Reacher Season 3’s Most Inside Baseball Reference Caused Real-Life Confusion

If there are two things Jack Reacher is going to do, it’s crush bad guys with his bare hands and drop extremely obscure references to middle infielders who once played for the New York Yankees … and he’s all out of bad guys to crush. (Okay, that last part’s not strictly accurate, but just work with me here.) “Reacher” season 3 has been busy living up to the hype as the best installment of the Prime Video series since the first, throwing Alan Ritchson’s brawny title character and his newfound ally/love interest Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy, who you might recognize from a handful of other projects) on a collision course with some of the biggest bads in author Lee Childs’ entire franchise. But as much as these episodes have been taking their cues from the best of the booksone particularly funny moment from the season 3 premiere has to do with Reacher’s trademark personality quirk from the source material: an encyclopedic knowledge of random Major League Baseball players.

Reacher using the name of Rob Refsnyder as an alias to check into a rundown hotel, while a chuckle-worthy moment in and of itself (at least for those of us who happen to be in on the joke), is far from the end of the story. The former Yankees infielder and current Boston Red Sox outfielder just so happens to be the perfect bridge between two very heated sports rivals. Of course, that also suits the needs of this story, which puts the Yankees-loving Reacher directly into the path of the Boston native DEA agent Duffy.

Here’s where it gets hilarious, though: Longtime MLB reporter Chad Jennings of The Athletic (who has previously covered both the Yankees and Red Sox during his time on the beat) caught this reference on TV weeks back and decided to ask Refsnyder himself for his thoughts on this unexpected moment in the spotlight of one of the most popular streaming shows these days. His priceless reaction can best be summed up as, well, confusion.

Life comes at you fast. First you can break into baseball as a highly-touted prospect for the legendary New York Yankees organization, then become a key piece of the Boston Red Sox team … only to turn around and find out that a writers’ room in Los Angeles was busy scribbling your name into a script of one of the hottest shows on TV. It has to be one of the coolest and unlikeliest paths for a talented athlete who otherwise wouldn’t be considered a prototypical household name. Just don’t expect the real Rob Refsnyder to fully appreciate his little cameo on “Reacher,” for a couple of reasons.

That’s the amusing twist to this whole saga, as The Athletic reported soon after the season 3 premiere of “Reacher.” When reached for comment about his inclusion, Refsnyder had an incredible reaction: “I’m like, why? Why me?” The underrated utility player raises a valid point, especially since it’s not technically accurate in the first place. True baseball nerds know that he’s not actually a middle infielder anymoreas Duffy alleges in the show. Amazingly, reporter Chad Jennings caught up with “Reacher” premiere writer/executive producer Scott Sullivan to get to the bottom of this. To be fair, Sullivan wrote this back in 2022, before Refsnyder changed primary positions and turned into a full-time outfielder. (For non-sports fanatics, Reacher has a soft spot for athletes who play infield positions such as second base and shortstop.) As Sullivan lightheartedly explained:

“I wrote the line where Duffy says, ‘You don’t look like a middle infielder to me.’ So, it’s on me that he’s playing outfield now. But, in my defense, at the time, I think he was still playing second base.”

WTF ROB REFSNYDER MENTIONED IN REACHER AND THEY CALLED HIM A MIDDLE INFIELDER 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/qBc8EiIBxx

— Red Sox Enjoyer (@redsox_enjoyer) February 22, 2025

It wasn’t long before old friends and acquaintances were blowing up Refsnyder’s phone to let him know about his newfound fame but, naturally, he was slightly more concerned with putting up some of the best statistics of his career in Boston instead of keeping up with “Reacher.” When asked whether he’s a fan of the series, he responded, “I watched the first season. Oh, no I didn’t. Was John Krasinski in the first season?” We’ll just have to forgive Refsnyder for confusing his “Jack Ryan” with “Reacher.” Athletes — they’re just like us!

New episodes of “Reacher” stream on Prime Video every Thursday.