Washington Nationals outfielder Lane Thomas. Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: A new contender for baseball's worst ejection of the season emerges

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Jun 13, 2024 7:11 PM ET

The retirement of Angel Hernandez was never going to eliminate all of the bad umpiring from Major League Baseball, and we received another example of that on Thursday during the Washington Nationals-Detroit Tigers game.

That was when Nationals outfielder Lane Thomas was ejected in the top of the sixth inning for seemingly looking at hone plate umpire Emil Jimenez following a called third strike.

Thomas clearly did not say anything or make any sort of a gesture. He just kind of looked. That was apparently enough to get him ejected from the game.

Lane Thomas got ejected for this??

(via @masnNationals) pic.twitter.com/U9QyIOOntA
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 13, 2024

The Nationals broadcast was enraged, and had the audio to clearly show that Thomas did not say anything.

"That's just a bad job by Emil Jiménez right there. Look, he called it a strike. And he said he directed something at him with a bad word. Lane doesn't say that word. So we have a liar." pic.twitter.com/jmmEEbXBgL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 13, 2024

This is a bad, reckless ejection by an umpire whose skin is way too thin. It is bad. The question is whether or not is the worst example of this to happen this season, and the only one that might even come close is when New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for something a fan in the first row behind the dugout said.

Whichever one you think is worse, there remains a big problem with umpiring around Major League Baseball. Not only in terms of calls, but things like this.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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