Yesterday was a bit of a mess at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

Yes, the New York Yankees were able to escape with the victory, winning their fourth series in a row to begin the 2023 campaign. That said, the game was mired in controversy from the start, as a delayed decision to initiate a replay review led to Aaron Boone's ejection from the contest.

In the wake of the chaos that ensued on Wednesday, Major League Baseball has been silent, and in my opinion, that's wrong.

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Yankees, Boone Deserve to Hear from MLB Regarding Replay Debacle

Let's set the scene: it's the bottom of the first inning of Wednesday afternoon's game between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians. The game is tied with one out in the bottom of the first inning, and two runners are currently in scoring position for the home team.

Starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt induces a short fly ball, and Aaron Hicks appears to make a sliding catch on the play. Hicks then throws to second base to get a second out, completing what appeared to be an inning-ending double play.

Or, so we thought, as the broadcast went to commercial break. Then, chaos ensued.

When both the TV and radio broadcasts returned from break, we learned that the umpire crew had huddled up to discuss the original call on the field.

According to The New York Post, this decision negated the 15-second window of time teams are given to choose whether or not they want to challenge a play. Because of the extra time that was granted, Guardians' manager Terry Francona was able to initiate a challenge, and get the call reversed.

Aaron Boone was somewhat unhappy with all of these developments.

In the aftermath of the ejection, and the game that followed, Boone gave a bit more insight as to why he believes his team was in the right. He asserted that the video replay shown on the scoreboard caused the umpires to reconsider their original decision, which at the time, appeared to be true.

Between the length time before the replay was shown, and the time that it took for the replay to be shown in-full, Boone argued that Cleveland was given way too much time to decide whether or not they'd challenge the play.

Here's a snippet of the comments by Boone:

Honestly, I'm not a New York Yankees' fan, and even I believe that he's right. The entire situation was a debacle from the very start. Hicks appears to make the play, and throws the other runner out for a double play. Then, all of the players leave the field, and only at THAT point, did the umpiring crew decide it was time to reconsider their original call.

Yes, they ended up making the correct call in the end, but they had to bend the rules in order to do it, and that's wrong.

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It's time for Major League Baseball to address this issue, and issue an apology to Aaron Boone and the New York Yankees. The primary role of an umpire is to enforce the rules of the game of baseball, as well as the rules set forth by baseball's governing body, which in this case, is Major League Baseball.

If MLB umpires mess up, then it's the responsibility of the league, in my eyes, to address it.

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Here's another aspect of this: a rule change that was made THIS offseason was at the center of this controversy. By staying silent on this issue, the league is de-legitimizing the important decisions they made before the season began. These decisions were made to improve the health of the game, and the league cannot turn their back on this issue this early into the season.

Your move, Ron Manfred.

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