Willie Traynor
29 games graded behind the plate.
4,248 correct of 4,602 graded takes (92.3% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 97.4% · worst 86.6%. 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 Willie Traynor
This season is 4,602 graded takes, which puts Willie Traynor's overall accuracy at 92.3% ± 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 920 takes, so ±1.7 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 384 takes, so ±2.7 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 77 takes, so ±6.0 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 107 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 107 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
Willie Traynor
From a California Little League to a major-league call-up, the road of an umpire in his second season.
The Road From Newark
Willie Traynor began umpiring as a junior in the Newark Little League in California, the same town where he attended high school. He went to Newark Memorial High School in Newark before enrolling at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
The climb from there ran through the minor leagues. By 2025, Traynor was serving as crew chief for his AAA umpire crew in his second year at that level. That spring he completed MLB spring training assignments in Arizona, at Dodger Stadium, and at Angel Stadium. He was named a call-up umpire for the 2025 season, wearing uniform number 45 to fill in for permanent umpires out for injury or vacation, and umpired his first Major League Baseball game on June 6, 2025.
In early May 2026 he worked a series between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park, rotating through first base, home plate, and third base across the series. The May 2 game alone produced 24 runs. In his rookie season he ejected Reds manager Terry Francona over balls and strikes on July 26, 2025.
We have graded Traynor behind the plate in 21 games so far this season, and that record is what puts his name on this page.
Reporting: Baseball Almanac, CA District 14 Little League, RefMetrics. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT @ STL2026-08-30 | C+ | 0.6 PIT | 2/5 | The zone shrank when the pitchers needed it most. |
| COL @ WSH2026-08-26 | D | 0.4 COL | 1/2 | Off the corner was close enough tonight. |
| WSH @ NYM2026-08-16 | B+ | 0.1 NYM | 1/3 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| BOS @ TOR2026-08-12 | A | 0.9 TOR | 2/3 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| COL @ STL2026-08-08 | B | 1.0 COL | 1/4 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |
| MIN @ KC2026-08-04 | B+ | 0.4 MIN | 2/5 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| SF @ SD2026-07-30 | B- | 2.1 SF | 4/6 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| COL @ MIL2026-07-26 | D | 0.1 MIL | 3/6 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| MIN @ CLE2026-07-22 | B- | 0.2 MIN | 1/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| SD @ KC2026-07-18 | A | 0.5 SD | 2/3 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| COL @ SF2026-07-12 | A- | 0.5 SF | 4/5 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| AZ @ SD2026-07-08 | C+ | 0.0 AZ | 2/5 | The zone shrank when the pitchers needed it most. |
| DET @ TEX2026-07-02 | B+ | 0.2 DET | 2/2 | The zone kept its promises. |
| ATL @ SF2026-06-28 | A+ | 0.4 SF | 1/2 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| MIN @ AZ2026-06-21 | A | 0.2 AZ | 0/1 | The catcher barely had to sell a thing. |
| COL @ CHC2026-06-16 | A | 0.4 CHC | 0/2 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| PHI @ TOR2026-06-10 | B | 1.0 TOR | 2/2 | Nothing off the plate, and not much on the black either. |
| SF @ CHC2026-06-06 | B- | 0.0 CHC | 4/6 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| KC @ CIN2026-06-01 | C+ | 0.5 KC | 1/4 | You wanted a strike, you had to earn it twice. |
| ATL @ BOS2026-05-28 | B+ | 1.6 ATL | 1/3 | Tonight's zone had a rooting interest. |
| PIT @ TOR2026-05-24 | B | 1.2 TOR | 2/3 | Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling. |
| SEA @ HOU2026-05-14 | C | 0.1 SEA | 7/10 | The players kept asking for a second opinion — and kept getting one. |
| BAL @ MIA2026-05-07 | C | 0.2 BAL | 4/5 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| CIN @ PIT2026-05-02 | D | 1.5 PIT | 3/3 | The grade leaned — the ledger says which way. |
| CHC @ LAD2026-04-24 | B+ | 0.0 LAD | 2/2 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| STL @ HOU2026-04-18 | B | 0.9 HOU | 1/2 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| BOS @ MIN2026-04-13 | A- | 0.8 BOS | 1/3 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| BAL @ CWS2026-04-08 | B+ | 0.4 BAL | 2/4 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| LAD @ WSH2026-04-05 | C+ | 0.1 WSH | 1/2 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |