Ángel Hernández (umpire)

Ángel Hernández (born August 26, 1961) is a Cuban-American umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Hernández began umpiring in the Florida State League in 1981, where he earned $900 per month, moved to the Carolina League in 1984, was promoted to the Southern League in 1986 and earned a raise to $1,800 per month and then reached the top rung of Minor League Baseball in the American Association in 1988, where he was paid $2,200 per month.

He worked in the National League from 1991 to 1999, and has worked throughout MLB since 2000.

In May 1991, he earned his first call-up to the Major Leagues as a substitute for a full-time umpire.

Fifty-seven of his friends and family came to the ballpark to watch his debut.

In 1998, Hernández was behind the plate for a game between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves the day before the All-Star break.

In 1999 Hernández was ranked 31st out of 36 umpires in the Major League Baseball Players Association survey.

He has officiated in seven League Championship Series (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2016), and in 12 League Division Series (1997, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021).

Hernández wore number 5 while in the National League, but the number was taken by Dale Scott when the umpires were consolidated under MLB in 2000, so Hernández took number 55.

He was retained for the 2000 season ahead of 13 of his National League colleagues, which the Philadelphia Inquirer termed one of the "surprises" of the 1999 purge.

He has not umpired in a World Series since the 2002 and 2005 championships.

Hernandez has been involved in several controversial incidents and has been criticized by players, coaches, and fans throughout his career.

Hernández was born in Havana, Cuba.

He grew up in Hialeah, Florida and began umpiring Khoury League baseball games as a teenager; his father directed the local league.

Hernández umpired in the World Series in 2002 and 2005 and the All-Star Game in 1999, 2009, and 2017.

In 2006 and 2011 he was listed as the third-worst baseball umpire in Sports Illustrated player polls.

Hernández worked Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS as an injury fill-in for Derryl Cousins.

Hernández was behind the plate for the final game at the original Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008.

A 2010 ESPN survey showed that 22% of major league ballplayers asked identified Hernández as the worst umpire in the major leagues.

For the second half of the 2011 baseball season, Hernández was moved from the umpiring crew of Joe West to the crew of Gerry Davis.

In the 11th inning, Braves runner Michael Tucker tagged up on a fly ball to left.

Hernández ruled Tucker safe, but replays showed the throw to catcher Mike Piazza beat Tucker, and that Tucker had never touched home plate.

After the game, Piazza said the call was the worst he had ever seen in his baseball career.

He was umpiring at third base when Jered Weaver threw a no-hitter on May 2, 2012, and was also the third-base umpire on September 28, 2012, when Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds no-hit the Pittsburgh Pirates.

On May 18, 2021, Hernandez was the home plate umpire for Spencer Turnbull's no hitter against the Seattle Mariners, the only time that he has been the home plate umpire for a no-hitter.

In 2016, Hernández's lawsuit against MLB stated that MLB rated Hernández's accuracy behind the plate at 96.88 percent in 2016 (up from 92.19% in 2002), and said he did not miss any calls on the basepaths.

During the 2016, 2017, and 2018 seasons, Hernández's calls at first base were overturned in 14 out of 18 video reviews, for a 78% overturn rate, exceeding the 60% overturn rate for all first-base calls by all umpires during that time period.

In July 2017, Hernández filed an ultimately unsuccessful federal lawsuit against MLB, alleging that racial discrimination kept him from being promoted to crew chief and from umpiring World Series games.

After Scott retired in 2017, Hernández regained his number 5 for the 2018 season.

The study found that Hernández performed stronger in 2018 than his average for 2008–2018.

He averaged 19 incorrect calls a game, or 2.2 per inning.

Even with this high error rate, compared to his peers, he performed better than others, escaping the 2018 Bottom 10 MLB list.

On April 8, 2019, Boston University published a study on 11 seasons of Major League Baseball data, almost 4 million pitches analyzed, to determine the accuracy of balls and strikes called.

During spring training 2019, Hernández claimed he gets four wrong calls per game.

The BU study shows that his error rate is almost five times higher.

In 2020, after a dozen umpires elected to sit out the season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hernandez was made an interim crew chief.

The Sporting News journalist Tom Gatto wrote in 2020 that Hernández "has earned a reputation for being one of MLB's worst umpires".

Andrew Mahoney, writing for The Boston Globe, reported that Hernández "has a reputation as one of baseball's worst umpires".

Zach Braziller of The New York Post wrote that he was the "worst umpire in baseball."

In 2023, Hernandez worked a single game on April 3 before suffering a back injury; he remained sidelined until July 31.