Major League Baseball umpires can oftentimes have a short fuse, but Monday's spring training game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays reached a new level of a player receiving their walking papers in quick fashion.
In the fourth inning just after pitcher Craig Kimbrel had committed a pitch timer violation, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto was down in his crouch position, and was waiting for a new baseball from home plate umpire Randy Rosenberg. As Realmuto had his back to the home plate umpire he had briefly moved his glove out of the way just as the Rosenberg threw the ball towards Realmuto's glove.
Rosenberg took it as an act of disrespect from Realmuto and ejected the star catcher on the spot.
yeah this just happened
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 27, 2023
dude you need to lighten up pic.twitter.com/CvaxWZgfpF
Realmuto quickly looked to grab the ball as Rosenberg threw it, so it appeared that he wasn't trying to show up the home plate umpire in any fashion. Upon realizing he was ejected, the Phillies catcher looked to be quite surprised that his action resulted in him having to hit the showers early.
The three-time All-Star catcher recently returned to the Phillies after playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. This was Realmuto's fourth game since returning to the team.
