Jonathan Parra
14 games graded behind the plate.
2,178 correct of 2,344 graded takes (92.9% ± 1.0, 95%). Best game 97.1% · worst 87.4%. 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 Jonathan Parra
This season is 2,344 graded takes, which puts Jonathan Parra's overall accuracy at 92.9% ± 1.0 (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 469 takes, so ±2.3 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 195 takes, so ±3.6 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 39 takes, so ±8.0 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 59 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 59 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
Jonathan Parra
From Valencia, Venezuela, to a record-setting first season in the majors — the road behind uniform number 121.
On March 29, 2024, Opening Day, Jonathan Parra worked second base at Citi Field in the game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the New York Mets. He was the eighth Venezuelan to umpire a major-league game.
The road to that afternoon ran through a decade of minor-league work. Parra, born in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela, was umpiring in the Gulf Coast League by 2014. He also worked the Venezuelan League and the Caribbean Series before reaching AAA, where he served as a crew chief in 2023. That season he crewed alongside Austin Jones — who also reached the majors the following year — and Jen Pawol, who had become the first woman to umpire at the AAA level in 34 years.
Parra's first major-league season kept him on the move. He worked 85 games as a call-up umpire in 2024, the most by any umpire working his first games that year. He was assigned uniform number 121. On May 4, 2024, he recorded his first career ejection, tossing Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette — the only ejection of his major-league tenure through the 2026 season.
We have graded Parra behind the plate in 8 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Baseball-Reference.com, Venezuelan Umpire Camp, elemergente.com, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATH @ HOU2026-08-21 | B+ | 0.7 ATH | 3/4 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| BOS @ PIT2026-08-16 | C | 0.3 PIT | 3/6 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |
| CHC @ WSH2026-08-12 | B+ | 0.1 CHC | 1/2 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| LAA @ MIA2026-08-07 | B+ | 0.3 LAA | 2/6 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| AZ @ CLE2026-08-02 | B- | 0.3 AZ | 2/3 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| TOR @ WSH2026-07-28 | B+ | 0.3 WSH | 3/6 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| TEX @ BOS2026-06-14 | B+ | 0.1 BOS | 1/4 | The zone kept its promises. |
| ATL @ CWS2026-06-09 | A- | 0.5 CWS | 2/3 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| WSH @ CLE2026-05-27 | A- | 0.4 CLE | 0/3 | Squeezed the edges; the hitters didn't mind at all. |
| DET @ BAL2026-05-24 | D | 0.7 BAL | 2/3 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |
| ATL @ MIA2026-05-19 | B- | 1.2 ATL | 2/6 | The strike zone picked a side, and wasn't shy about it. |
| NYY @ NYM2026-05-16 | B+ | 0.6 NYM | 3/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| LAA @ CLE2026-05-11 | B+ | 1.4 CLE | 1/5 | Somebody's pitching staff sent a thank-you note. |
| BOS @ DET2026-05-06 | A+ | 0.3 BOS | 3/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |