Hunter Wendelstedt Mar 27, 2022; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; MLB umpire Hunter Wendelstedt (21) works third base during the fourth inning of a spring training game between the New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
FeaturedMLBBy Sam Neumann on

Again, it was a bit shocking that New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn’t get ejected from his team’s game against the Boston Red Sox on Friday. Boone, who already has four ejections on the season. He often argued balls and strikes and Friday night would’ve been no exception as umpire Hunter Wendelstedt had a rather controversial strike zone.

The Twitter account Umpire Scorecards, which rates each home plate umpire’s performance after every Major League Baseball Game, noted that Hunter Wendelstedt had a rough performance behind home plate.

According to Umpire Scorecards, Wendelstedt was 91 percent accurate and 93 percent consistent during Friday night’s game. That is below the league average in both categories and 3.1% below what would be expected in terms of accuracy. Wendelstedt made 5.1 fewer correct calls than the average umpire

He also called just 83% of called strikes correctly, compared to the league average of 88%.

Umpire Scorecards estimates that the Yankees benefitted about o.53 runs in the game. This is a bit ironic, considering they lost 15-5 to the Red Sox. But New York was on the wrong end of Wendelstedt’s most impactful missed call. This wasn’t the most impactful call in terms of the largest changes in run expectancy. Since the Yankees were down 13-1, it was an impactful call nonetheless.

According to Umpire Auditor, Wendelstedt had the largest miss low on a called strike this season. In the sixth inning, Wendelstedt called a strike to Giancarlo Stanton, that missed the plate low by 5.56 inches.

 Yikes.

Overall, it wasn’t the worst performance of the year by an umpire in Major League Baseball, but Wendelstedt missing a strike that low—no matter the score—is certainly notable. And those in the world of Major League Baseball seemingly agree, based on their reactions on social media:

[Umpire Scorecards, Umpire Auditor] Image from Reinhold Matay/USA TODAY Sports

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann