The New York Mets got Junior Valentine’d during Wednesday’s game.
New York played Wednesday against the Detroit Tigers at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y. In the sixth inning of the contest, Mets third baseman Brett Baty was batting against Detroit starter Framber Valdez.
Baty took a borderline pitch at the knees for strike 2 and turned away from the home plate umpire Valentine. Inexplicably though, Valentine thought that Baty was tapping on his helmet for an automated ball-strike (ABS) system challenge and proceeded to initiate one.
The ABS system would ultimately ruled in favor of Valentine’s call. Because the Mets had already lost an ABS challenge earlier in the game, they were out of challenges for the remainder of the contest.
Here is the video of Valentine’s blunder.
Mets are out of ABS challenges after umpire rules Brett Baty went to his helmet to challenge a callpic.twitter.com/IT1jwTiAkA
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) May 14, 2026
The only possible defense for Valentine there was that Baty lifted his hand up in the general direction of his helmet. But he never actually made contact with the helmet and thus should not have been granted an ABS challenge there.
Valentine, 38, is only in his fourth season as a full-time MLB umpire (though he has been calling games since 2020). But Valentine has already come under fire over the years from a number of different critics, including a prominent now-former manager.
