{"id":817853,"date":"2026-07-23T02:47:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817853\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T02:47:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:47:31","slug":"yankees-jose-caballero-says-mlb-is-picking-on-me-with-pitch-clock-enforcement-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817853\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees\u2019 Jos\u00e9 Caballero says MLB is \u2018picking on me\u2019 with pitch clock enforcement change"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Tensions flared again around New York Yankees shortstop Jos\u00e9 Caballero as umpires made it clear Wednesday that Major League Baseball will no longer tolerate his controversial stall tactics<\/a> in the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

After Caballero was issued an automatic strike \u2014 without a customary warning \u2014 Caballero and manager Aaron Boone engaged in heated, expletive-laden arguments with umpires during the fifth inning of a 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n

Caught on YES Network hot mics<\/a>, Caballero accused home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott of \u201csingling\u201d him out, and Boone called the decision \u201cbulls\u2014\u201d after Wolcott gave Caballero an automatic strike for waiting until eight seconds remained on the pitch clock \u2014 the last possible second allowed by the rules \u2014 to acknowledge reliever Carmen Mlodzinski.<\/p>\n

But crew chief Adrian Johnson said Caballero had \u201ccircumvented the pitch clock rules,\u201d and pointed to the benches clearing<\/a> in Monday\u2019s Yankees-Pirates game, with Caballero\u2019s pre-pitch routine at the center of the incident.<\/p>\n

That night, Pirates reliever Dennis Santana blew kisses at Caballero and yelled at him for waiting until the pitch clock hit eight seconds before acknowledging him. Caballero and Santana exchanged words before teammates stormed the field and held each of them back, though no punches were thrown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not allowed anymore,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt was the cause of a benches-clearing situation on Monday night. Major League Baseball stepped in. They want it enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani is playing through a knee injury, when will he pitch again?<\/p>\n

Eno Sarris and Derek VanRiper<\/p>\n

Johnson said MLB informed his crew to enforce a particular part of the rule that warns against \u201cconduct by batters designed to deceive a pitcher into beginning their windup or coming to the set position.\u201d<\/p>\n

The edict, Johnson said, was centered on Caballero, who has become notorious for intentionally waiting as long as possible to make eye contact with the pitcher.<\/p>\n

Boone, however, said the Yankees weren\u2019t told of a change of enforcement. He called MLB\u2019s actions \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t give us a heads up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The pitch clock is 15 seconds with the bases empty, and 18 seconds with runners on base. Batters must engage with the pitcher at eight seconds or they will be penalized with a strike. If a pitcher doesn\u2019t engage with the hitter at eight seconds, he gets charged with a ball.<\/p>\n

MLB declined to comment when asked whether the Yankees were notified before Wednesday\u2019s game about the league changing its enforcement of pitch-clock rules.<\/p>\n

Caballero said he was still confused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen other guys on other teams and they don\u2019t call anything on them,\u201d he said. \u201cI can name players that I\u2019ve seen deceiving the pitchers, (which) I actually don\u2019t do, but they don\u2019t call it on them. They just call it on me I guess. Like I said, they\u2019re just picking on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caballero was surprised when Wolcott issued him an automatic strike in a 0-1 count with a runner on second base in the fifth inning with the Yankees losing 2-0.<\/p>\n

Microphones captured a fiery back and forth between Wolcott and Caballero. Wolcott denied singling out Caballero, but pointed toward a change of rule enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to look up, man,\u201d Wolcott told him. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to do the 3-4 seconds thing in the box anymore. You don\u2019t get to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing my f\u2014ing routine,\u201d Caballero shouted back.<\/p>\n

At one point, Boone told Johnson, \u201cWe\u2019re making up rules as we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson then ejected Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, directing him off the field with a back-of-the-hand wave. Rowson leaned over dugout railing, pointing and yelling at Johnson.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Jos\u00e9 Caballero walks off the field after his pre-pitch routine sparked an argument with Pirates reliever Dennis Santana and led to both team\u2019s benches clearing on Monday night. (Vincent Carchietta \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Wolcott later said that Caballero is \u201ctrying to get the pitcher to cause a violation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no other hitter that gets in the box and tries to take the amount of time that Caballero does while looking down and not making eye contact with the pitcher,\u201d the umpire said. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s caused a lot of problems in the past. It\u2019s not going to be allowed anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why wasn\u2019t Caballero warned first?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been warned all season,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe were instructed not to warn him. We were instructed to violate him. That\u2019s what it is. It\u2019s a violation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boone defended Caballero, saying it\u2019s \u201chis routine\u201d and cited how pitchers sometimes hold the baseball until there\u2019s one second remaining on the pitch clock in an effort to disrupt a hitter\u2019s timing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could find someone that I can talk to up there so we can get clear on what they\u2019re trying to say on the new ruling,\u201d Caballero said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Tensions flared again around New York Yankees shortstop Jos\u00e9 Caballero as umpires made it clear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2704,85],"class_list":["post-817853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}