José Caballero gets instant karma after Pirates-Yankees controversy backfires

José Caballero spent Monday night getting under Dennis Santana’s skin. By Wednesday afternoon, the umpires were apparently done letting him test the limits, too.

Two days after benches cleared at Yankee Stadium following Santana’s frustration with Caballero’s manipulation of the pitch timer, the New York Yankees shortstop found himself at the center of essentially the exact same controversy during the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Facing Carmen Mlodzinski in the bottom of the sixth inning, Caballero was assessed an automatic strike for failing to be alert to the pitcher in time. Caballero immediately protested, Yankees manager Aaron Boone came out to argue, and hitting coach James Rowson was ejected after making his opinion known.

Then the microphones picked up the most revealing exchange of the afternoon.

“You don’t get to do the three or four seconds in the box anymore,” home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott told Caballero.

Caballero’s response?

“You’re picking on me!”

That's certainly one interpretation. Another is that Caballero has spent enough time trying to exploit every last second of the pitch-clock rules that umpires are now paying much closer attention to exactly when he becomes engaged with the pitcher.

That was Santana’s complaint Monday, even if his outburst was a bit extreme. Caballero likes to wait until the last possible moment before looking up, presumably hoping to disrupt the pitcher’s rhythm and timing. Santana became visibly irritated when he felt Caballero was taking too long to engage, and their exchange after Caballero grounded into a double play eventually emptied both benches.

Caballero later suggested that if Santana was frustrated, then his strategy was working. Two days later, that strategy worked considerably less well.

Instead of throwing off Mlodzinski, Caballero earned himself an automatic strike, sparked an argument that got one Yankees coach tossed and then struck out on the very next pitch. Though Mlodzinski went on to give up a game-tying 3-run homer to Ben Rice in the following inning, the Pirates held on to defeat the Yankees, 5-3, in 10 innings.

José Caballero gets rude awakening after Pirates-Yankees pitch clock drama

Baseball has always rewarded players for finding little competitive advantages, and Caballero is perfectly entitled to operate within the rules. But once the league and its umpires decide a player is consistently pushing right up against the boundary, he probably shouldn’t be shocked when they start watching him more closely.

Caballero’s “you’re picking on me” complaint is probably the funniest part of all this. Because after multiple incidents centered on the exact same routine, this doesn’t look much like unfair treatment.

It looks like umpires have figured out what Caballero is doing — and now he may have to figure out something else.

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