Dennis Santana To José Caballero: Look Deep Into My Eyes Or I Will Kick Your Ass

This is the fourth MLB season with a pitch clock, so one might think that any beef around the rule change has long ago expired. But José Caballero’s got a huge supply of dry-aged steak in the walk-in freezer.

The Yankees’ base-stealing utilityman, who hits just a tick below league average, has made himself notorious around the league for the way he takes advantage of the pitch clock protocol. The big book of rules says that the batter needs to be ready for the pitch with eight seconds remaining on the clock—”ready” meaning in the box and making eye contact with the pitcher—and Caballero’s favorite time to lock eyes with his opponent is something like 8.001 seconds remaining, which ideally gets him inside the pitcher’s head and messes with his routine. Sometimes the pitcher, unused to coming set and delivering within those eight seconds, will run afoul of the clock and take an automatic ball. This strategic equivalent of “I’m not touching you!” earned Caballero a dramatic umpire warning in Toronto last month, though afterward his manager, Aaron Boone, sought and received assurance from MLB that he’s just on the right side of the rule. It makes for the kind of line-toeing peskiness that keeps everyone alert.

“There’s some gamesmanship to what he does, but he’s a smart, gritty player,” Boone said in June.