Is Jose Caballero breaking rules? Why Yankees hitter is under fire for batter's box tendencies during pitch clock

Jose Caballero has been causing some problems.

The New York Yankees' hitter has been stepping into the batter's box but taking his time to look at the pitcher. On Wednesday, that earned him what the umpire ruled a pitch-clock violation, for a called strike, and a heated conversation with the ump.

Here's how it played out:

During the discussion with manager Aaron Boone, the crew chief can be heard telling him, "They called us before the game." Presumably, that refers to the league office, and apparently they don't like what Caballero is doing.

So the question becomes: Is he actually breaking a rule? Or is he just pushing the limits?

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Is Jose Caballero breaking a rule?

By how the pitch clock rules are written, he isn't breaking any rules.

There's only one line in there about the batter: "Batters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark or else be charged with an automatic strike."

In the above clip, Caballero was looking at the pitcher by eight seconds.

In essence, he's doing what some pitchers do when they come set early, then hold the ball. He's controlling the pace of the engagement to the extent that he can.

Is it potentially annoying? Sure.

But by the book, Caballero isn't breaking any rules, and he's not actually activating a potential pitch-clock violation, despite one being called above.

If the league really did call the umpires with a clarification, then that's going to have to be something they make public and apply across the league.

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