Chad Whitson
24 games graded behind the plate.
3,390 correct of 3,663 graded takes (92.5% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 97.1% · worst 86.3%. 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 Chad Whitson
This season is 3,663 graded takes, which puts Chad Whitson's overall accuracy at 92.5% ± 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 733 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 305 takes, so ±2.9 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 61 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 98 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 98 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
Call-Up
From umpire school in 2005 to the full-time staff in 2019 — and the 399 games in between.
399
Chad Whitson graduated from the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School in 2005, and the road from there to a full-time major league seat ran through the Gulf Coast, Appalachian, South Atlantic, California, Eastern, and International leagues. He worked the Arizona Fall League as well. He reached Major League Spring Training in 2012 and made his MLB debut on May 15, 2014.
For the next five seasons, Whitson worked as a call-up, umpiring 399 regular season games before MLB appointed him to the full-time staff in 2019, filling the spot created by Mike DiMuro's departure. MLB's announcement noted those 399 games and the Spring Training work that had begun in 2012 — years of big-league assignments before the full-time appointment.
Behind the Plate
He received a postseason assignment for the 2022 Wild Card Games. In August 2023, while working the plate, he ejected San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler during a game that drew attention. He wears uniform number 62 and serves on a crew headed by crew chief Bill Miller.
Whitson was born in Dublin, Ohio, on December 8, 1981. His name is on this page because we have graded 17 of his games behind the plate this season.
Reporting: Close Call Sports, MLB.com, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIN @ CHC2026-08-29 | A | 0.4 CHC | 4/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| PHI @ SEA2026-08-24 | B+ | 0.1 PHI | 1/1 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| WSH @ TEX2026-08-20 | A+ | 0.1 WSH | 1/4 | The zone showed up, did the job, and went home. Ideal. |
| MIN @ MIL2026-08-09 | D | 0.1 MIN | 6/8 | ABS had a long evening on this one. |
| NYM @ CLE2026-08-05 | C+ | 0.6 CLE | 1/3 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| BAL @ DET2026-07-28 | B- | 0.3 BAL | 3/4 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| ATH @ MIN2026-07-24 | B | 0.3 MIN | 1/4 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |
| CLE @ MIA2026-07-11 | B | 0.5 CLE | 2/4 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| LAA @ TEX2026-07-07 | B | 0.9 TEX | 3/5 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| HOU @ TOR2026-06-24 | B- | 0.2 TOR | 2/5 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| NYM @ PHI2026-06-20 | A- | 0.2 NYM | 3/3 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| KC @ WSH2026-06-15 | D | 0.7 KC | 1/4 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| ATL @ CWS2026-06-10 | A | 0.3 ATL | 2/2 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| NYM @ SD2026-06-05 | A | 0.6 NYM | 0/1 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| HOU @ CHC2026-05-23 | B+ | 0.5 CHC | 4/7 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| SF @ AZ2026-05-18 | A | 0.2 SF | 1/1 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| STL @ ATH2026-05-13 | B+ | 0.2 ATH | 2/3 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| ATL @ COL2026-05-02 | B | 0.3 COL | 3/4 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| WSH @ NYM2026-04-28 | B- | 0.9 WSH | 0/3 | You had to throw it down Broadway to get the call. |
| TOR @ LAA2026-04-22 | D | 1.0 TOR | 3/6 | Tonight's zone had a rooting interest. |
| CWS @ ATH2026-04-18 | B- | 1.8 CWS | 3/7 | Somebody's pitching staff sent a thank-you note. |
| SEA @ SD2026-04-14 | A | 0.2 SD | 1/3 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| CHC @ TB2026-04-08 | B+ | 1.7 TB | 3/4 | A tilt to the evening — the numbers say which way. |
| NYY @ SF2026-03-28 | B- | 0.6 NYY | 7/7 | This one went to video review more than most. |