MLB Official Testified Rob Manfred Once Tried to Keep Angel Hernandez Out of World Series

MLB umpire Angel Hernandez
MLB umpire Angel Hernandez / Bob Levey/Getty Images

Angel Hernandez's ongoing battle with MLB is unlikely to get settled without, at the very least, a few hurt feelings on his side.

Hernandez, one of the league's most controversial officials because of...well, because of his generally-accepted shoddiness, is suing the league for racial discrimination (as of 2017), claiming that said discrimination was the reason he'd been snubbed for several honors.

Per the testimony of an MLB official involved in the proceedings, however, he recalls Commissioner Rob Manfred specifically attempting to keep Hernandez off the 2015 World Series umpiring roster due to the air of controversy that often followed him.

Per sources, in October 2015, umpire supervisor Steve Palermo reportedly recommended Hernandez for the World Series in an email to umpiring director Randy Marsh.

CC'd on that email was MLB senior vice president of baseball operations Peter Woodfork, who then texted Torre and claimed Manfred would not approve. Or, as Woodfork reportedly put it in another email, "Four new umpires and the guy in the middle of the largest debacle."

Woodfork had previously testified in June that he had not recalled this, but recently backtracked.

Whether Hernandez has a legitimate case or not, it's quite clear that controversy is not done surrounding his attempts to remain an impartial observer in the MLB world.