Angel Hernandez Says MLB Umpiring Exec Randy Marsh Made 'Disturbing' Comments

In a racial discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball, umpire Angel Hernandez says umpiring executive Randy Marsh made "two disturbing comments" regarding the hiring of minority umpires, according to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic.

The lawsuit, which was first filed in 2017, noted there is a lower percentage of minority umpires in baseball compared to referees in the NFL and NBA. Marsh said the league has tried to recruit, but that hasn't worked out.

"The problem is, yeah, they want to be in the big leagues tomorrow, and they don't want to go through all of that," Marsh said in a deposition.

The second Marsh comment referenced in the latest filing was redacted, although it reportedly discussed another Latino umpire.

Hernandez says in the lawsuit the league has systematically discriminated against non-white umpires, especially when it comes to promoting crew chiefs or assigning top events like the World Series.

MLB says Hernandez demonstrated a "failure to exhibit leadership," which is why he was not promoted, per Kaplan.

In conversations around who would work the 2015 World Series, Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations Peter Woodfork said he believed Commissioner Rob Manfred wouldn't approve of selecting Hernandez, per the Associated Press (via ESPN).

In 2019, Joe Torre said Hernandez eavesdropped on an MLB investigative call about a game Hernandez worked, per Howie Kussoy of the New York Post.

Hernandez hasn't worked a World Series game since Torre entered the league office in 2011 and he's only appeared in one League Championship Series since then in 2016.