Angel Hernandez calls it quits as fans and players rejoice
Usually, when a long-time worker for a team, league, or organization retires there is some sadness sent throughout the team, league, or organization, but on May 27th there is an extreme sense of joy over the fact that long-time umpire Angel Hernandez is retiring (effective immediately) after three decades of Major League Baseball.
Hernandez announced in a statement that he and Major League Baseball have reached a settlement for him to leave the league. Hernandez will leave a long and controversial 32-year career behind and move on to the next chapter of his life.
Hernandez has been the brunt of many memes sent around all the different social media platforms, and he certainly has a controversial track record when it comes to calling balls and strikes. Hernandez’s umpiring stats have been something left to be desired after such a long career as he ranks 67th out of 85 qualified umpires with a 93.2 percent accuracy call, 70th in consistency with a 93 percent rate, and 76th out of 85 qualified umpires in expected call differential coming in at -5.5.
Hernandez will be remembered for his terrible strike zone and ejecting players for arguing his terrible calls. On April 12th, 2024, in a game involving the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers Angel Hernandez recorded the worst missed call on a strikeout in umpire auditor history, with the pitch missing the zone by 6.78 inches. In the same game, Hernandez called a strike on 7 pitches that had missed the strike zone by 3 or more inches. This is the most missed calls in a game by that distance since 2020.
Hernandez started the season off very poorly, following an atrocious 2023 Major League season where he had the lowest umpire rating of the regular season. This was a campaign where Hernandez only worked 10 games but managed to miss an absurd 161 calls.
Former Cleveland Indian, Milwaukee Brewer, and New York Yankee CC Sabathia had a reaction that speaks for all of baseball after the retirement news of Hernandez.
Sabathia had some brutally honest comments about Hernandez after a 2018 playoff game. “ I don’t think Angel Hernandez should be umping playoff games. He’s absolutely terrible. He’s terrible behind the plate, he’s terrible at first base. It’s amazing how he keeps getting the job to be umpiring these playoff games” Sabathia said.
Major league baseball, its fans, and players can now move on from who was for good or bad reasons the face of umpiring.
