NEW YORK — New York Yankees player Jose Caballero has been targeted by Major League Baseball for pest control, sparking another row.
Fed up with Caballero’s habit of waiting for a pitcher’s confirmation just before the pitch clock reached eight seconds, MLB told umpires Wednesday that his regimen amounted to cheating.
Plate umpire Quinn Wolcott charged Caballero with violating the pitch clock in the sixth inning, resulting in an out and the ejection of hitting coach James Rawson as New York lost the first of a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5–3, in 10 innings.
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“I’ve seen other guys do other things and they didn’t ask for anything,” Caballero said. “They’re just picking on me.”
Caballero was acquired from Tampa Bay on July 31 of last year, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone admitted his thoughts on the player took a 180 degree turn after the trade.
“He’s one of those guys that I would yell at from the bench,” Boone said Wednesday morning. “He was a pest and I didn’t like it. Now I like him because he is a good player and he is on our side. But yeah, we laughed about it.”
During a June 14 game in Toronto, Caballero twice intentionally kept his head down until eight seconds remained on the clock, resulting in a warning from referee Stephen Jashinski. This caused a delay of more than two minutes while Caballero, Jashinski, Boone and crew chief John Tampane discussed the situation.
The benches and bullpen cleared in the bottom of the eighth inning in Monday night’s series opener as Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana yelled at Caballero for taking too long to gather himself in the batter’s box. Then on Wednesday, Walcott charged Caballero with a foul in the sixth inning while the batter was facing Carmen Mlodzinski with the Yankees trailing 2-0. After a delay of 2.5 minutes, Caballero delivered a called third strike that left the runner stranded.
“He’s not allowed to spend too much time looking down, trying to get the pitcher to commit a foul,” Walcott told a pool reporter. “There is no other hitter who gets into the box and takes as much time as Caballero, looking down without making eye contact with the pitcher. Obviously this has caused a lot of problems in the past. This will no longer be permitted.”
MLB adopted streaming clocks for the 2023 season to reduce game time. From 2024, this figure is 15 seconds without runners and 18 seconds with runners.
In cracking down on Caballero, MLB cited a provision in its pace of play procedures that states: “Conduct by batters intended to deceive the pitcher into starting a rise or coming to set position in violation of these rules is considered a walk.”
Team executive Adrian Johnson said the series-opening altercation forced MLB to take action.
“This is no longer allowed. This was the reason for the bench situation on Monday night. Major League Baseball got involved and they demanded compliance,” Johnson said. “We were ordered not to warn him. We were ordered to violate it.”
Yankees shortstop Jose Caballero responded to home plate umpire Quinn Walcott’s call for a clock violation during the sixth inning of the Pirates’ 5-3 loss on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. Jon Jones-Imagne Images
Boone said MLB did not inform the Yankees before the game about the position change.
“It’s awkward,” he said.
Based on previous conversations with MLB, Boone instructed Caballero to “make sure you’re looking up at nine so you’re alert by eight.”
“He actually said they’re making new rules today and that’s on me because I cheated on the pitcher or something like that, which doesn’t make sense,” Caballero said. “I don’t know, maybe my English is so bad that I don’t understand, but cheating means you’re trying to trick someone, and I’m not trying to trick anyone, because I do the same thing over and over again. You can check my last 50 attacks and see if I do it the same way or not, or check maybe 100 attacks or 150.”
In 2023, MLB issued a memo warning batters not to move an inch outside the box, which Wilson Contreras called the “Wilson Rule.”
Caballero claims he is being singled out.
“For everyone it’s eight seconds. For me it’s nine,” he said. “But now they just don’t want me to do my routine, so it’s kind of difficult for me because that’s the way I settle, the way I try to get closer to my at-bats.”
Caballero is concerned about giving pitchers control over pitch timing.
“If I get into the box and they have 16-17 seconds left, they can hold the ball the whole time and I’ll be tied up,” he said.