MLB umpire loses lawsuit

Umpire Angel Hernandez lost his lawsuit against Major League Baseball alleging racial discrimination. The Cuba-born Hernandez sued in 2017 in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, a case later moved to New York. Hired as a big-league umpire in 1993, he alleged he was discriminated against because he had not been assigned to the World Series since 2005 and had been passed over for crew chief. Hernandez was made an interim crew chief in July at the start of the pandemic-delayed shortened season after a dozen umps decided to sit out. “The court concludes that no reasonable juror could find that MLB’s stated explanation is a pretext for discriminatory motive,” U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken wrote Wednesday in granting MLB’s motion for a summary judgment. Oetken wrote that MLB picking Alfonso Marquez to work the World Series in 2011 and 2015 was “a promotion that seemingly would not have been made were MLB discriminating on the basis of race or national identity.” Hernandez claimed Chief Baseball

Officer Joe Torre had animus toward him dating to 2001, and that Torre bypassed Hernandez for crew chief and World Series assignments.

Kansas City shortstop on IL

Oft-injured Royals shortstop

Adalberto Mondesi will begin the season on the injured list with a right oblique strain, leaving Kansas City without one of its most exciting players when it opens the season against the Texas Rangers today. Mondesi was put on the injured list Wednesday retroactive to the previous day.

Nicky Lopez was recalled from the club’s alternate training site in Northwest Arkansas after he was sent there after a poor spring training at the plate. Mondesi hit .256 with a league-leading 24 stolen bases in 59 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.