MLB analyst Dan Clark is not in support of New York Yankees shortstop Jose Caballero in his accusation against the league for “inventing” a rule against him without making him aware. Instead, he asks the Yankees star to get better at something else.
Caballero, who allegedly takes too much time on the plate while preparing for the pitch and causes the opposing pitcher to commit a pitch violation, was handed an automatic strike call in the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates by home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott. It becomes more interesting as video shows there were nine seconds left instead of the official rule of eight seconds. But what was more interesting is that MLB didn’t take the liberty to inform the infielder in advance about the rule change.
On his Thursday Instagram story, Caballero went on a rant against MLB over this alleged non-awareness issue.
“It’s just easy to invent rules and change the most beautiful sport in the world and then not take responsibility for the failures of it,” Caballero wrote (translated to English). “They know they’re wrong but it’s very difficult to accept that a simple player who just wants to play what I always love can adapt and use it in his game. In the end, they are the ones who command and do and undo when and how they want and the rest just have to shut up and obey.”
Clark issued a warning to the shortstop to keep his focus on something else.
“Shut up already, idiot. Focus on getting your OPS closer to .700,” Clark wrote on X.
Caballero, who has appeared to earn his stripes ahead of Anthony Volpe at shortstop, is hitting .244/.295/.387 with 10 home runs and 37 RBIs in 87 games played. He has an OPS of .682, shy of Clark’s mark by .018.
Crew Chief Reveals What League Told Officials About Jose Caballero
MLB might have intentionally not made Jose Caballero aware of the rule, as per the account of crew chief Adrian Johnson via Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. According to Johnson, when MLB revised the pitch-clock violation rules, specifically keeping the Yankees star in mind, the umpires were specifically told not to tell Caballero about it.
“He’s been warned all season. We were instructed not to warn him. We were instructed to violate him. That’s what it is. It’s a violation,” Johnson told Kuty.
However, home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott did make Caballero aware of the same during his plate appearance.
“You don’t get to do the 3 or 4 seconds thing in the box anymore,” Wolcott allegedly said as per the broadcast.
When made aware of the same, Caballero defended his stance on why the awareness should have been brought before the game.
“If you’re going to change the rule, at least notice us before the game, not in the game,” Caballero said. “It’s frustrating for me, and it’s not the first time the league has changed the rules on me. Whenever they were making new rules, they would tell me, and I would make that adjustment to my routine, and now they just claim I can’t do it, which takes me out of my routine.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was also unhappy with the league because of a lack of communication from its side regarding the rule change.
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