Ángel Hernández, one of the most senior and one of the most polarizing umpires in the major leagues for more than three decades of career, will retire. According to USA TODAY Sports, a senior baseball official confirmed the news on condition of anonymity before Hernandez’s retirement was officially announced by MLB.
Hernandez, 62, has been negotiating with MLB for the past two weeks in order to reach a financial agreement. His contract was finalized over the weekend. The last game he umpired was on May 9 as the head umpire in the Chicago White Sox’s 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians at Guaranteed Rate Field. Since that game, he was replaced by Jacob Metz.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Hernández moved to Hialeah, Florida, with his family when he was just 14 months old. He grew up playing and umpiring in the league run by his father, the Khoury League. At the age of 20, he began his professional career as an umpire in the Florida State League and was later promoted to full-time Major League umpire in 1993.
Many considered him the most controversial umpire in the game, as during his career , players and coaches often criticized him plentiful. In 2017, Hernández filed a racial discrimination complaint against MLB, alleging that he had been denied crew chief positions and assignments in the World Series because of his Hispanic heritage. The complaint was dismissed by the United States District Court in 2021, and in September of last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal.
The appeals court held that Hernandez had not demonstrated a statistically significant disparity in the promotion rates of white referees versus minority referees. In truth, Hernandez did not provide sufficient evidence for a claim of disparity in promotion rates; promotion rates had not been materially different, as MLB had established, and Hernández had failed to refute that demonstration.