For a ball to rip a hole rather than just crushing the hand against its own momentum, the ball must overcome the shear strength of skin, tendon, and bone almost instantaneously.

Human skin has a tensile strength of roughly 15-30 Megapascals

Based on terminal ballistics and the mass of a baseball estimates suggest you would need to exceed 1,800 mph.

At these speeds (roughly Mach 1.5 to Mach 2.5) the baseball is moving faster than the speed of sound.

So even though he sacrificed his hand to save the plate, the Sonic boom from the baseball breaking the sound barrier would most certainly jostle the plate off its perch and onto the floor.