Last year, longtime MLB umpire missed the first half of the season as he recovered from an injury. And as sad as it sounds, baseball was better off for its time away from Hernandez.
Well, he’s back for the 2024 season, and things are not going well for the embattled umpire.
Hernandez had the assignment behind the plate for Sunday’s game between the Yankees and Blue Jays. And his day included an odd call where he missed that Blue Jays pitcher Bowden Francis stepped off the rubber before throwing a pitch outside the zone. He ended up calling Gleyber Torres out on strikes to the disbelief of the Yankees second baseman.
The fans at Yankee Stadium had some NSFW words for Hernandez as Aaron Boone argued the call.
He wasn’t done either. Hernandez went on to call a middle-middle pitch a ball.
And sure, there’s no denying that umpiring is a difficult job. Mistakes are going to be made as long as we don’t have an automated strike zone. But Hernandez just fails to grasp the most basic concepts you’d expect a big-league umpire to be able to perform.
No wonder MLB fans were furious with Hernandez after this one.
