Jordan Baker
24 games graded behind the plate.
3,329 correct of 3,602 graded takes (92.4% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 95.8% · worst 88.1%. 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 Jordan Baker
This season is 3,602 graded takes, which puts Jordan Baker's overall accuracy at 92.4% ± 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 720 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 300 takes, so ±3.0 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 60 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
Jordan Baker
Born in Enid, Oklahoma, Jordan Baker went from the Wendelstedt school to a Game 7 World Series behind the plate.
Baker was born in Enid, Oklahoma, in December 1981. He graduated from the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School in 2005 and has since returned to the school as an instructor. The climb to the majors ran through the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, where he was working the 2012 season when he got his first major league call. On June 22 of that year he joined Gerry Davis' crew at second base for a game between Cleveland and Houston, filling in for umpire Greg Gibson.
He worked 199 MLB games as a call-up umpire before being appointed to the full-time staff for the 2014 season. At six feet seven inches, Baker is the tallest active umpire in Major League Baseball. He wears uniform number 71, carries 13.5 years of major league service time, and serves as a crew chief.
The Fall Classic
Baker worked his first World Series in 2022, a milestone in his postseason career. Three years later, the 2025 World Series between the Blue Jays and Dodgers reached a seventh game in Toronto, and Baker was the man behind the plate. He was serving as an alternate for Game 6 before being called to work behind the plate for the decisive Game 7. An Oklahoma native, he lives in Shawnee.
We have graded him behind the plate in 19 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Close Call Sports, MLB.com, News9.com, Wikipedia. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF @ CLE2026-08-18 | B+ | 1.0 CLE | 1/2 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| BAL @ TB2026-08-14 | B- | 0.3 BAL | 3/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| STL @ TOR2026-08-02 | A | 0.4 STL | 4/7 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| TEX @ TB2026-07-29 | A- | 0.3 TB | 5/6 | Hawkeye clocked in early and stayed late. |
| AZ @ WSH2026-07-24 | C+ | 0.6 WSH | 3/3 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| LAD @ NYY2026-07-19 | C+ | 0.2 LAD | 7/8 | The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here. |
| MIA @ ATH2026-07-04 | B+ | 0.1 ATH | 2/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| TB @ KC2026-06-30 | B | 0.9 TB | 6/8 | The players kept asking for a second opinion — and kept getting one. |
| CHC @ NYM2026-06-25 | A | 0.0 CHC | 2/6 | No notes. Well, one: nicely done. |
| CWS @ DET2026-06-21 | D | 0.0 CWS | 1/4 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| SF @ ATL2026-06-16 | B | 1.0 SF | 2/3 | The zone leaned, and the ledger noticed. |
| LAD @ AZ2026-06-04 | A | 0.4 AZ | 4/4 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| MIN @ PIT2026-05-31 | A- | 0.4 MIN | 0/2 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| ATL @ BOS2026-05-27 | B- | 0.3 ATL | 0/2 | Not his sharpest evening behind the plate. |
| CLE @ PHI2026-05-23 | A- | 1.7 PHI | 4/6 | The strike zone picked a side, and wasn't shy about it. |
| BAL @ TB2026-05-18 | B- | 0.0 BAL | 1/4 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| DET @ NYM2026-05-14 | D | 1.0 NYM | 1/3 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| MIL @ WSH2026-05-02 | D | 0.6 WSH | 2/4 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| HOU @ BAL2026-04-28 | C | 0.2 BAL | 2/4 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| LAD @ SF2026-04-22 | B | 0.1 SF | 4/6 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| TEX @ SEA2026-04-17 | A- | 0.7 SEA | 2/3 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| TOR @ CWS2026-04-05 | B+ | 0.8 TOR | 0/2 | The zone kept its promises. |
| PIT @ CIN2026-03-31 | B- | 0.4 PIT | 0/3 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| COL @ MIA2026-03-27 | A | 0.1 MIA | 2/3 | A clean sheet behind the plate — the kind of night nobody posts about. |