Major League Baseball is cracking down on the plate routine of Yankees infielder José Caballero.
MLB rules require the batter to be in the box with his eyes trained on the pitcher with at least eight seconds remaining on the pitch clock. Caballero before each pitch has long waited until the last instant to satisfy that rule. While it's been a reliable source of frustration for opposing teams and opposing pitchers -- it caused a benches-clearing incident against Dennis Santana and the Pirates on Monday night -- Caballero's gamesmanship has been considered within the rules, at least until now.
During Wednesday's first game of a doubleheader against the Pirates, umpires informed Caballero that his pre-pitch custom would no longer be allowed. In the sixth inning of that game, plate umpire Quinn Wolcott charged Caballero with an automatic strike -- without a customary warning -- for violating the pitch clock. That, in turn, led to a heated exchange between Caballero and Wolcott and the eventual ejection of Yankees hitting coach James Rowson:
After the game, a 5-3 loss for the Yankees, Caballero claimed he was being singled out. "I've seen other guys on other teams and they don't call anything on them," he told reporters, including The Athletic. "I can name players that I've seen deceiving the pitchers, (which) I actually don't do, but they don't call it on them. They just call it on me, I guess. Like I said, they're just picking on me."
The new limitations on Caballero's approach, however, are coming straight from MLB. "He's not allowed to do an inordinate amount of time looking down, trying to get the pitcher to cause a violation," Wolcott said after the game, via the Associated Press. "There's no other hitter that gets in the box, takes the amount of the time that Caballero does while looking down, not making eye contact with the pitcher. Obviously it's caused a lot of problems in the past. It's not going to be allowed anymore."
Crew chief Adrian Johnson clarified the new enforcement approach after the game. "It's not allowed anymore," Johnson said. "It was the cause of a benches-clearing situation on Monday night. Major League Baseball stepped in. They want it enforced."
"There's 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," Johnson went on to say. "Obviously, it's caused a lot of problems in the past. It's not going to be allowed anymore."
The AP explains:
"In cracking down on Caballero, MLB cited a provision in its Pace of Game Procedures that states: 'Conduct by batters designed to deceive a pitcher into beginning their windup or coming to the set position in violation of these regulations shall be considered circumvention.'"
Yankees manager Aaron Boone called it "embarrassing" that the league did not notify Caballero and the Yankees ahead of time about the change in enforcement.
