The heat is being turned up on Angel Hernandez.
Hernandez, MLB’s most controversial umpire — and that is a nice way of putting it — has been been a fixture in the news this season despite most teams not yet reaching 20 games.
Hernandez’s calls have been so poor that the “Foul Territory” show and Fox insider Ken Rosenthal tackled how close the league may be to saying enough is enough.
“My thought is, what is the line for a league or a person of authority to have to interfere? … What is the line when suddenly, finally someone will step in?” host Scott Braun asked.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Rosenthal said. “There has to be a line, right? There has to be a line where you tell the umpires union, ‘enough is enough. We cannot stand this anymore.’ ”
Hernandez has been in the crosshairs this season for two particularly egregious at-bats, one involving his zone and the other with his ruling.
The umpire irked the Yankees two weeks ago when he allowed Blue Jays pitcher Bowden Francis to throw a pitch after stopping his motions and then ringing up Gleyber Torres on a ball that missed the plate.
Hernandez struck again last weekend when he called three pitches from Houston’s J.P. France — all off the plate — strikes against Rangers rookie Wyatt Langford.
He missed 21 calls during Tuesday’s Padres-Brewers game, according to the umpire scorecards X account.
Rosenthal said he texted an umpire to gauge their reaction to the heat on Hernandez and was surprised by the response he received.
“I basically said, ‘Where is your line? Why aren’t you guys embarrassed by this?” Rosenthal said. “I know to a certain degree umpires are going to close ranks, but I thought this was so exceptional, and not in a good way, but so out there that maybe I would get a reaction.
“This umpire did not go there. He said, ‘Frankly, we all make mistakes, the scrutiny on Angel is too much.’ Now, he didn’t excuse (the Rangers calls), he agreed (those were) not good at all, what happened in that at-bat with Wyatt Langford, but he said, and this surprised me: The umpires love Angel Hernandez. They think he is just a quality human being, a great guy … but this is how they feel about him.”
He added: “I was kinda stunned … It’s not like they’re down on him.
“I would disagree. I would think there is enough evidence here. We’ve all seen it over the years to think that Angel Hernandez probably doesn’t belong in this group anymore,” Rosenthal continued. “But, again, that was the reaction I got and I was surprised to get it.”
Host A.J. Pierzynski, a former catcher, praised Hernandez as a person, but said baseball needs to start holding Hernandez to a standard.
While MLB has deemed Hernandez not worthy of the top postseason assignments, which resulted in him suing the league, they have seemingly not punished him for his performances.
“I liked Angel as a guy too,” Pierzynski said. “Angel, when you see him, is the nicest guy. ‘Hey, brother, how are you?’ The nicest guy in the world. And then he messes up, and you’re like, ‘Angel, we kind of missed that one.’ And he’s like,’ Yeah, I know, but it’s OK, it’s only one strikeout of three.’ This is my at-bat you’re taking out of my hands.
“Angel’s a nice guy… nice conversations with him. But at the end of the day, I’m judged on my performance. He should be judged on his and all these guys should be.”
