Quinn Wolcott
28 games graded behind the plate.
3,998 correct of 4,293 graded takes (93.1% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 98.7% · worst 89.4%. 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 Quinn Wolcott
This season is 4,293 graded takes, which puts Quinn Wolcott's overall accuracy at 93.1% ± 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 859 takes, so ±1.7 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 358 takes, so ±2.6 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 72 takes, so ±5.8 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 112 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 112 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
First from Pierce County
A teenager from Puyallup chose umpiring school over college and spent eight years in the minors before reaching the big leagues — and a World Series.
Quinn Wolcott was nineteen when he decided umpiring school in Florida sounded better than college. He enrolled at the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring in 2006 and was the youngest umpire hired to the minor leagues that year. What followed was eight seasons on the road: short-season rookie ball, Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A, with Arizona instructional league and winter assignments in Latin America filling the gaps between seasons.
The major leagues called on May 27, 2013 — a doubleheader between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers. Wolcott, born in Puyallup, Washington, and a 2005 graduate of Emerald Ridge High School, became the first umpire from Pierce County to reach the big leagues. He was appointed to the full-time MLB staff on July 4, 2014, replacing the retiring Gary Darling, and at twenty-eight was the youngest umpire on the roster.
He has since worked League Championship Series in 2022 and 2025, multiple Division Series and Wild Card Games, and a 2023 that brought two career firsts: his first All-Star Game, played in Seattle, and his first World Series crew assignment.
Wolcott was also the first umpire in Major League Baseball to have a call overturned by instant replay to end a game. He supported the system despite the personal sting, expressing that it was good mistakes could be corrected rather than allowed to change a team's season.
We have graded him behind the plate in 21 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: MyNorthwest.com, Tacoma Athletic Commission, MLB.com, Close Call Sports, Wikipedia. Umpire data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.
By the Desk · filed 2026-07-23 — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KC @ CLE2026-08-29 | A- | 0.2 KC | 1/1 | The zone kept its promises. |
| TB @ DET2026-08-24 | A- | 0.2 TB | 0/3 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| SEA @ MIL2026-08-20 | B | 0.5 MIL | 4/6 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| KC @ LAA2026-08-15 | A- | 0.4 KC | 0/3 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| TB @ ATH2026-08-10 | B | 0.4 ATH | 3/4 | The plate grew a few inches after the first pitch. |
| SD @ AZ2026-08-06 | A | 0.0 AZ | 3/4 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| TOR @ BOS2026-07-26 | B- | 0.2 BOS | 5/6 | A busy night for the machines in the truck. |
| PIT @ NYY2026-07-22 | C | 1.8 NYY | 2/6 | The strike zone picked a side, and wasn't shy about it. |
| HOU @ TEX2026-07-10 | B | 0.6 HOU | 1/3 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| TOR @ SEA2026-07-04 | A- | 0.4 TOR | 1/2 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| MIA @ COL2026-06-30 | C+ | 0.3 MIA | 4/6 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| LAD @ SD2026-06-27 | A | 0.3 SD | 0/2 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| ATH @ SF2026-06-23 | C+ | 0.6 ATH | 1/3 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| DET @ HOU2026-06-17 | A- | 1.4 DET | 3/5 | One side pitched to a slightly bigger plate. |
| PIT @ ATL2026-06-07 | B- | 0.8 ATL | 1/3 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| SF @ MIL2026-06-03 | A- | 0.0 SF | 3/5 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| CHC @ STL2026-05-31 | A | 1.3 CHC | 0/4 | A tilt to the evening — the numbers say which way. |
| HOU @ TEX2026-05-27 | B+ | 1.5 TEX | 4/7 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| MIA @ TB2026-05-15 | B- | 0.6 TB | 0/0 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| MIN @ CLE2026-05-10 | B- | 0.5 CLE | 2/4 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| TEX @ NYY2026-05-06 | B | 0.6 NYY | 7/9 | A few too many trips to the challenge cart. |
| CLE @ TOR2026-04-25 | C+ | 0.4 TOR | 3/6 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| BAL @ KC2026-04-20 | B | 0.2 KC | 2/7 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| SF @ CIN2026-04-15 | B | 0.5 SF | 3/4 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| AZ @ PHI2026-04-10 | A+ | 0.3 AZ | 0/2 | A clean sheet behind the plate — the kind of night nobody posts about. |
| DET @ MIN2026-04-07 | C | 0.7 MIN | 2/5 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| CLE @ LAD2026-04-01 | B+ | 1.8 LAD | 0/1 | Tonight's zone had a rooting interest. |
| PIT @ NYM2026-03-28 | A | 0.4 NYM | 0/1 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |