Jose Caballero has gotten under the umpires' skin and Yankees fans are loving it

New York Yankees shortstop Jose Caballero has been leaning into his gamesmanship this season by trying to throw off opposing pitchers. Caballero has developed a trick to lure the oppoisition into a pitch-clock violation by avoiding eye contact with pitchers in the batter's box, and umpires are officially sick of it.

MLB rules stipulate that the pitcher and hitter must be "alert" to one another with eight seconds to go on the pitch clock. Caballero has been bending that rule with his strategy, and he got burned for it in the ninth inning of Tuesday's game against the Boston Red Sox.

Jose Caballero's pitch clock strategy is starting to annoy umpires

After taking a 3-1 called strike that Caballero thought was a ball, the shortstop bent down to re-adjust his shin guard that he had just sought to remove (assuming he'd just witnessed ball four), and it soon became obvious that Caballero was engaging in his usual tricks, putting Red Sox reliever Tyler Samaniego in an awkward position.

Except Caballero was the one hit with a violation, resulting in an automatic strikeout. The odd thing about this ruling was that Caballero wasn't actually avoiding eye contact with Samaniego on this occasion. He did take a little while to adjust his shin guard, but then appeared to stand up and make himself "alert" to Samaniego in time. It didn't matter to home plate umpire Austin Jones, who was clearly annoyed by Caballero's tactics and made his ruling.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone immediately bolted out of the dugout, demanding an explanation, likely sensing that this wasn't one of Caballero's more grievous offenses. In the end, Caballero was penalized not necessarily for this specific instance, but because he had driven Jones to a breaking point throughout the game with his constant delays.

Red Sox broadcaster Lou Merloni also suggested that Caballero was the victim of accrued annoyance, saying, "You've been doing it all game, floating around with everybody, waiting ... you gotta be alert at eight seconds, too ... (instead) you're sitting there taking your time."

Yankees fans are digging the mind games from Jose Caballero

It's likely that MLB umpires have collectively caught on to Caballero's clever strategy, as he's been the target of conversation from multiple umps during games for a few weeks, as noted by New York Daily News' Gary Phillips.

And while Red Sox fans are sure to join forces with the umpires and spew venom in Caballero's direction for his behavior in the box, Yankees fans with an appreciation for some good ol' pestering are huge fans of the cunning move from Caballero (maybe this makes up for his poor ABS decisions!).

By exploiting the vagueness of what "alert" really means, Caballero is merely bending the rule, not breaking it. In that vein, why should he be penalized for playing within the confines of the regulations? This reminds one of Jazz Chisholm Jr. recently being chastised by Drew Rasmussen for relaying pitch location from second base — Chisholm wasn't doing anything wrong (and Rasmussen later apologized to Jazz).

Will MLB adjust the wording of the rule ahead of next season to account for Caballero's loophole? Probably. But until then, Caballero isn't in the wrong, even if umpires and opposing fans are getting worked up about it.

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