Willie Traynor

Willie Traynor

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 200 lb.
• School University of California, Santa Barbara, California State University, Dominguez Hills
• High School Newark Memorial High School

• Born October 13, 1997 in Hayward, CA USA

BR Umpire page

Biographical Information

Willie Traynor umpired his first major league game on June 6, 2025, as a call-up umpire from AAA. While it is usual for umpires who get called up for the first time in mid-season, as was his case, to work around 15 to 25 games that first year, Traynor saw a lot more work, with 66 games, and he even got to make a couple of ejections that first year, including legendary manager Terry Francona. Both ejections - the second was of P Jesus Luzardo, who used some choice words after having been removed from the game - were for arguing balls and strikes. Umpires who first arrive in the majors usually wait some time before giving someone the thumb, letting more senior members of the crew do it when the situation demands.

Traynor already had a lot of professional experience when he first got to the majors, as by then he was working as an instructor at the Wendelstedt Professional Umpire School in Florida. He was a pitcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara and then at California State University, Dominguez Hills from 2016 (when he was redshirted) to 2018. After his playing career ended, he returned to umpiring, something he had done as a summer job since his teenage years, but he got serious about it by attending professional umpiring school. From there, he landed a job working in the minor leagues.

Further Reading

• Tom Shine: "Angry players, cranky fans: The life of a minor league umpire", kmuw.org, July 21, 2022. [1]

Related Sites

• Willie Traynor at Retrosheet.org
• UC-Santa Barbara bio

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