BOSTON — After an inning in Cleveland on Wednesday during which multiple pitches weren’t called strikes that the Twins believed should have gone their way, catcher Ryan Jeffers suggested the strike zone has been called tighter this year.
There’s a reason for that.
The Athletic reported on Friday the league “negotiated a seemingly simple change in how home-plate umpires are graded and evaluated,” this winter. The change, per the report, “significantly decreased the margin of error for umpires in their evaluations — and has resulted in fewer called strikes off the edges of the plate through the same point as last season.”
Where umpires used to have a “buffer zone” around the strike zone that gave them a couple inches to work with in the way they were graded, that has now shrunk significantly.
Though the zone itself has not changed, the way it’s being called has been, and many Twins have taken notice. Jeffers said he’s noticed it on all pitches around the edges and fellow catcher Christian Vázquez said, to him, it’s been particularly pronounced on lower pitches.
“They’re not giving all the very low pitches,” Vázquez said.
Chris Paddack said pitching coach Pete Maki had alerted the starters in mid-April that the zone had “shrunk a little bit compared to last year,” as far as what was and wasn’t getting called.
“We’ve noticed that,” Paddack said. “Talking to the catchers, there’s some calls that they normally get that they’re not, so we’ve made some small adjustments, whether it’s middle of the week bullpens or looking at the outings of what calls are being called versus the ones that aren’t to make some of these adjustments.”
While Paddack said he feels there could have been some 50-50 calls that haven’t gone his way, he feels it hasn’t impacted him too much.
“I don’t think it’s affected me as far as results or my performance goes just because I’m a guy that I throw strikes,” he said. “If I’m a guy that nibbles and throws a lot of balls and crosses my fingers on some of these calls, I think it would be a different story.”
Major league teams played with the ABS (automatic ball-strike system) challenge system this spring, given the chance to dispute calls in-game as has been done in the minors for years.
It seemed to have received positive reviews and while it wasn’t instituted this season — many expect it will be next year — a couple players said they believed this change was made in preparation for that system being implemented.
“We think the umpires are getting ready for ABS, so they’re trying to get a better feel of what the zone is … consistently,” Paddack said.
Briefly
Outfielders Harrison Bader and Trevor Larnach were flipped on Friday with Bader manning right field and Larnach in left. While Fenway Park has the iconic Green Monster in left, right field, with Pesky’s Pole, is generally considered the tougher of the two at the historic ballpark. … Royce Lewis (hamstring) continued his rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul on Friday. Tuesday, when the Twins return home to host the Baltimore Orioles, seems to be the target date for his return.
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