Clint Vondrak
25 games graded behind the plate.
3,406 correct of 3,681 graded takes (92.5% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 97.3% · worst 86.7%. 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 Clint Vondrak
This season is 3,681 graded takes, which puts Clint Vondrak's overall accuracy at 92.5% ± 0.8 (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 736 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 307 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 97 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 97 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
From the Band to the Big Leagues
The tuba player from Carson City who climbed five minor leagues to reach the majors as a full-time umpire.
Clint Vondrak played the tuba as a member of the University of Nevada band. He graduated from Carson High School in Carson City, Nevada, and attended the University of Nevada, where he began his umpiring career officiating Northern Nevada high school baseball games, as well as basketball and volleyball. Those local fields were the first stop on a road that would carry him through five minor leagues and into the major leagues.
He became a minor league umpire in 2012, working through the Pioneer, Midwest, California, Southern, and Pacific Coast leagues. In 2016, he umpired the Southern League All-Star Game as he progressed through the minors on his way to the major leagues. His first major league game was on August 10, 2020 — the San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
In February 2024, Vondrak was promoted to the full-time MLB umpiring staff, filling the spots left by the retirements of Ed Hickox and Jeff Nelson. Born on March 11, 1989, in Ventura, California, he wears uniform number 15 and is a member of Crew Q, whose crew chief is Todd Tichenor.
His twin brother, Derek, is also a sports official, working as a basketball referee at the high school and junior college levels. The two brothers both found their way to officiating — one on the diamond, the other on the hardwood.
This season, 18 of his games behind the plate are on our record.
Reporting: RGJ, Wikipedia. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA @ TOR2026-08-29 | C | 1.8 TOR | 3/5 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| HOU @ NYY2026-08-25 | B- | 0.5 HOU | 1/3 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| MIA @ PHI2026-08-19 | B+ | 0.7 PHI | 4/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| NYM @ PIT2026-08-09 | B | 1.1 PIT | 0/1 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| MIA @ ATL2026-08-05 | B+ | 0.2 MIA | 1/2 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| TEX @ HOU2026-07-31 | C | 0.7 HOU | 4/6 | You had to throw it down Broadway to get the call. |
| CHC @ STL2026-07-27 | B+ | 1.0 STL | 3/5 | Somebody's pitching staff sent a thank-you note. |
| WSH @ COL2026-07-22 | D | 0.4 COL | 7/11 | A few too many trips to the challenge cart. |
| TOR @ SD2026-07-10 | A | 0.4 TOR | 2/3 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| MIL @ STL2026-07-07 | B- | 1.3 STL | 0/3 | Somebody's pitching staff sent a thank-you note. |
| NYY @ BOS2026-06-27 | D | 0.6 NYY | 1/3 | The plate grew a few inches after the first pitch. |
| MIL @ CIN2026-06-23 | B+ | 0.4 CIN | 1/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| PIT @ COL2026-06-19 | A- | 0.1 PIT | 2/4 | The zone kept its promises. |
| CHC @ SF2026-06-14 | A | 0.4 CHC | 0/1 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| MIL @ ATH2026-06-08 | C | 2.2 ATH | 11/16 | The robots earned their keep tonight. |
| TOR @ BAL2026-05-29 | A | 1.1 BAL | 1/2 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| NYY @ KC2026-05-25 | B+ | 0.1 NYY | 1/1 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| NYM @ WSH2026-05-19 | D | 0.4 WSH | 3/4 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| CHC @ TEX2026-05-08 | B | 1.4 CHC | 1/2 | The zone leaned, and the ledger noticed. |
| KC @ SEA2026-05-03 | C+ | 0.3 SEA | 3/5 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| MIA @ LAD2026-04-28 | B- | 0.7 MIA | 3/5 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| ATH @ TEX2026-04-24 | A | 0.0 TEX | 2/2 | A clean sheet behind the plate — the kind of night nobody posts about. |
| HOU @ SEA2026-04-12 | A+ | 0.3 SEA | 0/1 | The catcher barely had to sell a thing. |
| PHI @ SF2026-04-07 | A- | 0.3 PHI | 1/1 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| CIN @ TEX2026-04-03 | A | 0.1 CIN | 1/1 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |