Hunter Wendelstedt
27 games graded behind the plate.
3,742 correct of 4,056 graded takes (92.3% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 98.3% · worst 86.8%. 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 Hunter Wendelstedt
This season is 4,056 graded takes, which puts Hunter Wendelstedt's overall accuracy at 92.3% ± 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 811 takes, so ±1.8 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 338 takes, so ±2.8 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 68 takes, so ±6.4 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 152 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 152 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
Hunter Wendelstedt
Born in Atlanta, schooled in Daytona Beach, on major league fields since 1998.
Daytona Beach
Hunter Wendelstedt was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1971. He attended Father Lopez Catholic High School in Daytona Beach, Florida, before going on to Loyola University. He made his major league umpiring debut on April 19, 1998, at 26 years old. He worked exclusively National League games in 1998 and 1999 before becoming a full-time MLB umpire assigned across both leagues starting in 2000.
From there the road has stretched across nearly three decades on major league fields. He umpired the 2009 World Baseball Classic. His postseason record includes four League Championship Series and two Wild Card assignments. In 2014, a Daytona Beach-area news outlet reported that the Father Lopez graduate had earned his first World Series assignment — a milestone that came after he had already worked an American League Championship Series.
Over the span of that career, his ejections have included multiple run-ins with Braves manager Bobby Cox and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, for reasons ranging from balls-and-strikes arguments to intentional hit-by-pitch incidents.
We have graded him behind the plate in 20 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Baseball Almanac, Wikipedia, News-Journal Online. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOS @ NYY2026-08-29 | D | 0.9 NYY | 5/8 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| MIL @ NYM2026-08-25 | B- | 0.3 NYM | 6/10 | Hawkeye clocked in early and stayed late. |
| STL @ CIN2026-08-20 | B- | 0.7 CIN | 2/5 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| NYY @ TOR2026-08-16 | D | 0.8 TOR | 9/11 | Hawkeye clocked in early and stayed late. |
| PIT @ MIA2026-08-12 | B+ | 0.6 MIA | 3/6 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| KC @ COL2026-07-31 | C+ | 0.6 COL | 4/4 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| LAA @ SF2026-07-26 | A | 0.9 LAA | 1/4 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| ATH @ AZ2026-07-21 | A- | 0.3 AZ | 1/5 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| PHI @ DET2026-07-10 | A- | 0.8 PHI | 3/6 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| CWS @ CLE2026-07-05 | B- | 0.3 CWS | 2/5 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| WSH @ BOS2026-07-01 | B | 0.4 BOS | 3/6 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| CHC @ MIL2026-06-27 | D | 0.2 CHC | 1/3 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| SEA @ PIT2026-06-23 | B+ | 0.4 SEA | 4/6 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| CLE @ HOU2026-06-19 | A- | 0.5 CLE | 4/7 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| BAL @ TOR2026-06-07 | B | 1.0 TOR | 2/4 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| SD @ PHI2026-06-03 | A+ | even | 0/2 | The catcher barely had to sell a thing. |
| DET @ CWS2026-05-29 | C+ | 0.3 CWS | 4/7 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| BOS @ ATL2026-05-17 | B | 0.5 ATL | 2/4 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| NYY @ BAL2026-05-12 | A- | 0.3 BAL | 4/4 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| SF @ TB2026-05-02 | B | 1.1 TB | 4/4 | The grade leaned — the ledger says which way. |
| LAA @ CWS2026-04-27 | B | 0.1 CWS | 4/6 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| PHI @ CHC2026-04-23 | B+ | 0.4 PHI | 4/6 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| CIN @ MIN2026-04-19 | C | 2.6 MIN | 3/7 | A tilt to the evening — the numbers say which way. |
| NYM @ LAD2026-04-14 | A- | 0.2 NYM | 1/3 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| COL @ SD2026-04-10 | D | 1.2 SD | 9/11 | A few too many trips to the challenge cart. |
| ATL @ LAA2026-04-06 | B | 0.6 LAA | 1/3 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| NYM @ STL2026-03-31 | A | 0.6 NYM | 3/5 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |