MLB Names Ryan Blakney to Staff as Last 2020 Hire

Major League Baseball's final hire of the 2020 pre-season is Ryan Blakney, who joins the full-time umpire staff after five years and 600 games of MLB experience.

Born in Wenatchee, Washington, Blakney officiated his first big league contest on April 23, 2015 and in all officiated in the Arizona, Midwest, Arizona Instructional, Northwest, Carolina, Texas, Florida Instructional, and Pacific Coast Leagues.

The 34-year-old has four MLB ejections to date, had the second-most games of big league experience of all circa-2019 umpires (only fellow-hire Chris Segal had more), and had the best replay score of the entire minor league call-up roster.

Prior to the 2019 season, we analyzed the hiring outlook for fill-in umpires and named Chris Segal, Nic Lentz, Chad Whitson, and Ryan Blakney to the top tier as most likely to be hired upon staff vacancy. With Blakney joining the full-time roster, all of our Tier 1 umpires in 2019 have now become permanent big leaguers.
Related Post: Triple-A Call-Up and Fill-In Results - 2018-19 Offseason (1/28/19).