Longtime MLB umpire Angel Hernandez has been the baseball community's public enemy No. 1 ever since his historically poor performance during the 2018 ALCS.
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Search this man's name on Google or X, and you'll see a slew of ridiculously bad calls and unnecessary ejections — all of which make it seem as if Hernandez is more eager to assume the spotlight rather than perform his job with any degree of competence.
While it almost seemed that the MLB rid itself of Hernandez last season, the much-maligned umpire eventually made his return — and has proved during this year's spring training that he's already in midseason form.
Hernandez was behind the dish for Friday night's spring training game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals, a contest in which newly signed Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn was making his spring training debut.
After Lynn and Hernandez exchanged some words in the third inning about Hernandez's appalling strike zone, Hernandez took off his helmet, fixed his hair, then ejected Lynn from the game.
However, that wasn't all between Lynn and Hernandez. After leaving the field, Lynn went out to the Cardinals' bullpen to reach his allotted pitch count for the start. After seeing Lynn down there, Hernandez put the game on pause once again to kick Lynn out of the bullpen.
As Lynn exited the field of play for the second time, he offered a sarcastic wave at Hernandez, which earned him a loud applause by the Cardinals fans in attendance.
Cardinals beat writer John Denton noted Lynn's postgame comments on X, quoting Lynn in saying, "[Hernandez] started chirping at the (Cards) dugout and I told him, 'They know it was a strike.' He told me, 'Let's go!' And I told him, 'I have five seconds on the pitch clock and I'll start whenever I feel like it.'
https://twitter.com/JohnDenton555/status/1766266978879324472?s=20
"I threw the next pitch and I was like, 'There's a strike!' And then it was 'see you later,'" Lynn continued.
Lynn also reported that his return to the bullpen was worthwhile, because he threw 20 pitches there before Hernandez realized what he was doing.
Clearly, Hernandez hasn't missed a beat, and we can expect the umpire to keep building upon his already-atrocious legacy in 2024.
