Should Umpire Who Got In Jeremy Peña’s Face Over Bad Call Be Disciplined, Fined?

Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña disagreed with a bad strike call on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park. The umpire who aggressively got in Peña’s face needs to be held accountable by MLB.

Bad calls happen in the game of baseball.

Those awful calls, even when argued by players, should never result in an umpire aggressively getting in the face of the player who voiced his displeasure with the call.

But that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday at Minute Maid Park when Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña spoke to home plate umpire Jerry Layne after a botched called strike that was clearly low and outside.

Check out the pitch and the ump’s reaction below and decide for yourself if Major League Baseball should step in to both verbally discipline and fine Layne for his actions.

UMP SHOW ALERT

Umpire Jerry Layne steps into the box and gets in Jeremy Peña’s face after Jeremy disagrees with the call

The Astros dugout gets fired up and Alex Cintron gets ejected pic.twitter.com/9KhT6x8C7M

— APOLLO MEDIA (@ApolloHOU) May 31, 2023

Following the interaction between Peña and Layne, the Astros dugout exploded in frustration and Houston hitting coach Alex Cintrón was tossed for standing up for his player.

So what, if anything will be done about this?

Layne deserves to be called out for his actions, and the league needs to do something about it.

Layne should go back to umpiring little league or high school games if he wants to act that way under the spotlight.

There’s no need for that kind of showmanship in MLB.

Bad calls happen, but an umpire’s reactions to those calls need to be kept to a calm and professional level and demeanor.

Tuesday night in Houston was a prime example of how umpires should NOT act while officiating games in the Majors.

Regardless of the bad call and Cintrón’s ejection, the Astros went on to defeat the Minnesota Twins 5-1 on Tuesday night.

The rubber game of the three-game series is slated for 7:10 p.m. CT on Wednesday, May 31 at Minute Maid Park.

The Astros send rookie Hunter Brown (5-1, 3.12 ERA) to the hill while the Twins counter with Louie Varland (2-1, 4.24 ERA).

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