October 3, 2023

By Tyson Shushkewich

Canadian Baseball Network

While Canadian-born players Jordan Romano (Markham, Ont.) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Montreal, Que.) will represent the country on both sides of the diamond, there will also be some Canadian content behind the plate as well on the East Coast.

Stu Scheurwater (Regina, Sask.), the only full-time Canadian umpire in the big leagues, was not only assigned to the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies series, but he will be behind home plate for the first game between the two this evening. The first pitch is slated for 8:08 pm E.T. to kick off the final game of the day.

This will be Scheurwater’s fourth assignment in the postseason, as the 40-year-old has suited up in one National League Wild Card series and two divisional series prior to this season. His first foray into playoff territory was in 2020 when he was behind the plate for the first game of the NL Wild Card series between the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds.

The contest went into extra innings and the Braves walked off the Reds in the 13th via a Freddie Freeman single to secure a 1-0 win and lead for Atlanta. Scheurwater had a total of 37 strikeouts in the contest and had a 93% overall accuracy with 90% of true strikes being called correctly via Umpire Scorecards.

Following that Wild Card appearance, Scheurwater was assigned to the NL Divisional Series between the Braves and the Miami Marlins. He did not work the plate but was stationed in right field, left field, and third base as Atlanta went on to sweep the Marlins through three games. This would be Scheurwater’s last outing during that playoff run.

His next postseason assignment came two years later in the NLDS series match-up between the Braves and the Phillies, the third time Scheurwater had seen the NL East squad in a postseason setting. He started Game 1 at third base and worked his way around the horn until he was behind the plate for Game 4, with the Phillies needing one win to advance to the NLCS.

With Charlie Morton on the mound for Atlanta and Noah Syndergaard on the bump for the Phillies, Scheurwater saw 26 total strikeouts on the day. Per Umpire Scorecards, he had a 94% overall accuracy with 121 out of 129 calls made correctly on the day as the Phillies took an early lead and were in control the rest of the way.

After making his big league debut in 2014 and later becoming a full-time staff member in the 2017-18 offseason, Scheurwater has over 209 games behind home plate dating back to the start of the 2015 season.

This campaign alone Scheurwater called balls and strikes in 29 games and boasted a 94.53% overall accuracy rating on called pitches for strikes within the zone, good enough for 29th in the league amongst umpires with more than 15 games. He called a total of 4,275 pitches on the year (a tally that will only go up starting today) and performed above the league average of 94.11% and ahead of veteran umps such as Vic Carapazza, Dan Iassogna, and CB Bucknor.

For this series, Scheurwater will be joined by Doug Eddings, Marvin Hudson, Jordan Baker, Edwin Moscosco (first playoff appearance), and James Hoye, who will be the acting crew chief. There is a chance he could earn some additional reps in the division series and potentially advance to the LCS for the first time in his career and the first time a Canadian umpire has suited up past the divisional rounds since Jim McKean (Montreal, Que.) did in 1998.