Dan Merzel
25 games graded behind the plate.
3,651 correct of 3,905 graded takes (93.5% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 96.5% · worst 90.4%. 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 Dan Merzel
This season is 3,905 graded takes, which puts Dan Merzel's overall accuracy at 93.5% ± 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 781 takes, so ±1.7 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 325 takes, so ±2.7 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 65 takes, so ±6.0 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 111 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 111 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
Dan Merzel: A Mathematician's Road to the Plate
From second base at Johns Hopkins to the Jim Evans Academy to the full-time MLB staff — the road behind Dan Merzel's mask.
Dan Merzel was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, where his father umpired NCAA college baseball. Merzel said his passion for officiating began around age 12, but first there was the game itself. At Johns Hopkins University he studied applied mathematics and statistics, played second base, and as a junior batted .341 while earning MVP of the Centennial Conference tournament and helping his team reach the 2008 NCAA Division III World Series.
The Long Road
The path from infield to umpire ran through the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring, where Merzel graduated in 2010. His first minor league game came in June 2011 in Aberdeen, Maryland — home of the IronBirds — in front of 6,724 fans. He recalled the butterflies, telling himself to trust his training on what felt like a big stage.
He worked 452 games as a minor league call-up before MLB hired him to the full-time umpiring staff for the 2025 season. His MLB debut had come on August 29, 2020, working third base for a Cubs-Reds doubleheader at Great American Ball Park, joining a crew led by Angel Hernandez alongside Will Little and Dan Bellino. In 2025, his first year on the full-time staff, he received a special assignment to the Division Series.
We have graded Merzel behind the plate in 18 games this season, and that record is the reason his name is on this page.
Reporting: Wikipedia, Close Call Sports, Johns Hopkins Hub. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHI @ LAA2026-08-29 | A | 0.5 PHI | 1/3 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| PIT @ SD2026-08-24 | C+ | 0.3 PIT | 5/9 | The players kept asking for a second opinion — and kept getting one. |
| LAD @ COL2026-08-19 | B+ | 0.5 LAD | 2/5 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| ATL @ NYY2026-08-08 | A- | 0.3 NYY | 2/5 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| LAA @ BAL2026-08-04 | B- | 0.2 LAA | 1/2 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| PIT @ CIN2026-07-30 | B+ | 0.3 PIT | 1/4 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| AZ @ WSH2026-07-26 | B+ | 0.6 AZ | 2/4 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| CHC @ CIN2026-07-11 | B+ | 0.4 CIN | 3/4 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| HOU @ WSH2026-07-06 | B | 1.2 WSH | 6/8 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| CIN @ MIL2026-07-02 | A | 0.1 CIN | 3/5 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| COL @ MIN2026-06-28 | A | 0.9 COL | 2/3 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| ATL @ SD2026-06-23 | A | 0.4 SD | 1/3 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| LAA @ ATH2026-06-19 | A- | 0.4 LAA | 2/6 | The zone kept its promises. |
| TB @ LAD2026-06-15 | B | 0.3 LAD | 3/5 | A small strike zone, generously enforced for the offense. |
| KC @ MIN2026-06-04 | A | 0.4 MIN | 1/3 | The zone kept its promises. |
| SD @ WSH2026-05-31 | B | 0.7 WSH | 2/4 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| CHC @ PIT2026-05-27 | B- | 0.1 PIT | 2/5 | One of those nights the numbers won't flatter. |
| TOR @ DET2026-05-16 | B | 0.7 TOR | 3/4 | The zone kept its promises. |
| PHI @ BOS2026-05-12 | A | 0.4 BOS | 1/2 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| CLE @ ATH2026-05-02 | A | 0.7 ATH | 2/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| CHC @ SD2026-04-27 | B+ | 0.0 CHC | 3/6 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| PIT @ TEX2026-04-23 | B+ | 0.1 TEX | 3/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| AZ @ PHI2026-04-12 | B- | 0.7 AZ | 1/5 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| LAD @ TOR2026-04-07 | B+ | 0.0 LAD | 3/4 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| CHC @ CLE2026-04-03 | B- | 0.1 CHC | 1/3 | You wanted a strike, you had to earn it twice. |