Mike Estabrook
26 games graded behind the plate.
3,571 correct of 3,888 graded takes (91.8% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 95.5% · worst 87.7%. 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 Mike Estabrook
This season is 3,888 graded takes, which puts Mike Estabrook's overall accuracy at 91.8% ± 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 778 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 324 takes, so ±3.0 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 65 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 123 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 123 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
Mike Estabrook: 698 Games Before the Title
A Daytona Beach native who spent years as a fill-in before earning full-time MLB status at 37.
The Long Call-Up
Michael Joseph Estabrook was born on July 28, 1976, in Daytona Beach, Florida, and he made his first appearance at the Major League level on May 7, 2006. Between that debut and his promotion to the full-time MLB staff prior to the 2014 season, Estabrook worked 698 major league games as a fill-in umpire. At age 37, he was the oldest of seven umpires promoted to full-time status during that offseason.
The Mask and the Assignments
Estabrook wears uniform number 83 and works on a crew led by Alfonso Márquez. He is known for wearing a helmet with a traditional face mask behind home plate instead of the standard umpire cap, one of the first full-time umpires to do so.
His assignments have carried him to the 2017 MLB All-Star Game and the 2023 World Baseball Classic. His first career playoff game came on October 7, 2015, working left field in the National League Wild Card Game between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In June 2010, Estabrook ejected Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost after a confrontation involving catcher Jason Kendall. Kendall alleged Estabrook had gotten in his face unprofessionally; Yost defended his player and said he would never let an umpire show up one of his players.
Estabrook works behind the plate in 2026. We have graded him in 19 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Wikipedia, BR Bullpen. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CWS @ MIN2026-08-28 | D | 0.4 CWS | 7/9 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| PIT @ LAD2026-08-23 | A | 0.3 LAD | 1/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| LAA @ HOU2026-08-19 | B- | 0.2 HOU | 4/6 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| TEX @ ATH2026-08-14 | B- | 0.8 ATH | 3/6 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| CWS @ TB2026-08-02 | B- | 0.0 TB | 1/4 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| CLE @ CIN2026-07-28 | C | 0.1 CIN | 4/5 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| LAD @ NYM2026-07-24 | D | 0.7 LAD | 5/5 | The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here. |
| SF @ KC2026-07-20 | B | 0.8 SF | 5/8 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| TB @ BOS2026-07-17 | A- | 0.2 TB | 0/2 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| PHI @ CIN2026-07-09 | B- | 0.5 CIN | 2/3 | You had to throw it down Broadway to get the call. |
| NYM @ ATL2026-07-05 | B- | 0.4 NYM | 4/7 | Nothing off the plate, and not much on the black either. |
| DET @ NYY2026-06-30 | B- | 0.6 DET | 5/7 | Hawkeye clocked in early and stayed late. |
| MIN @ TEX2026-06-18 | C+ | 0.8 TEX | 1/2 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| COL @ ATH2026-06-12 | B | 0.6 ATH | 0/3 | The zone kept its promises. |
| LAA @ TB2026-05-31 | B | 1.3 TB | 1/3 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| WSH @ CLE2026-05-26 | A | 0.4 CLE | 6/8 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| DET @ BAL2026-05-22 | A | 0.0 BAL | 2/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| LAA @ TOR2026-05-08 | C+ | 0.9 TOR | 1/2 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| BAL @ NYY2026-05-04 | B+ | 0.2 BAL | 3/4 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| AZ @ MIL2026-04-30 | C | 0.0 AZ | 1/4 | The zone shrank when the pitchers needed it most. |
| CHC @ LAD2026-04-25 | B | 0.0 LAD | 2/5 | You had to throw it down Broadway to get the call. |
| ATH @ SEA2026-04-20 | B- | 0.3 ATH | 0/0 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| MIA @ DET2026-04-12 | C+ | 0.4 DET | 4/6 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |
| BAL @ CWS2026-04-07 | B | 0.9 BAL | 1/3 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| ATL @ AZ2026-04-03 | A- | 0.4 AZ | 6/7 | The challenge cart got its steps in. |
| NYY @ SEA2026-03-30 | C+ | 0.2 SEA | 5/5 | The challenge cart got its steps in. |