Andy Fletcher
24 games graded behind the plate.
Andy Fletcher called 92.4% of taken pitches correctly in the 2026 regular season — 55th of 81 plate umpires with a full season’s sample. League rate: 92.8%.
3,444 correct of 3,727 graded takes (92.4% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 96.4% · worst 89.4%. Grade is accuracy on taken pitches vs the rulebook zone; ABS is the Automated Ball-Strike System challenge record (how often the robots overruled the call).
What we can't say about Andy Fletcher
This season is 3,727 graded takes, which puts Andy Fletcher's overall accuracy at 92.4% ± 0.9 (95% interval). That is a real measurement against a league spanning about four points end to end. It is not enough for anything finer, and here is the arithmetic rather than our word for it:
- how the zone moves with two strikes — about 745 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 311 takes, so ±2.9 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 62 takes, so ±6.6 points. (a given pitcher is worked once or twice a season.)
And a note on the number itself: an accuracy figure is a rate plus a convention for what counts as a miss. Ours grades every taken pitch against the rulebook zone as the feed reports it. Others are more forgiving — UmpScorecards counts a call wrong only when the pitch was at least 90% likely to be a strike — so two sites can print the same percentage about the same umpire and not mean the same thing by it. How the grade is built.
The overturn rate is a different kind of number and does not belong beside the grade: it is accuracy on the 122 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 122 is enough to print it with its own denominator, which is what we do — but it still ranks umpires by how often they are appealed, not by how often they are right.
The road to the plate
Born in Memphis
A Memphis-born umpire who argued with Michael Jordan in the minors and worked the 2024 World Series.
The Southern League
In 1994, Andy Fletcher was umpiring in the Southern League. Michael Jordan was playing for the Birmingham Barons that summer, and over the course of the season Fletcher had arguments with Jordan. The confrontations ended with the ejection of Barons manager Terry Francona. Fletcher was still five years from his first major league game.
He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 17, 1966. He attended the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School in 1989. Ten years later, he made his major league umpiring debut on August 24, 1999.
The Assignments
He worked the MLB All-Star Game in 2005 and again in 2018. On August 15, 2012, he was the third base umpire for Felix Hernandez's perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays — one of only 24 perfect games in MLB history. He was selected to work the 2024 World Series, and was promoted to crew chief in 2025.
On July 5, 2026, USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported that Fletcher was one of seven umpires who had accepted a buyout from Major League Baseball to retire after the 2026 season. We have graded him behind the plate in 13 of his games this season.
Reporting: Wikipedia, Baseball Almanac. Umpire data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.
By the Desk · filed 2026-07-24 — the profile reads as of its filing; the grading record above is live · every fact in this piece comes from a sourced research pack and clears an independent fact-check, and nothing is edited after filing.
The games
| Game | Grade | Favor | ABS | Blue Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAA @ SEA2026-09-25 | B | 0.0 SEA | 0/2 | The zone kept its promises. |
| MIN @ SF2026-09-21 | B+ | 0.3 MIN | 5/7 | ABS had a long evening on this one. |
| SD @ COL2026-09-17 | B | 0.7 SD | 1/4 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| SEA @ ATH2026-09-13 | B+ | 0.1 SEA | 4/6 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| CIN @ LAD2026-09-08 | B | 0.3 LAD | 4/6 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| SD @ TB2026-08-28 | C | 0.1 SD | 1/3 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| LAA @ TEX2026-08-21 | C+ | 1.4 TEX | 3/6 | The grade leaned — the ledger says which way. |
| ATH @ KC2026-08-18 | B+ | 1.6 ATH | 3/5 | Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling. |
| NYM @ ATL2026-08-12 | B- | 0.0 NYM | 6/9 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| CLE @ CWS2026-08-08 | B+ | 0.1 CLE | 4/6 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| STL @ NYY2026-08-03 | C+ | 1.1 STL | 6/6 | Hawkeye clocked in early and stayed late. |
| NYM @ MIL2026-07-22 | B+ | 0.4 MIL | 5/7 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| CIN @ COL2026-07-18 | A- | 0.2 COL | 1/3 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| TB @ HOU2026-07-03 | B | 1.4 HOU | 5/6 | A busy night for the machines in the truck. |
| PIT @ PHI2026-06-29 | B- | 0.0 PHI | 4/6 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| KC @ CIN2026-06-02 | A | 1.0 KC | 2/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| STL @ SD2026-05-10 | B+ | 0.3 SD | 0/3 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| CWS @ LAA2026-05-06 | B- | 0.7 CWS | 3/4 | Nothing off the plate, and not much on the black either. |
| BOS @ BAL2026-04-25 | C | 0.2 BAL | 3/3 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| HOU @ CLE2026-04-20 | A | 0.3 CLE | 3/4 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| KC @ DET2026-04-16 | B- | 1.0 DET | 3/4 | The grade leaned — the ledger says which way. |
| PHI @ COL2026-04-05 | C | 0.2 COL | 5/5 | The players kept asking for a second opinion — and kept getting one. |
| MIN @ KC2026-04-01 | B+ | 0.1 KC | 9/11 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| AZ @ LAD2026-03-26 | B- | 0.1 AZ | 1/1 | Everybody has a Tuesday like this one. |
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