The New York Yankees are expressing anger and frustration with Major League Baseball's handling of a pitch-timer violation assessed to player Jose Caballero. The team claims they were not informed that the league was re-emphasizing the rule, a situation manager Aaron Boone described as "embarrassing."
During the sixth inning of a game Wednesday afternoon, Caballero was called for an automatic strike with two outs and a runner on base due to a pitch-timer violation. This occurred on the second strike of an at-bat that ultimately ended with him striking out. Caballero has a routine of waiting until the last moment on the clock to engage with the pitcher, a practice that requires him to be in the batter's box with eight seconds remaining on the timer. The violation was called when nine seconds were left on the clock.
"Major League Baseball came out with someone new, so we have to go change," Boone stated. He indicated that the league office had communicated with the umpiring crew regarding the enforcement of this rule, but the Yankees organization was not directly notified beforehand, making the enforcement a surprise to them.
Home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott informed Caballero after the violation, "You don’t get to do the three- or four-seconds thing in the box anymore." Caballero responded by repeatedly stating, "You’re picking on me."
Hitting coach James Rowson was ejected from the game shortly after Boone came out to defend Caballero.
Wolcott later told a pool reporter that Caballero had been "warned all season" and that the umpires were "instructed not to warn him. We were instructed to violate him." He added that no other hitter takes as much time in the box as Caballero while not making eye contact with the pitcher, and that this practice "has caused a lot of problems in the past" and "is not going to be allowed anymore."
Caballero's pre-pitch routine had previously led to an incident on Monday where he and Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana exchanged words. At the time, Caballero maintained he was simply following his routine, stating, "If you get frustrated, I’m winning. For me, it’s a battle in the box, and I’m trying to win the battle. If you are not concentrating 100 percent, I think I’m winning."
However, Caballero acknowledged that he would need to alter his approach. He expressed dissatisfaction, claiming, "I’ve seen other guys do other things and they don’t call anything on them. I can name players I’ve seen deceiving the pitchers, but they don’t call it on them. They just call it on me. Like I said, they’re just picking on me."
The rule in question was adopted in 2023 and states that if a hitter deceives the pitcher, it can be considered circumventing the rule, leading to a pitch clock violation assessed to the batter. The Yankees' frustration stems from the league's decision to enforce this rule more strictly with Caballero without prior notification to the team.