Dexter Kelley
19 games graded behind the plate.
2,679 correct of 2,887 graded takes (92.8% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 96.5% · worst 88.2%. 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 Dexter Kelley
This season is 2,887 graded takes, which puts Dexter Kelley's overall accuracy at 92.8% ± 0.9 (95% interval). That interval is a large share of the whole league's four-point spread, so this grade is a reading and not yet a ranking — we print it, and we do not place it against umpires with a full season behind the plate. Everything finer is further out of reach still:
- how the zone moves with two strikes — about 577 takes, so ±2.1 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 241 takes, so ±3.3 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 48 takes, so ±7.3 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 89 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 89 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
The Outfielder Who Turned Around
Dexter Kelley stole 44 bases at Savannah State before a teammate's tip sent him to umpiring school. Now he calls major-league games.
Dexter Kelley stole 44 bases as a junior outfielder at Savannah State University — .88 steals per game, second in NCAA Division I in 2010. After college, a teammate, Joe McCrary, told him about a job umpiring high school baseball at fifty dollars a game. Kelley took it.
He was soon invited to an MLB umpiring camp and earned scholarships to further training. He enrolled at the Wendelstedt Umpire School in Daytona Beach and graduated at the top of his class. The climb that followed ran from rookie ball in the Gulf Coast League through the New York-Penn League, the Single-A Florida State League, the Double-A Southern League, and AAA. In 2022, MLB assigned him to All-Star week at Dodger Stadium, where he worked the plate for the High School All-American Game, third base for the Futures Game, first base for the Celebrity Softball Game, and the outfield during the Home Run Derby.
Atlanta
Kelley is an Augusta, Georgia native who attended T.W. Josey High School. He made his major-league debut on May 23, 2025, working a Braves-Padres series at Truist Park. During that series, he made an out call at second base on a throw from right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., and the stadium erupted. Kelley told WRDW he could feel the ground shake and the heat rising from the dirt.
He was one of 21 umpires selected for 2025 MLB spring training, which led to his regular-season call-up. We have graded him behind the plate in 11 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Savannah State University Athletics, WRDW, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KC @ CLE2026-08-28 | B- | 1.9 KC | 2/4 | A tilt to the evening — the numbers say which way. |
| NYM @ CWS2026-08-23 | B- | 0.0 NYM | 4/8 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| SEA @ MIL2026-08-19 | B+ | 0.8 MIL | 1/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| KC @ LAA2026-08-14 | A | 0.7 KC | 1/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| CIN @ WSH2026-08-09 | B+ | 0.2 WSH | 3/3 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| PIT @ CIN2026-08-01 | C+ | 0.9 CIN | 4/6 | The plate grew a few inches after the first pitch. |
| PHI @ MIA2026-07-28 | A- | 0.2 PHI | 1/5 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| HOU @ CWS2026-07-24 | A- | 0.6 CWS | 1/5 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| SF @ SEA2026-07-19 | A- | 0.1 SEA | 3/4 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| TOR @ SEA2026-07-05 | C+ | 0.1 SEA | 3/5 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| MIA @ COL2026-07-01 | C+ | 0.7 COL | 1/3 | Pitchers found a little extra real estate. |
| MIA @ PHI2026-06-17 | A- | 0.0 PHI | 0/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| AZ @ CIN2026-06-14 | C+ | 0.2 AZ | 3/5 | You had to throw it down Broadway to get the call. |
| PHI @ PIT2026-05-17 | A | 0.1 PHI | 0/3 | No notes. Well, one: nicely done. |
| WSH @ CIN2026-05-13 | B | 1.1 CIN | 5/7 | Hawkeye clocked in early and stayed late. |
| DET @ KC2026-05-08 | D | 1.5 DET | 1/4 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| SEA @ MIN2026-04-29 | B | 0.7 SEA | 2/5 | The plate grew a few inches after the first pitch. |
| PHI @ ATL2026-04-24 | B | 1.0 PHI | 0/3 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| CLE @ ATL2026-04-10 | B+ | 0.1 CLE | 1/5 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |