Rips right, on a play like this, the plate ump usually can’t see if the ball is caught or not. So on a third strike not legally caught, the plate ump always gets help from the base ump. You won’t notice this on TV, but if it’s a clean catch, the 1st base ump will make a fist at belt level. The PU just looks to him, sees the signal and rings up the batter. No signal, no catch and the ball is in play.
Even so, when frame-by-frame replays from multiple angles are inconclusive, you can hardly blame the umps for the call either way.
The only valid criticism of the umps is the mechanics of the PU. Umps will use either a fist pump or point to signal strikes. Eddings uses a fist pump. The problem is many fans confuse this with an out call, so a lot of folks are saying he changed his call. He didn’t. But I bet he changes his mechanics.
Also most umps will also yell “no catch” on a 3rd strike not legally caught. On TV, you can’t tell if he said that or not, but based on the catcher’s lack of response, I bet he didn’t.
And that’s who should get the blame on this play – the catcher. Any high-school catcher, must less a MLB catcher should know that this is a very difficult call for the ump to get correct. The catcher should always reach out and tag the batter-runner and this whole discussion would have never happened.