Texas Rangers Star Says It’s Time To Rank, Relegate Umpires

While Max Scherzer made his first rehab start for the Texas Rangers, he starting brainstorming ideas to fix umpiring in the Majors.

Oct 30, 2023; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Max Scherzer / Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Texas Rangers star Max Scherzer made his first rehab start at Triple-A Round Rock on Wednesday and after he was done he got to talking about umpires.

Scherzer’s rehab start included the Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) system, which is used in the minor leagues to determine balls and strikes.

He was asked by a reporter about the ABS and admitted that he wasn’t a fan of the system because he believes baseball needs a human element.

But that got the 39-year-old right-hander on the topic of the quality of umpiring. The topic has become a hot one of late, most notably a recent game in which Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford was called out on strikes by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez, even though replays showed the three pitches Hernandez called strikes were balls.

Scherzer said situations like the one that included Hernandez and Langford make it harder for the majority of umpires.

“The umpires are actually really good,” Scherzer said to reporters after the game, including The Dallas Morning News. “It’s really the bottom umpires that we all kind of have a problem with.”

Here's the video of Max Scherzer discussing the electronic strike zone and how he'd fix the future of umpiring in baseball. Really interesting response. Kind of dig his approach. https://t.co/ro0iJm514O pic.twitter.com/LuJhdVJ9fo

— Tyler Feldman (@TylerFeldmanTV) April 25, 2024

So how do you solve that problem? Scherzer is always one to brainstorm and, while he’s not a fan of the ABS, he managed to combine the best quality of that system with the promotion and relegation system of English Premier League to, well, fix umpiring.

“We need to rank the umpires,” he said. “Let the electronic strike zone rank the umpires. We need to have a conversation about the bottom — let's call it 10% — whatever you want to declare the bottom is and talk about relegating those umpires to the minor leagues.”

He said that would allow an opportunity to help those umpires on the low end the opportunity to improve.

Scherzer is rehabbing from surgery for a herniated disc in December. The Rangers are hopeful he can return to the rotation next month.  

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