For the fourth time this season, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone headed to the showers early after being ejected by the umpire during Thursday's loss to the Baltimore Orioles. This time, Boone took exception to home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso's strike zone.
Given that this was Boone's second ejection in the last four games, reporters felt the need to ask him if he thinks the game needs robot umpires.
The Yankees manager was firm in his stance, telling reporters he “doesn't want that“, per ESPN.
“Clearly he shouldn't have had to throw almost 30 pitches in that first inning,” Boone said. “But, no, I'm not advocating for the robo. I think these guys do for the most part a great job and work really hard at it. When you're playing for a lot, there's going to be some issues from time to time, as simple as that.”
Boone didn't agree with Moscoso on balls and strikes- he held up four fingers during the heat of his argument with the umpire to indicate calls missed- but he also doesn't want a robot behind home plate either.
The Yankees manager made sure to note that he feels the umpires do an exemplary job, for the most part.
Robot umpires have become a part of the game, just not at the major league level yet.
All 30 Triple-A parks are using robot umpires to call balls and strikes in 2023.
Last June, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred had indicated that he wanted robot umpires behind the plate as soon as 2024.
If that's the case, consider Yankees manager Aaron Boone a firm defender of the human element in baseball- at least when he's not in their face yelling about how many calls they've missed.
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