The New York Yankees are having a strong start in 2024, but they have still faced inconsistent umpiring. MLB umpiring has become a major topic over the last few seasons as technology to assess umpires improves. Yankees legends Tino Martinez and Nick Swisher criticized MLB umpiring and expressed their dissatisfaction with the current situation, according to Fox News’ Scott Thompson.
Martinez was a two-time All-Star and played for the Yankees for seven seasons. Swisher’s sole All-Star selection came during his four seasons with the Yankees. Together, they have 23 years of major league experience and have won five World Series.
Inconsistent Umpiring
“It’s always been like that,” Martinez commented on how games are called behind the plate. “There are good umpires and there are bad umpires. Some umpires enjoy being bad umpires. They like to annoy the fans and those guys know who they are. I think that’s part of their deal, but it’s unclear to players in certain games, especially the playoffs and World Series”
Martinez also highlighted how the “best umpires” are the ones who should be out there every day.
“Experienced umpires like Angel Hernandez, C.B. Bucknor and Doug Eddings are just a few of the well-known umpires who have made bad calls, some of which have greatly impacted the result of games,” wrote Thompson.
On May 4, Yankees Aaron Judge was ejected for the first time in his career. He disagreed with a called third strike by umpire Ryan Blakney and expressed his disagreement while walking away. He was thrown out and Anthony Rizzo described the umpire as “being a little sensitive.”
“That’s terrible,” Martinez said. “Aaron Judge never loses his temper and he didn’t in that situation either. He walked away, he wasn’t in the umpire’s face. He walked away like he should’ve done, and he put him out, which was a little too much by the umpire.”
Swisher agreed adding that Judge “didn’t say anything” that warranted an ejection.
Automated Strike Zone
On May 4, Bucknor called out a St. Louis Cardinals batter to end the game, after a three-hour delay, on a seemingly outside pitch. Swisher criticized umpires for affecting the results of games like this.
“Listen, man, there are some systems in place that we have as athletes,” Swisher said. “If you don’t perform well, prepare and compete properly at the big league level, you get demoted to the minor leagues. So, I think the same should be for umpires as well. Why wouldn’t you want to have a tier system, just like what Max Scherzer was saying? I thought there was a lot of validity to that.”
Scherzer suggested a system where MLB ranks umpires using the automated strike zone currently being implemented in the minors. The system allows players to challenge balls and strikes. While not available to players in the majors, the system could evaluate umpires, allowing the MLB to rank them.
The automated strike zone has faced criticism from traditionalists, including former Yankees. Martinez believes umpires should be part of the game. However, they should be only the best.
“I prefer the traditional umpire, but we need to bring in the best umpires, not just those who have been in the big leagues for a long time,” Martinez expressed.
