hard to decide which one is right… Oh noez! My favorite team lost the game because umpires are humans. If only we could play the game on the computer and no bad calls would ever happen!
wait, so now your argument is that when we have technology to make correct calls, no, f that, let’s keep them wrong. where is the common sense?
Angel Hernandez has the 3 worst strike calls since 2015 when they started using pitch track and later Trackman. One was 6.75″ off the plate.
He has the two worst ball calls with one being 4.5″ inside the strike zone.
He also hold the record for largest percentage of borderline calls, pitches within 1 ball diameter (2.9″) inside or outside of the strike zone called incorrectly. He has had 21 games in the last 3 seasons in which his overall accuracy was under 90% and borderline calls missed was greater than 40%.
Because of the 1/10 of 1 inch accuracy of the Trackman system, Hernandez would not have had a job once they started using ABS with a challenge system.
I remember back in the day, they had a lot of phantom tags. The tag out at a base was always an out if the ball beat the runner. The turning of the double play was just if you were close to the bag. 1B pulled his foot often. They called a lot of strikes… batters swung at it if it was close.
Different times back then.
@Melchez17
Yeah, I always wondered why the SS/2B didn’t have to touch the bag on those DPs. Does that mean the 1B doesn’t need to touch the bag either? The catcher can just be close to tagging the runner and he’s out?
I miss the days of wide strike zones, 4 inches off the plate. Good ol’days. Now kids on here are crying because it’s one one-thousands of a micro-inch off the plate. Oh, no! Heaven forbid you have to swing at something close. I guess that’s the problem with kids growing up with video games. They assume real baseball should be the same.
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.
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.
Please don’t make this about race. Plenty of Latino umps still in MLB. Hernandez was anything but humble.
reddit.com/r/baseball/s/xONFFOuy9S
The first Latino ump in MLB history retires and posters cackle and celebrate.
You do the math.
We’ve “done the math”. He was awful. There have also been awful white umpires, black umpires, etc.
Don’t worry, Dan Halem is being groomed as the Commissioner replacement by Manfred, after Manfred was groomed as the Commissioner replacement by Selig.
And the beat goes on.
We will do the math when you stop doing the meth.
Stop it. Why does everyone think that race is the reason behind everything? HE SUED MLB. Right or wrong, how many of us could sue our employers and have said employer want you to stay under their employment?
Lets see your reaction when your employer spits all over your ethnicity.
That’s a pretty childish non sequitur. Nobody is saying the same about John Fisher, a white Republican. This is about baseball. Be consistent.
@ Jason@aol:
Arte didn’t bring a championship to Anaheim. They won in fall 2002.
He bought the team in spring 2003.
He bought into a championship team and hasn’t won once in 20 years.
Arte bought the team AFTER they won a WS. I think Disney owned them at the time. Nice try trying to make this about race, when I haven’t seen a single racist post about this… until yours.
@bauer the only good thing arte did after buying the angels was lowering beer prices.
Strike 3, youre out.
@Jason, nice try 2-bit punk
Silas: You’re ejected, chump.
@Jason, shouldn’t you be out saving the children of Gaza?
You’re now suspended 60 games, Silas. Don’t like your tone.
@Jason, I did not know the ethnicity of Moreno or Hernandez until you just shared it here. And to echo what others have posted, Disney was the owner when they won the 2002 WS.
I do not criticize umpires. I like that outcomes of games are decided by human beings not robots. No beef with Hernandez.
I am critical of Moreno.
The Angels are heading towards a ninth season in a row of losing baseball. He was the owner during the Tyler Skaggs tragedy. And he was/is the owner that had two teammates, and documented as close friends, caught up in illegal gambling activity. At some point, like the NFL owners did with Dan Snyder, I feel the owners and MLB will ask him to leave.
@C Yards Jeff you forgot bribing the mayor to get a stadium built.
It was Disney who had the champion in Anaheim. Moreno bought it right after.
This proves it. If you look long enough you will find racism.
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.