Realmuto: 1st career ejection 'a soft way to get thrown out'

Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto was left puzzled after being tossed from Monday's Grapefruit League game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Realmuto's first career ejection occurred during the fourth inning after home plate umpire Randy Rosenberg called Phillies reliever Craig Kimbrel for a pitch-clock violation.

"Now that I see why he got me ... it was perfect timing," Realmuto said, according to Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "First time I was ejected. It was a soft way to get thrown out."

He said he saw Kimbrel raise his eyes to the sky, assumed that Rosenberg had thrown the ball to the pitcher, and retracted his glove right before Rosenberg placed a ball in it. Realmuto said the umpire thought the catcher was trying to show Rosenberg up for calling the pitch-clock violation.

"How does he expect me to know he's giving me the ball right there?" Realmuto said. "I'm not even looking at him. ... I said, 'Dude, I thought you were throwing the ball.' He said, 'I'm not gonna buy that.'"

Rosenberg is regularly a Triple-A umpire but also acts as a fill-in major-league umpire and is eligible to call spring training games. He was not made available to address the situation following the contest.

Crew chief Dan Iassogna didn't take much issue with how Rosenberg handled the situation.

"Did Randy act hastily? No," Iassogna said. "I believe Randy felt like the situation warranted an ejection, and that's what he did."