Baseball’s regular season came to an end on Sunday, and when the league announced the umpiring assignments on Monday for the wild-card matchups, fans easily noticed a missing name among the 24 umpires.
Angel Hernandez did not receive a postseason assignment yet again, likely bringing an end to a shortened year of work for the embattled umpire. Hernandez worked one game at first base to start the season and then missed time up until August with a back injury.
When Hernandez made his return to work behind the plate, he managed to become baseball’s worst statistical umpire in just 10 games. Literally.
Angel Hernandez finished the regular season as the lowest rated umpire (min 10 games).
He didn't get his start until August due to a back injury, but he racked up 161 bad calls in 10 games, including the lowest rated game.
His season may be over, but may our memories live on. pic.twitter.com/or3hweE1yL
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) October 2, 2023
According to Umpire Auditor, no big-league umpire who worked a minimum of 10 games performed worse behind the plate in the 2023 season. Umpire Scorecard measured a similar result with Hernandez ranking last among umpires in ball-strike accuracy at 92 percent overall with a minimum 10 games.
And that doesn’t even take into account his rough moments at base assignments this season. The two months couldn’t have gone much worse for Hernandez, and fans were totally unsurprised to see him rank dead last.
This was how Twitter reacted
Dude only worked two months and he was still the worst. Impressive https://t.co/5L9NkmxMwx
— Ryan Stieg (@RyanStieg) October 2, 2023
It's embarrassing that MLB cannot get rid of Angel Hernandez. The only thing they can do is make sure the only way he gets into a playoff game is through buying a ticket. https://t.co/C5F6SD08l4
— Joe H 🌻 (@JoeH0518) October 2, 2023
He made up for the time he missed https://t.co/AQ1eYE3ON5
— Jason Deger (@Jasondeger) October 2, 2023
Imagine the lack of self-awareness to sue MLB in 2017 for being "overlooked for World Series games and crew chief promotions" by Angel Hernandez.
The MLBUA needs to cull their bottom performers yearly. AAA needs umpires, and some junior umps get a chance to get called up. https://t.co/dpDkaoYhOe
— Brett H. (@bretthavekost) October 2, 2023
How is this guy employed @MLBUA ?? https://t.co/HRHuq6430l
— Murph (@_TMM35) October 2, 2023
All I gotta say is he’s got one amazing union rep lol https://t.co/6ReEnWbmNQ
— Ryan 🇺🇦 (@ryanimal34) October 2, 2023
Again, I wish I could be this bad at my job and keep it https://t.co/cMGgT5K32q
— Will MacNeil (@RFWill149) October 2, 2023
He’s just insanely bad at his job and he keeps being allowed to be bad at his job https://t.co/gk9RnB8Nqf
— Mikey (@MikeyNY__) October 2, 2023
No surprise here. https://t.co/oDkmSQOBU6
— Patty & doggos (@pmacewan) October 2, 2023
