The Yankees dropped the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader to the Pirates, 5-3, in extra innings, but the majority of the postgame news conference was about Jose Caballero and how he uses the pitch clock.
In the sixth inning, Caballero was called for a pitch-clock violation. The ruling caused a delay in the game as Caballero asked the umpire what he did wrong. Replays from the broadcast showed that Caballero was engaged with the pitcher at nine seconds, but the Yankees shortstop was still dinged for a violation.
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This led to manager Aaron Boone having a heated conversation with the umpiring crew and for hitting coach James Rowson to be ejected.
Boone was asked about the incident after the game.
“I’m going to plead the fifth here,” a visibly frustrated Boone said after the game. “MLB came out with something new today, so we have to change again.”
When asked how frustrating it is, Boone quickly responded, “Very frustrating. It’s embarrassing.”
Now, Caballero has grown a reputation for using the pitch clock to his advantage to rattle pitchers by engaging the pitcher at or around the eight-second mark, as the rules dictate. It’s not uncommon for the homeplate umpire to warn Caballero or the pitcher during the shortstop’s at-bats.
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Pitchers have shown frustration with Caballero’s tactics, including the Pirates’ Dennis Santana on Monday, which caused the benches to clear.
However, what has Boone hot is that he says Major League Baseball has changed the guidance on what Caballero can do without telling the club before the game.
The Yankees skipper said the first he heard about it was when he came out in the sixth to talk to the umps.
“He can’t do that. It’s disrupting the pitcher; it’s some kind of circumvention,” Boone said of what the umpires told him. “I’ve been told very specifically over and over when we’ve had issues that he has to be alert at eight seconds. That’s making sure Cabby is looking up at nine [seconds] to make sure he’s looking in. And that’s very specifically what I’ve been told.
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“And today was something different and they didn’t give us the heads up.”
“It’s not the first time the league has changed a rule on me,” Caballero said after the game. “Now they call something out of new rules. I didn’t get notice before because whenever they make a new rule, they were able to tell me and I could make a little adjustment to my routine. Now they just tell me I can’t do it, which takes me out of my routine.”
How Boone understands this new “rule,” the league believes Caballero is trying to deceive the pitcher and he can’t do that even if he’s engaged with the pitcher before the eight-second mark.
“It’s his routine; every batter has their routine,” Boone said. “Some pitchers hold their ball to zero with that in mind… oh my gosh.”
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After the game, Boone showed Caballero this new ruling and the shortstop disagreed with MLB’s assessment.
“It says something about deceiving the pitcher, which my understanding, is trying to trick the pitcher,” Caballero said. “I’m not trying to trick anyone.”
