Tripp Gibson
26 games graded behind the plate.
3,850 correct of 4,122 graded takes (93.4% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 97.6% · worst 87.2%. 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 Tripp Gibson
This season is 4,122 graded takes, which puts Tripp Gibson's overall accuracy at 93.4% ± 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 824 takes, so ±1.7 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 344 takes, so ±2.6 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 69 takes, so ±5.9 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 106 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 106 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
The Road From Mayfield
How a Murray State printmaker became the home plate umpire for the second no-hitter in World Series history.
The assignment that carried Tripp Gibson furthest was Game 4 of the 2022 World Series. Four Houston Astros pitchers combined on a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies — only the second no-hitter in World Series history — and Gibson was the home plate umpire. He later said he did not fully grasp the historical significance of what he had worked until he watched television after the game.
The road to that night had started many years earlier. Gibson had graduated from Murray State University in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in art focused on printmaking, and he chose umpire school over graduate school. He enrolled at the Wendelstedt School for Umpires in Daytona Beach, Florida, and finished second in a class of 185 students. The thread between those two paths is a connection Gibson has drawn himself: he credits the critical thinking and relationship-building skills he developed through his art education, particularly through printmaking, as essential to his umpiring career.
Born in Mayfield, Kentucky, on August 5, 1981, Gibson made his major-league debut on July 8, 2013, at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. He was promoted to MLB's full-time umpiring staff in January 2015. He serves on Crew J under crew chief Marvin Hudson, and is not himself a crew chief. We have graded Gibson behind the plate in 19 games this season.
Mayfield has stayed with him. After the devastating 2021 tornado struck his hometown, Gibson played a key role in raising approximately $140,000 for recovery efforts through UmpsCare Charities.
Reporting: Murray State University, WPSD Local 6, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIL @ CHC2026-08-31 | C | 1.5 MIL | 3/4 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| COL @ WSH2026-08-27 | B | 1.1 COL | 3/7 | The zone leaned, and the ledger noticed. |
| SEA @ HOU2026-08-16 | B+ | 1.1 HOU | 1/5 | One side pitched to a slightly bigger plate. |
| TEX @ LAA2026-08-12 | B | 1.7 TEX | 6/8 | A few too many trips to the challenge cart. |
| PHI @ BAL2026-08-02 | A | 0.2 PHI | 1/2 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| KC @ MIN2026-07-29 | A- | 0.2 KC | 3/6 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| SEA @ TEX2026-07-25 | B | 0.0 TEX | 3/4 | Pitchers found a little extra real estate. |
| DET @ CHC2026-07-20 | A- | 0.4 CHC | 2/6 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| SD @ LAD2026-07-03 | A- | 0.4 LAD | 1/3 | The zone kept its promises. |
| SF @ AZ2026-06-29 | B+ | 0.4 SF | 3/3 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| CLE @ CWS2026-06-24 | A | 0.4 CLE | 1/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| STL @ KC2026-06-19 | B | 1.2 STL | 1/4 | The zone leaned, and the ledger noticed. |
| MIA @ PHI2026-06-15 | A- | 0.5 MIA | 0/1 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| ATH @ HOU2026-06-06 | B+ | 0.2 HOU | 3/5 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| BAL @ BOS2026-06-02 | A | 0.0 BAL | 1/2 | You could set a watch by that zone. |
| NYY @ KC2026-05-27 | A | 0.1 NYY | 2/3 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| LAD @ MIL2026-05-23 | C+ | 0.1 MIL | 3/5 | Squeezed the edges; the hitters didn't mind at all. |
| CWS @ SEA2026-05-18 | B- | 0.4 CWS | 1/4 | Squeezed the edges; the hitters didn't mind at all. |
| SD @ SF2026-05-06 | B | 0.3 SD | 1/1 | The zone kept its promises. |
| KC @ SEA2026-05-02 | A | 0.1 SEA | 3/5 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| MIA @ LAD2026-04-27 | A+ | 0.2 LAD | 2/4 | Quietly excellent. The best umpiring is the kind you forget was there. |
| CIN @ TB2026-04-21 | B+ | 0.9 TB | 1/4 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| CWS @ KC2026-04-10 | A- | 1.5 CWS | 2/3 | The strike zone picked a side, and wasn't shy about it. |
| SD @ PIT2026-04-06 | A- | 0.6 SD | 3/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| WSH @ PHI2026-04-01 | B+ | 0.0 PHI | 0/2 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| ATH @ TOR2026-03-28 | D | 0.8 TOR | 4/6 | Pitchers found a little extra real estate. |