The New York Yankees were not pleased with both the umpiring crew and Major League Baseball after José Caballero received a pitch clock violation for stalling in the box.
In the sixth inning of Wednesday afternoon's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott called an automatic strike after Caballero wasn't ready and staring at the pitcher with nine seconds left on the pitch clock. Microphones captured an angry Caballero repeatedly telling Wolcott, "You're picking on me," as he argued the ruling.
Enough with José Caballero’s stall tactics. He found a tiny loophole in rule, so good for him. But for what? To annoy opposing pitchers and get a pitch clock violation once a month? Guess what, it’s annoying many more than the pitcher now. pic.twitter.com/owSCAgeQV1
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 22, 2026
Following the game, Caballero insisted that he didn't intentionally stall or attempt to deceive the pitcher.
"He actually said they were making new rules today, and it's on me. Because I was deceiving, or something like that, to the pitcher, which doesn't make sense," Caballero told reporters, per YES Network. "Because for me ... deceiving kind of means you're trying to trick someone, and I'm not trying to trick someone, because I do the same thing over and over.
"If you're gonna make a change of the rule, at least (notify) us before the game, not in the game like it happened today. It's frustrating for me."
MLB's pitch clock rules state that the batter must be in the box and alert toward the pitcher before the clock reaches eight seconds. Caballero appeared to be looking down until very close to the eight-second mark.
Caballero's tactics in the box have regularly gotten under opponents' skin this season. On Monday night, his stalling led to the benches clearing after Pirates reliever Dennis Santana took exception to his actions. Caballero claimed after the contest that he was just "trying to win the battle."
Major League Baseball appears to have taken notice of his at-bats. Umpire crew chief Adrian Johnson told Brendan Kuty of The Athletic that the league instructed umpires to call a violation on Caballero without a warning.
"He's been warned all season. We were instructed not to warn him," Johnson said. "We were instructed to violate him. That's what it is. It's a violation."
Manager Aaron Boone called Wednesday's violation "something new" and characterized the incident as "embarrassing."
"I've been told very specifically over and over when we have had issues, when I've had my conversations with the league, (that) he's gotta be alert at eight seconds," Boone said. "So that's making sure Cabby looks up at nine (seconds), just to make sure he's in, and that's very specifically what I've been told. And then today was something different, and they didn't give us the heads up."
Caballero, meanwhile, was most upset over apparently being singled out for what he feels is a part of his routine.
"I've seen other guys do some other things, and they don't call anything on them," he said. "I can name names. I can name players that I've seen do (things that are) deceiving of pitchers that I actually don't do, but they don't call it on them. They just call it on me, I guess. Like I said, they just picking on me."
