MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on the state of baseball

Major League Baseball’s commissioner Rob Manfred spoke at the Baseball Writers’ Association of American luncheon on Tuesday, hours before the 87th MLB All-Star Game, and he had a lot to say about the state of baseball.

Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke about a myriad of issues before Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game during his conference with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Topics ranging from teams relocating to the rise in home runs were touched upon during his annual meeting with the writers and it seemed Manfred left no subject unturned.

Manfred discussed the Oakland A’s and their possible relocation. He said, “I am committed to Oakland as a major-league site,” and added that he thinks the franchise would regret a move down the road. Manfred also said that expansion is a possibility—back in May he shared his thoughts on expansion during a White Sox broadcast and named Montreal and Mexico City as destinations, but mentioned on Tuesday that the issues with Oakland’s and Tampa Bay’s ballparks need to be resolved first.

Both franchises want—or in Oakland’s case, need—new stadiums. Another issue involving Oakland is the soon-to-expire collective bargaining agreement. It expires in December and when it does, teams in the 15 biggest markets aren’t eligible for revenue sharing. The A’s are part of the 15, but with the stadium issue likely to be unresolved by then, they would remain eligible even after the CBA expires.

Manfred also tackled the rise in home runs in 2016. He acknowledged that numbers are up, but believes that they “aren’t a product of juiced balls or juiced players.”

According to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN, each MLB team is averaging 1.16 home runs per game in 2016 which is the highest home run rate since a average of 1.17 per game in 2000. Manfred told reporters:

“Major League Baseball does 22,000 drug tests a year. The World Anti-Doping Agency says we have one of the best testing programs in the world, let alone in professional sports. Our investigative capacity in the area of performance-enhancing drugs is probably the best in the world. So I’m much less concerned that this is due to PEDs.We think it has to do with the way pitchers pitch and the way hitters are being taught to play the game. You’ve seen some unusual developments in terms of home run hitters being up in the lineup to get them more at-bats. So we think it has more to do with the game this time around, because we’re comfortable we’re doing everything we can on the performance-enhancing drugs front.”

Manfred added that he saw what happened in Japan in 2013 when Nippon League commissioner Ryozo Kato had to resign over a juiced ball controversy and told everyone gathered at the session that he likes his current job and would not do anything to jeopardize it.

Manfred told the BBWAA that the absence of a Latino manager in Major League Baseball is “glaring.” He added:

“There are 30 jobs and there are 30 high-turnover jobs when you’re talking about field managers, and you’re going to have an ebb and flow in terms of diversity, given that there is no central authority sitting above the 30 clubs saying, look, we want to have this makeup among these employees.”

Tony Clark, who is head of the players’ union, also spoke with the writers on Tuesday and he echoed Manfred’s sentiments: “I firmly believe that having as diverse a system as possible from top to bottom is beneficial to the industry, so not just on the field, off it as well. And to be in a position where we don’t have those that reflect our membership in positions of leadership is disappointing.”

The possibility of shortening the season was also brought up to commissioner Manfred, who said that if the players want a reduced schedule, they should expect, and accept, a decrease in their pay.

Right now, the players are dealing with a 162-game schedule in a 183-day season which leaves very little turnaround some days. They are seeking to decrease the season a few days. Some people may ask, “Why is this a problem now? The schedule has been like this 1961.” Well, there are more teams, there are more interleague games on the schedule, and sometimes teams are arriving in cities in the middle of the night to face an opponent later that afternoon or evening.

More from Call to the Pen

Manfred said, “There are ways to produce more off days in the schedule. Some of those have very significant economic ramifications. If in fact we are going to go down those roads, those economic ramifications are going to have to be shared by all of the relevant parties. You want to work less, usually you get paid less.”

It was on this subject that Clark disagreed with the commissioner, “I don’t agree that there would need to be a discussion about a loss of salary or a rollback of salaries.” Clark added, “If there is a lessening of the games and we put players in the position where playing whatever number of games are in that season, they’re able to play, the value of every game goes up as well.”

And finally, the subject of teams tanking for a better draft position was brought up by a writer from Cincinnati, who cited a specifically ugly series in June between the Reds and the Atlanta Braves as an example, and Commissioner Manfred had a long response to the possibility of a teams purposely playing badly to improve their position in the draft.

He told first the writer that baseball is a cyclical sport meaning that teams all go through highs and lows. Manfred added, “Clubs have always gone through periods of time where they decide whatever I have going on with my current complement of players, it’s not going to get me over the top, I’m going to go young, start over again, rebuild and go from there. This is not a new phenomenon, point blank.”

And the commissioner wasn’t done. He discussed tanking as a strategy and said, “Point two — to the extent, your word, ‘tanking’ — not a word I particularly care for, had took place at some point in time or was a strategy, where I’ve decided I’m going to lose a whole bunch of games and get as much access to amateur talent as I possibly can, to the extent that it is a self-checked strategy, right? Because the more people adopt the strategy, the less likely it is to be successful, by definition, only one guy can get the No. 1 pick. There is a natural checking mechanism to that strategy.”

Next: More Home Runs = Juiced Baseballs?

All in all it was an enlightening and revealing session with Commissioner Manfred, and for the fans and players of the sport, the current and future state of baseball is definitely something to keep an eye on.

Home / MLB News