Inside The Twins

Data says Twins have been hurt by umpires more than any team this season

Does it feel like the Twins have gotten screwed by bad ball/strike calls this year? If so, you're not crazy. The data backs it up.

Will Ragatz

May 10, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli (5) is ejected after arguing with home plate umpire Adrian Johnson in the sixth inning of the game against the San Francisco Giants at Target Field.
May 10, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli (5) is ejected after arguing with home plate umpire Adrian Johnson in the sixth inning of the game against the San Francisco Giants at Target Field. / Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
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If you feel like the Twins have been hurt by bad ball/strike calls from home plate umpires this season, you're not crazy. The data backs it up.

According to tracking from umpscorecards.com, the Twins have had the worst luck with umpires of any team in Major League Baseball in 2025. As of Monday, they're at -12.75 runs of impact on missed calls, putting them in last place by a pretty wide margin. The next closest team is the Rockies at -8.08. Only three other teams are even at -6 or worse.

The Twins are at +1.14 when batting, which is actually third-worst in the league. Only two teams are in the negative in that department. And they're at -13.89 in pitching impact, second-worst in the league. Minnesota has had "a greater total run impact" based on ball/strike calls in only 32 percent of its games this season, again the lowest mark in the league. No one else is below 38 percent.

Umpire Scorecards tweets out graphics after every game, measuring the accuracy, consistency, and overall favor of the home plate umpire in that contest. For example, the Twins managed to avoid a sweep against the Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon despite Toronto getting +1.09 runs of favor.

That wasn't even the worst game of the series. In Friday night's opener, the Blue Jays were at +1.33. It was a clean sweep for the umps, as Toronto was +0.61 on Saturday.

A particularly bad performance came from Adrian Johnson in the May 10 game between the Twins and Giants. San Francisco ended up at +0.74, which isn't awful, but it was more notable because of how bad Johnson was overall. Rocco Baldelli was tossed from that game.

The worst one to hurt the Twins this year was an April 25 loss to the White Sox, where Chicago was at +2.08 runs despite the game only going seven innings. That's followed closely by an April 30 loss against the Guardians (+1.71).

But shoutout to Mark Ripperger, who called a perfect game behind the plate when the Twins and Royals played on April 10. That scorecard understandably went viral.

To be clear, I don't think MLB umpires have some sort of vendetta against the Twins. It can probably be mostly attributed to simple bad luck and unfortunate statistical variance. It's also very much possible that catcher framing plays a role on the pitching side; both Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vazquez have graded as poor framers this season.

Either way, Baldelli and the Twins have a right to be frustrated by how many missed calls have gone against them this season. They'd like to see that change — and they might already be looking forward to the days (perhaps as soon as next year) when they'll have the ability to challenge missed pitch calls with the ABS system.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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