CB Bucknor among seven MLB umpires to retire at end of 2026 season: Source

Seven of Major League Baseball’s 76 full-time umpires have accepted buyout offers and will retire at the end of the 2026 season.

The umpires include Lance Barksdale, who started in a full-time role in 2006, and six others who started in 1999: CB Bucknor, Laz Diaz, Andy Fletcher, Marvin Hudson, Brian O’Nora and Tony Randazzo.

The turnover, first reported earlier this week by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, comes during the first season of the Automated Ball-Strike System, which highlights umpires’ calls in a more public way than ever before.

A person briefed directly on the buyout decisions confirmed the report and was granted anonymity to speak candidly about personnel matters. That person said the umpires made the decisions on their own, for physical or personal reasons, and some are bothered by the unfounded notion that the league is forcing them out.

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Umpires Association both declined comment.

Bucknor, who turns 64 next month, drew scrutiny during the season’s opening series when ABS overturned six of his calls in a game between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds. Two of those pitches came consecutively and would have been third strikes had they not been challenged.

On April 1, Bucknor left a game in Milwaukee after being struck in the facemask by a foul ball off the bat of the Tampa Bay Rays’ Nick Fortes on a 100.2-mph pitch from Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski. He remains sidelined from the field and as of late May was still dealing with health effects from the incident.