Stats prove KC Royals can blame ALDS loss on Yankees’ umpiring advantage

The Kansas City Royals' 2024 season may be over, but there are still some asterisks and footnotes to address. Award season could feature a few Royals names, and the ultimate championship winner may impact the Royals in 2025. However, one footnote confirms Kansas City fans' worst fears — questionable umpiring decisions could be responsible for the team's early exit from the 2024 playoffs.

Umpires muddy postseason waters for KC Royals, NY Yankees

Complaining about umpiring in baseball is all too easy. Despite the introduction of replay and challenges, missed calls still happen.

A prime example is the stolen base by Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, which highlights the system's shortcomings. Even after Kansas City challenged the play and it was sent off-site for review, the original call stood, despite a visible sliver of daylight between Chisholm's foot and the bag when he was tagged by Royals second baseman Michael Massey.

Facing the Yankees in the ALDS, the Royals were eliminated in four games — but all three losses came by slim margins. The final game, a 3-1 loss, marked the widest margin in the highly competitive series. The other two losses were one-run defeats that felt more like moral victories, with the Royals only truly claiming victory in Game 2.

Ultimately, New York outscored Kansas City by just two runs in the series. Royals Review's Matthew LaMar pointed out that this closely mirrored the umpire's calls favoring New York batters.

Some may argue that complaining about umpire calls is a loser's mindset, but the inconsistency against Kansas City is hard to ignore. While the Royals certainly had some calls go their way, they didn’t receive nearly the same number as the Yankees, and this isn't new for 2024. According to Umpire Scorecards, Kansas City ranks 27th out of 30 teams in the rate of games where umpire calls favored them. Their 43.2% rate pales in comparison to the Yankees, whose 67.5% rate leads MLB by a wide margin.

But even that trend is nothing new. Looking at games between March 29, 2018 and September 29, 2024, the Yankees had the umpiring advantage in 56.9% of their games, which still leads all teams in that date range. Meanwhile, the Royals are tied with the Oakland Athletics for last place at just 44%.

To be clear, the Royals didn’t help their cause in the ALDS, with pitching woes and some cold bats as the series moved to Kauffman Stadium. However, the cries of umpires favoring New York — the biggest and most popular team left in the AL postseason — grew louder before the series ended. If this trend continues throughout the postseason, MLB will have some explaining to do regarding their umpires' shortcomings.