Ángel Hernández, baseball’s most infamous umpire, is retiring

Ángel Hernández, the most infamous umpire in Major League Baseball for the last decade or more, is retiring, effective immediately, according to a person familiar with the situation. The 62-year-old, who debuted in 1991, has not worked a game since May 9.

“I have decided that I want to spend more time with my family,” Hernández said in a statement in which he called umpiring his “childhood dream” and said he “treasured the camaraderie” with colleagues, but did not expound on the factors that led him to make the uncommon decision to step aside midseason.

Major League Baseball would not comment on the specifics of the timing, either. USA Today, which first reported the news Sunday night, reported that Hernández had come to a settlement with MLB by which he would retire sooner than later. A lawyer for Hernández did not immediately respond to comment.

For many umpires, the circumstances under which they retire are hardly inspiration for much inquiry. And indeed, Hernández worked just 10 games in 2023 because of back trouble. Still, Hernández is not most umpires, so the circumstances of his departure qualify as noteworthy.

Over the last few years — and particularly since social media has allowed more constant monitoring of umpire performance and regurgitation of mistakes — Hernández emerged as one of the more criticized and villainized umpires in history. According to Umpire Scorecard, which tracks umpire ball/strike accuracy, and according to internal MLB performance assessments, he was not the worst umpire of the 76 full-time MLB umpires.

But reputation meant his missed calls, some so egregious as to inspire disbelief among players, were turned into montages. His willingness to eject frustrated players and unwillingness to go quietly in arguments fostered accusations about his desire to be in the center of attention. And players and managers rarely felt the need to filter when it came to their frustrations with him.

Beloved veteran starter CC Sabathia once said Hernández “shouldn’t be anywhere near a playoff game.” Ron Washington, then the manager of the Texas Rangers, once said: “Angel is bad. That’s all there is to it.” Active career ejections leader Bryce Harper of the Phillies offered reporters more than one rant about Hernandez’s tendency to stir the pot over the years. All umpires earn some consternation. Hernandez, fairly or not, fostered endless aggravation.

He never retreated. In fact, in 2017, frustrated about the fact that he had not been assigned to a World Series crew in over a decade, the Cuban-born Hernández sued MLB for racial discrimination, asserting that “he was passed over for ‘crew chief’ positions and World Series assignments due to unlawful discrimination based on his race, ethnicity and/or national origin.” An Ohio judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2020.

“Needless to say, there have been many positive changes in the game of baseball since I first entered the profession,” Hernandez said in his statement. “This includes the expansion and promotion of minorities. I am proud that I was able to be an active participant in that goal while being a Major League umpire.”