How have Marlins been so successful with replay challenges? Meet the man responsible
The work Austin Lamkey does for the Miami Marlins could typically go unnoticed. He is the team’s major league video coordinator, and his job generally takes place behind the scenes. The bulk of Lamkey’s role is putting together video playlists to help players best prepare for their upcoming opponent.
But when the game is unfolding on the field, Lamkey is the point person for some of the team’s game-defining decisions. He’s the mastermind of replay challenges. He’s a team of one, trusting his instinct, intuition and memory of past experiences to decide whether to give the Marlins the all-clear to test the umpires’ decisions.
When manager Skip Schumaker raises his hand to alert the umpires that they might challenge a play and bench coach Luis “Pipe” Urueta reaches for the dugout phone, it’s Lamkey on the other end of the line. He has most likely already analyzed the situation and come to a conclusion before the phone even began ringing. Now, Lamkey relays a simple yes or no to Urueta, who passes the decision on to Schumaker.
“It’s Austin’s call,” Schumaker said. “I get credit for it, but I don’t do anything. It’s Austin.”
And more often than not, Lamkey has been right this season. The Marlins are 14-1 on replay challenges this season, successfully overturning calls at an MLB-best 93.3 percent rate.
Just how good is that?
The second best team in terms of replay challenge success rate this season entering Sunday is the Houston Astros ... at 68.75 percent (11 for 16). The league-wide average success rate on team challenges entering Sunday (excluding umpire-initiated reviews) was just 46.6 percent.
“It’s a great feeling,” Lamkey said. “It’s also a very humbling feeling. I know with this territory and any light that gets shed with me, I understand it’s a two-way street. When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s low, it’s low. ... Knowing that I have the support of my manager and my bench coach and everyone else around me, it’s very calming to me.”
History of replay challenge
MLB began allowing managers to challenge plays in 2014. The parameters around the challenge system have evolved over time. The general gist of it is as follows:
Each manager is allowed one challenge per game, but is able to retain the challenge if a call is correctly overturned.
The manager must immediately raise his hand if he’s considering challenging a play. From that point, he has 15 seconds to make a decision. Originally, the decision needed to be made before the next play or pitch. A 30-seconds window to challenge was implemented in 2017 and then shortened to 20 seconds in 2020 and then shortened again to 15 seconds this season.
There are more than a dozen aspects of the game that can be challenged, including but not limited to tag plays and force plays, close plays at first base, collisions at home plate, whether a batter was hit by a pitch, interference calls, time plays (whether a runner scored prior to the third out of an inning) and catch/trap calls in the outfield.
If a challenge is initiated, the review is conducted by MLB’s replay command center in New York. Replay officials review all calls subject to replay review and decide whether to change the call on the field, confirm the call on the field or let stand the call on the field due to the lack of clear and convincing evidence.
There’s a lot to process and not a lot of time to do it. Lamkey often works ahead, trying to figure out what Schumaker might plan to challenge before getting the phone call. That way the Marlins are using all of their 15 seconds once Schumaker raises his hands as efficiently as possible.
Having an understanding of what Schumaker and Urueta are looking for helps. Lamkey has known Urueta since 2015 when they were both in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization and has quickly built a rapport with Schumaker.
“I think it starts there,” Urueta said. “When you have a relationship with a co-worker, especially when you’re on the phone and you have to assess his tone as far as if he’s convinced or not about a certain play, having that trust and that relationship helps.”
So, too, does trusting his gut instinct. Unlike some teams that have multiple people involved in the challenge-making decisions, Lamkey works solo. It’s all on him — one way or the other.
“I have one decision to make,” Lamkey said. “It’s on me at the end of the day and I know that. Good and bad, it’s on me. I take that responsibility. Other [teams] that have multiple people on their staff, it’s like they discuss it amongst themselves and in a group of three, if one person disagrees, you’ve got to question that decision. ... I don’t have to worry about that. I’ve got Skip not questioning me. I don’t have people questioning me. They leave me to decide. Fortunately, it’s worked out for us.”
Marlins success
How well has it worked out? The 14-1 record speaks for itself, but of the Marlins 14 successful challenges this year, four have directly led to game-changing results and, eventually, wins.
▪ April 29: Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the first inning against the Chicago Cubs by dropping a bunt and dashing to first base. Chisholm was originally ruled out but the called was overturned on replay. Miami went on to score five runs in that inning, with all of the runs coming with two outs. The Marlins won the game 7-6.
▪ May 27: The Marlins had the bases loaded, a one-run and one out in the 10th inning against the Los Angeles Angels when catcher Jacob Stallings hit a dribbler back to the pitcher’s mound to set up what was originally called a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play. One problem with that, though. Angels catcher Matt Thaiss didn’t have a foot on home plate. Marlins challenge. Call overturned. RBI groundout for Stallings. Miami then scores two more to pad its cushion in an eventual 8-5 win.
Lamkey had seen a play similar to that just two weeks earlier in another MLB game.
“When that play happened in LA, you’re prepared for it because you’ve seen it,” Lamkey said. “You know what to look for, what checkboxes to go through to make sure you’re covering all aspects of it.”
▪ June 3: Jean Segura led off the third inning against the Oakland Athletics with a walk and then promptly attempted to steal second base. Segura was originally ruled out but the Marlins successfully challenged and got the call overturned. Miami went on to score three runs in that inning in an eventual 12-1 blowout win.
▪ June 5: With runners on the corners and one out in the third inning against the Kansas City Royals, Jonathan Davis hit a groundball to shortstop Maikel Garcia for what was originally called a 6-4-3 double play. Davis, however, beat the throw to first base, which was confirmed upon review. So the Marlins got an RBI fielder’s choice instead and tacked on a second run on the next at-bat to get their momentum going in an eventual 9-6 win.
The one challenge the Marlins whiffed on: A tag play on April 23 against the Cleveland Guardians when Eddie Rosario stole third base. Two pitches later, Josh Bell hit an RBI double to score Rosario.
“These are game-changing plays that he’s had to make a challenging call on and he’s done a really good job,” Schumaker said. “It’s hard with that new time, the clock. You’ve got to be super quick and he’s got a million other things going on that he’s thinking about. ... There’s a lot of things going on and you have to tell him which one you’re going to be challenging. Austin’s doing a heck of a job.”
Lamkey’s path to video
And Lamkey is doing that job despite video not being part of his original path
Lamkey earned his bachelor’s degree in sport management at Southeast Missouri State. With the help of former big-league Ryan O’Malley, he got in touch with the Texas Rangers and landed a job as a minor-league video assistant in 2013 despite having minimal video experience. He held that role for a season before spending five years with the Diamondbacks from 2014-2018. Lamkey was hired by the Marlins as their minor-league video coordinator in 2019 and was promoted to major league video coordinator in 2022.
“The more time I spent with video,” Lamkey said, “the more I enjoyed it and the more I felt like I was getting better at it. That opportunity was one of substantial stability.”
Upon further review, it has worked out well for him so far this season.
“We’ve been fortunate that all of our calls have had the evidence to get the overturn that we need,” Lamkey said. “It’s just been solid success so far.”
