Fever BaseballFor collectors and stat nerdsFuture Value Radar (FVR) · On the record
Umpire Grade · Blue Notes

Emil Jimenez

23 games graded behind the plate.

B
Season Grade
92.2% ± 0.9
0.57
Avg Swing
runs / game
50.0%
ABS Overturns
51/102 calls

3,365 correct of 3,650 graded takes (92.2% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 99.3% · worst 87.0%. 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 Emil Jimenez

This season is 3,650 graded takes, which puts Emil Jimenez's overall accuracy at 92.2% ± 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 730 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
  • any single corner of the zone about 304 takes, so ±3.0 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
  • whether one pitcher is called tighter than another about 61 takes, so ±6.7 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 102 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 102 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

Emil Jimenez: The Long Call-Up

Born in Venezuela, he worked 246 major league games as a call-up before earning a permanent staff position in 2025.

From Santa Ana de Coro

Emil Jimenez Pernalete was born in 1986 in Santa Ana de Coro, Falcon, Venezuela. He began his umpiring career in Minor League Baseball in 2015. His first assignments came in the Gulf Coast League, and from there he worked his way through the South Atlantic League, the Southern League, the Pacific Coast League, and the International League.

His major league debut came on April 18, 2023, at Guaranteed Rate Field, where the Philadelphia Phillies played the Chicago White Sox. He had also begun working major league Spring Training that same year. Prior to his promotion to the permanent major league staff, he had worked 246 major league games as a call-up umpire. MLB promoted him prior to the 2025 season, following the retirements of Paul Emmel, Jerry Layne, and Larry Vanover. For the 2025 season, Jimenez was assigned to Doug Eddings' crew. He wears uniform number 82 as an MLB umpire.

In a 2025 game between the San Diego Padres and New York Mets at Petco Park, Jimenez called Juan Soto out on strikes twice. Soto had to be held back by teammate Pete Alonso, and Mets manager Carlos Mendoza came out of the dugout to defend his player. Jimenez ejected Mendoza.

Sixteen of his games behind the plate this season stand on the record above.

Reporting: Wikipedia, MLB.com, AP News. 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

GameGradeFavorABSBlue Note
BAL @ ATH2026-08-28B0.4 BAL4/7The plate grew a few inches after the first pitch.
MIL @ LAD2026-08-16A0.0 MIL1/3The zone showed up, did the job, and went home. Ideal.
COL @ AZ2026-08-12C0.8 AZ7/10The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here.
TB @ SEA2026-08-08B-0.8 SEA2/3Corner-to-corner and then some.
TOR @ HOU2026-08-03B-0.6 HOU6/7This one went to video review more than most.
MIL @ SF2026-07-29D0.4 SF5/7The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here.
CIN @ STL2026-07-25A+0.1 CIN1/3The zone showed up, did the job, and went home. Ideal.
SD @ ATL2026-07-21B+0.9 ATL2/4The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story.
ATH @ CWS2026-07-10B0.3 ATH2/4A steady night's work behind the plate.
NYY @ TB2026-07-06A-0.5 NYY0/2Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines.
KC @ TB2026-06-25C+1.1 KC1/3The zone leaned, and the ledger noticed.
SD @ TEX2026-06-19A-0.5 TEX0/1Corner-to-corner and then some.
CWS @ NYY2026-06-17C1.9 NYY5/7The challenge cart got its steps in.
SEA @ BAL2026-06-11A0.3 BAL0/2Quietly excellent. The best umpiring is the kind you forget was there.
SF @ COL2026-05-31B0.2 COL1/4The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story.
CIN @ NYM2026-05-26B-0.6 NYM7/9The challenge cart got its steps in.
TB @ NYY2026-05-22B-0.4 NYY1/3Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches.
PHI @ PIT2026-05-15B+0.7 PHI0/3A steady night's work behind the plate.
DET @ KC2026-05-10B-0.8 DET3/6A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix.
MIL @ STL2026-05-04D0.2 MIL2/4If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed.
PHI @ ATL2026-04-25B0.4 PHI0/3Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone.
MIL @ DET2026-04-21C+0.2 MIL0/2A small strike zone, generously enforced for the offense.
CWS @ MIA2026-03-30B+0.9 MIA1/5Called a fair game and let the players decide it.