Kinsler: Umpire 'needs to find another job,' messing with games 'blatantly'

ARLINGTON, Texas – He had plenty of time to think, a night’s worth of sleep, and when Ian Kinsler sat at his locker inside the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Park this afternoon, he said exactly what he thought.

In short, that Angel Hernandez is a bad umpire. Also, that a career change could serve Hernandez well. But the salient point of his candid, nearly 20-minute conversation was that Major League Baseball needs to implement a system to hold their umpires accountable for on-field performance, which has been a topic in clubhouses for quite some time.

“There needs to be something that’s done,” he said.

A night earlier, Kinsler was ejected in the top of the fifth inning of the Tigers’ 6-2 loss to the Rangers for arguing balls and strikes. Of the many pitches Hernandez missed in the game, the particular pitch that drew Kinsler’s ire was a first-pitch strike that sailed low and inside.

After the next pitch went far wide, he asked Hernandez, “What about that one?” and was thrown out.

“I didn't even cuss at him,” Kinsler said. “I said, 'You need to re-evaluate your life, man. Just go home right now. Get out of the game. Just leave the game alone. Please.'”

Kinsler spoke honestly, without any regard for a fine or suspension and was asked multiple times if his quotes were on the record.

“Sure,” he said. “If I get fined for saying the truth, then so be it. He’s messing with baseball games, blatantly.”

Kinsler, an 11-year veteran, unloaded on Hernandez’s performance, saying, “It has to do with changing the game. He’s changing the game. He needs to find another job, he really does.”

And, “I’m just saying it’s pretty obvious that he needs to stop ruining baseball games.” And, “Candidly, leave the game. No one wants you behind the plate anymore. No one in this game wants you behind the plate any more, none of the players.”

Kinsler’s comments likely will resonate with his playing brethren, whom have long complained about Hernandez’s on-field performance. One American League executive who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about umpires performances said about Kinsler’s comments, “He said what 90% of every other player thinks.”

Hernandez, 55, has been a major league umpire since 1991. Last month, he filed a lawsuit against MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, alleging racial discrimination in baseball’s promotion and postseason assignment policies.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, in the lawsuit, the Cuban-born Hernandez stated that he has been passed over several times to work the World Series and serve as a crew chief despite high marks on evaluations.

In a 2010 players survey conducted by ESPN, 22% of those polled counted Hernandez as baseball’s worst umpire.

Asked if he thought Hernandez was missing calls on purpose, Kinsler said, “No, I think he's that bad, because he obviously thinks he's good if he's saying the grading system [grades him well). Why is he suing MLB if he doesn't think he's good? I’m not mad at him for being bad. He just needs to go away.”

“Arguing with umpires is part of the game,” Kinsler said. “That’s just part of the game. They’re not perfect and we all know that. And if they’re trying hard to do well, then they at least have the respect of the players. But when an umpire is blatantly missing calls – blatantly, not like, ‘Oh, that could have been a strike,’ or the guy caught it well or visually it looks like a strike and he just missed it – when it’s blatant, like a number of calls yesterday, probably eight pitches that were thrown that were not and some right down the middle that were called balls.”

Kinsler stressed multiple times that, despite an incident during his rookie season with the Rangers, he has no personal problem with Hernandez.

“I don’t know his thinking but I don’t think he was calling a strike on me just to get me, because he was doing it to everybody,” he said.

The incident in 2006 came after fielding a slow roller to second base. He flipped the ball to first base, beating the runner by three steps and Hernandez called him out.

“When I came back out for the next defensive inning, he started screaming at me – in my recollection of the event, for no reason – basically belittling me, telling me, ‘Rookie this, rookie that,’ because I got in his way of making a call at first base.

“Because when I flipped the ball, supposedly I ran into his line of vision. I’m the one playing the game. It’s your job to figure out where to go to get a view of that play. I’m not going to worry about flipping that ball and then getting out of the umpire’s way. I didn’t know what to do. I was a rookie. I had no clue what to do. This guy’s yelling at me, I don’t even really know what for.”

Kinsler said players are held accountable in their standing within the organization and in the press, but to his knowledge, there is no such system for umpires, whom often times can affect the nature of the game.

“I don’t know how to do it or if the players association or MLB has thought of ways to accomplish that, to try to figure out a system where umpires are graded properly and there’s some sort of accountability,” he said. “If I didn’t get thrown out last night, nobody would have said a word about Angel Hernandez. It would have been just another game that we lost and he was bad. So it takes somebody getting thrown out to evaluate a guy and I don’t even know if he gets evaluated. I don’t even know if MLB evaluates that game last night or if they say, ‘Oh, we’re going to fine Ian Kinsler because he got thrown out.’”

Kinsler likely will face a fine. Perhaps a suspension. But in speaking on a topic he seemed motivated to in order to stick up for his fellow players, he did not seem to care.

“Then I’ll get suspended for two games,” he said. “And I’ll sit out and he’ll still be umpiring. That might be what happens.”

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!