San Diego Padres first baseman Luis Arraez thinks umpires are giving him the cold shoulder over some comments he made at the start of spring training.
Arraez said this week that some umpires have refused to engage with him after he said they were “bad” last year. The gregarious first baseman likes to chat with opponents and umpires during games, but said this season, a number of umpires have ignored his greetings.
“I don’t want to think that they’re mad at me,” Arraez said, via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “They’re not perfect just like I’m not perfect. I make errors and strike out. I just want to say sorry to them because they’re human just like me.”
In February, Arraez was quoted as saying he plans to draw more walks this season, and that he failed to do so previously because of bad umpiring.
“Let’s see if the umpires are coming good this year. I don’t want to put excuses, but they were bad last year,” Arraez said.
It is possible that Arraez was being tongue-in-cheek, but umpires evidently did not take it that way. The first baseman said some umpires told him during spring training that they took note of his remarks, and that he has continued to be ignored by some of them since the season started.
Acee noted that if there is a grudge, there is no evidence that Arraez is being punished in terms of calls going against him. Only three pitches have been called strikes on Arraez that should have been balls based on data through Tuesday.
As long as they are not actually making bad calls against Arraez to prove a point, umpires have the right not to engage with him. Still, it sounds a little petty if they are not talking to him over one critical remark. As Arraez noted, they are not exactly perfect themselves.
