Friday, February 4, 2022

Culbreth & Danley Round Out Retirements (Joining Davis, Gorman & West), with Diaz, Gibson, Hudson, Kulpa, and Welke Promoted to Crew Chief

Major League Baseball announced its final umpire staff changes for 2022, with Fieldin Culbreth and Kerwin Danley retiring alongside Gerry Davis, Brian Gorman, and Joe West. Crew Chief promotions and new full-time umpires hires were also announced.

MLB's official announcement confirms the hiring of Ryan Additon, Sean Barber, John Libka, Ben May, and Roberto Ortiz to the full-time staff. The new-hires have worked the following numbers of MLB games prior to 2022:
> Additon: 381 major league games.
> Barber: 693.
> Libka: 371.
> May: 658.
> Ortiz: 412.

Retiring umpires are Culbreth, Danley, Davis, Gorman, and West. They retire with the following experience:
> Culbreth: 29 years, 3140 regular season. 1 Wild Card, 8 Division, 7 Lg Champ, 3 World Series.
> Danley: 30 years, 2656 regular season. 1 Wild Card, 7 Division, 2 Lg Champ, 2 World Series.
> Davis: 40 years, 4849 regular season (5k overall). 3 WC, 13 DS, 11 LCS, 6 World Series.
> Gorman: 31 years, 3430 regular season. 1 WC, 10 DS, 7 LCS, 3 World Series.
> West: 44 years, 5460 regular season. 4 WC, 8 DS, 10 LCS, 6 World Series.

West retires as the umpire with the most games officiated in MLB history; Gerry Davis has the fourth-most all-time. Davis retires with the second-most League Championship Series officiated with 11 (Jerry Crawford 12), and Joe West with the third-most (10). Davis has the most Division Series officiated with 13 and Brian Gorman has the 6th-most. Gerry Davis has the most postseason games in MLB history (151) and Joe West is second (132, presently tied with Ted Barrett).

Promoted to crew chief to fill the five retirements are Laz Diaz, Greg Gibson, Marvin Hudson, Ron Kulpa, and Bill Welke. Of that list, Diaz, Hudson, Kulpa, and Welke served as interim crew chiefs for MLB's COVID-shortened 2020 season (Greg Gibson opted out).
Related PostMLB Names 7 Interim Crew Chiefs for 2020 (7/23/20).