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Realmuto was kicked out of a spring training game after an odd referee interaction
Plate umpire Randy Rosenberg throws Phillies’ JT Realmuto out of the game in a bizarre series of events between the courts.
Plate umpire Randy Rosenberg had just finished calling a ball on Phillies pitcher Craig Kimbrel for taking long on the mound when the bat in the fourth turned into a freak throw.
Kimbrel asked for a new ball after the violation, and Rosenberg threw him one. Then Kimbrel threw that baseball and asked for another. Rosenberg attempted to hand that ball over to Realmuto to throw, but the catcher blindly turned his glove and the ball fell to the ground.
Rosenberg promptly fired Realmuto.
Realmuto, who was still sitting in the catcher’s position with his back to Rosenberg, turned around and expressed confusion about what had just happened.
Then Phillies manager Rob Thomson came to the plate for an explanation.
“How does he expect me to know he’s giving me the ball over there?” realmuto said Philadelphia Inquirer after the game. “I don’t even look at him.”
Realmuto made his way off the diamond with a few fist pumps of the crowd.
Head-scratching sequences like this occasionally cropped up during spring training after MLB instituted significant new rules intended to speed up the game. Players have sometimes been experimenting with how best to use the rules to their advantage before the regular season, though Realmuto told The Inquirer that the missed handoff had nothing to do with a clock violation.
“I said, Dude, I thought you were throwing the ball,” Realmuto told the newspaper. “He said, ‘I’m not going to buy that.'”
The league provided some clarifications to the new rules last week, saying they were involving players’ input.
Triple-A Rosenberg has been called up for 39 MLB regular season games from 2020 to 2022, according to retrosheet.org. Crew chief Dan Isogna defended Rosenberg’s decision to the Enquirer after the match.
“Did Randy act hastily? No,” said Isigna. “I think Randy felt the situation warranted firing him, and that’s what he did.”
The Phillies won the game, 5-2. They will play against the Blue Jays again on Tuesday to finish off spring training.
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