A Toronto Blue Jays coach was ejected from Sunday’s game for a very unusual reason, and it had to do with an issue over a translator that a member of the team’s pitching staff was using.
For the second time in three games, the umpiring crew refused to let Blue Jays pitcher Seunghwan Oh have his translator, Eugene Koo, on the mound without Toronto manager John Gibbons joining them. While Major League Baseball passed a rule in 2013 allowing interpreters to join mound conferences when pitchers aren’t fluent in English, the manager must be present during the meeting.
Gibbons wasn’t happy about the decision and he came out to protest it. However, it was Blue Jays first base coach Tim Leiper who unloaded on the umpiring crew and got the boot.
1/2 For the second time in three games, the umpiring crew refused to let Oh’s translator, Eugene Koo, translate between Oh and his catcher. On Friday night, it happened in the middle of an inning. Gibbons said umps told him Koo had to leave the mound when Gibbons did.
— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) July 8, 2018
2/2 This time, Oh came in to start an inning, so Gibbons was not on the mound. Umps immediately banished Koo. Gibbons came out to protest. Ultimately, first-base coach Tim Leiper was ejected after tossing equipment onto field (and offering a few vocal proverbs).
— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) July 8, 2018
While the umpiring crew was simply enforcing a rule, it does seem like a silly one. It’s tough to imagine Oh, who was born in South Korea and is in his third MLB season, would gain some sort of advantage from a translator accompanying him without a manager. Gibbons alluded to that after his team’s 2-1 loss to the New York Yankees.
Gibbons said umpiring crew told him a coach had to be on mound with interpreter. Gibbons said that’s news to him. On SeungHwan Oh’s interpreter Eugene Ko, Gibby said jokingly, “That Eugene is trouble, man.”
— Hazel Mae (@thehazelmae) July 8, 2018
This isn’t the first time interpreters accompanying pitchers on the mound has been a source of debate, and it may be time for MLB to clarify and/or make changes to the exact rules.
