Aaron Boone was right to be angry.
The goal of every MLB umpire should be to get the call correct, but there’s a right way to go about it. That’s not what happened during the first inning of Wednesday’s Yankees-Guardians game in Cleveland.
With one out and runners on second and third, Josh Naylor hit a soft fly ball to shallow center field. A charging Aaron Hicks dove and appeared to make the catch before getting to his feet and throwing to second for an inning-ending double play.
In real time, it was unclear if Hicks actually caught the ball. But that should have been the end of it because Terry Francona didn’t ask for a challenge within the MLB-mandated time limit of 15 seconds.
Schmidt got so lucky here pic.twitter.com/vU1j1gvTLF
— Dillard Barnhart (@BarnHasSpoken2) April 12, 2023
Francona's reaction to the play. He didn't put his hand up to challenge at anytime within the 15 seconds. #RepBX #LosDelBronx #ForTheLand #AaronBoone #TreyFrancona pic.twitter.com/r58HzrleXZ
— Dugout Station (@DugoutStation) April 12, 2023
However, the umpiring crew would have other ideas, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone had every right to be upset.
Between innings, the umpires noticed a replay on the videoboard that showed Hicks trapping the ball. So, the crew convened, Larry Vanover put on the headset and overturned the call, giving Naylor a single and the Guardians a run on the play. Again, the Guardians didn’t ask for a challenge in time, and umpires aren’t supposed to use in-stadium replays to change calls or initiate reviews. Those decisions have to be made from the replay center, but no replay was asked for in time.
Here’s the angle of Aaron Hicks trapping the ball.
Guardians never appeared to challenge the play? I guess the umpires ending up
allowing it.All we know right now is Aaron Boones day is over. He’s been tossed.
— Mike Daddino (@mike_daddino) April 12, 2023
So while the umpires did technically make the correct call here, they went about it the totally wrong way that appeared to break MLB’s own rules. Boone was furious about that and was ejected while arguing the point.
Aaron Boone gets tossed after the umpires overturn the out call on the Aaron Hicks play without a review pic.twitter.com/fFkoBBe8do
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 12, 2023
Vanover’s crew is going to have plenty of questions to answer after that. The whole sequence really shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.
