Derek Jeter did not hide his displeasure with home plate umpire Cory Blaser’s call to end Sunday’s Team USA-Dominican Republic semifinal in the World Baseball Classic.
Team USA punched its ticket to the WBC Final thanks in part to a generous strikeout call from Blaser in the closing moments. Dominican shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, who made the final out of the game, laid off a payoff pitch from American reliever Mason Miller that went well below the strike zone.
Blaser called Perdomo out on strikes, sealing a 2-1 win for Team USA.
After the game, Jeter spoke candidly about the moment and predicted that it could be the final straw that pushes the World Baseball Classic to introduce the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system come 2029.
“Well, you can pretty much guarantee they’re going to have the ABS challenge in place at the next WBC. You hate to see a game end that way,” Jeter said during FS1’s postgame show.
Derek Jeter: “Well you can pretty much guarantee they’re going to have the ABS challenge in place at the next WBC. You hate to see a game end that way.”
— That’s Baseball, Suzyn (@thats_bb_suzyn) March 16, 2026
An absolutely vicious indictment of home plate umpire Cory Blaser. pic.twitter.com/57I65GOmDS
While Jeter was happy to see Team USA advance, he would have preferred it to come without any help from the umpires. One can only imagine the backlash had the roles been reversed, with Team USA’s tournament run ending on a botched call that could not be challenged.
Had Perdomo been awarded a walk instead, Miller would have faced off against Fernando Tatis Jr. with the go-ahead run on base. A clean strikeout of Tatis would probably have felt better for some Team USA fans than a controversial ending similar to what went down on Sunday.
