10 worst MLB umpires right now: C.B. Bucknor, Doug Eddings among worst in baseball

Rob Drake is one of the worst MLB umpires for a variety of reasons. We’ll even put his accuracy behind the plate, which is one of the worst in baseball to the side. Drake is the same umpire who yelled at an injured player to “Get off the field” in 2024 and he has a reputation for ump shows, getting into it with players and managers quite often. But hey, at least he isn’t threatening to start a civil war on the baseball field.

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Alfonso Marquez is an outlier on this list. While the league office keeps a lot of its worst MLB umpires out of the spotlight, Márquez has worked the World Series five times, including twice since 2021 and he’s worked nearly every postseason for the last decade. He might only get it based on his reputation in 2024. Marquez has had some awful games behind the plate in 2024, including an 86.7 Accuracy rate on June 10 (second-worst in 2024). Among umpires with 10-plus games behind the plate, Marquez is in the bottom four for average accuracy.

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Even the best umpires will miss a handful of calls each game, it’s human error. However, while some of the best umps in baseball have missed around 300-350 calls over the past two seasons, boasting a 95-plus accuracy, Fletcher (486 in 46 games) leads the pack and he is in rare company with only four umpires (Flecher, Brian O’Nora, Doug Eddings and Hunter Wendelstedt) with 460-plus missed calls). Spoiler alert, all of them are on this list. Fletcher did get a lot of work in the 2023 postseason, so the league clearly feels differently about him. However, 2024 has been a very bad year for him and that includes calls away from home plate.

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It’s a telling sign when Major League Baseball has to discipline an umpire for a decision they made on the field. That happened in 2024 when MLB quietly disciplined Hunter Wendelstedt for an inexcusable ejection of New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Wendelstedt has always been eager to flex that power, as Ron Gardenhire from a lot of experience. As for his accuracy behind the plate, the veteran has the sixth-worst average over the last two years. The irony of this is, he’s the head of the Wendelstedt Umpire School now.

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It’s one thing to have one of the worst strike zones in MLB, but it’s even worse when you aren’t consistent. Larry Vanover has the third-worst average consistency (92.5) in the majors this year and that comes with the seventh-worst accuracy (92.6) over the last two seasons. Vanover has had some awful calls this year on multiple occasions and his issues have been apparent for a while now. While he did work the World Baseball Classic 2023, it’s telling that Major League Baseball hasn’t had him work anything higher than a Wild Card Game (2020) in October since 2016.

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Brian O’Nora has had quite a career as an MLB umpire. Working behind home plate, he’s been struck numerous times in the head, groin and arm by bats and balls. He was also arrested in 2020, though, he pled not guilty to solicitation. O’Nora hasn’t worked anything higher than MLB’s Division Series since 2013. Why? Well, one of the worst correct call rates in MLB all season (84.8%) this year and the eighth-worst accurate rate (93 percent) since 2022 might explain it.

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Doug Eddings has been one of the worst MLB umpires for several years now, but that hasn’t stopped the league office from giving him some cushy assignments. The 55-year-old worked the 2019 World Series and was everywhere in 2023, serving as an umpire for the Wild Card Series, World Series and World Baseball Classic. Unsurprisingly, one result of that was 18 missed calls in Game 4 of the ALCS. In what shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, not even the league office, Eddings had two of the worst umpire performances in the 2023 postseason.

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Brian Walsk is one of the worst MLB umpires right now, but that could easily just be part of the growing pains at a time when baseball’s development of umpires doesn’t seem particularly promising. Since making his debut in the majors, Walsh has the third-worst accuracy rate (92.5 percent) with the fifth-worst Correct Calls Above Expected (-38.8). He’s still young, but that also can’t excuse calling one of the worst games in MLB in three years.

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One common theme among some of the worst MLB umpires is Major League Baseball itself rarely giving them important assignments on the national stage. Scott Barry has been a full-time umpire for more than a decade now and he hasn’t worked anything higher than the 2018 League Championship Series. He has the third-lowest accuracy rate (92.4 percent) behind home plate among umpires with 20-plus games since 2023, as well. Barry certainly isn’t on the level of Angel Hernandez, but no one in baseball would mistake him for being one of the best in the league.

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A Major League Baseball umpire since the 2000 season, C.B. Bucknor has never had the opportunity to work the World Series or even a Championship Series. He was lined up to do it for the first time in 2009, but MLB pulled him off the assignment for missed calls in the division series. Not only that, MLB hasn’t even assigned him to the postseason since 2020 which is the same year nearly a dozen umpires sat out over COVID concerns. Meanwhile, 42 percent of players in 2010 voted Bucknor as the worst umpire in MLB. As for the stats, Bucknor has the lowest accuracy rate (92.3 percent) in MLB over the past two seasons among umpires with 20-plus games behind home plate. Plus, he’s the lowest-rated umpire in 2024 by Umpire Auditor.

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