Rob Manfred spoke with the media Thursday and said that his current tenure as MLB commissioner will be his last. His current term runs through January 2029. Alex Speier of The Boston Globe was among those to relay the news.
“You can only have so much fun in one lifetime,” Manfred said, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic. “I have been open with them (the owners) about the fact that this is going to be my last term.”
Manfred, now 65, has been the league’s commissioner since 2014, replacing the retiring Bud Selig. During that decade at the helm, he has proved to be incredibly unpopular among baseball fans but has consistently received the approval of club owners.
That tenure has had many standout elements, notably the significant rule changes aimed at speeding up the pace of the game, the tampering with composition of the baseballs, the expansion of the postseason, the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, the 2020 pandemic, the 2021-22 lockout and the Athletics’ planned relocation to Las Vegas.
The rule changes naturally rankled many purists among baseball fans. The fact that no players received any punishment for the sign-stealing and that Manfred referred to the World Series trophy as a “piece of metal” also caused a great deal of upset, particularly among fans of clubs that lost to the Astros in the postseason. The ongoing relocation of the A’s was clearly not popular in Oakland. The work stoppage, baseball’s first since the 1994-95 strike, was not well received by those who want players to receive a larger chunk of baseball’s revenue relative to the owners.
But the commissioner is ultimately chosen by those owners, who have clearly been happy with the profitability of the game. In July 2023, Manfred was unanimously approved for another five-year term, with no reports that there was any hesitation or alternative path considered by the bloc.
As with all modern sports leagues, baseball has been gradually pivoting from cable TV toward online streaming. This has not been without challenges, as seen by the tumultuous recent history of the Diamond Sports Group, but the league has also signed lucrative streaming deals with outfits like Apple and NBC. That’s in addition to national deals with traditional broadcasters like Fox and ESPN. As Diamond Sports Group’s relationship with MLB clubs has splintered, the league has taken over broadcasts for some clubs and has future plans for a multi-team streaming package, which would essentially be like MLB.tv but without blackout restrictions.
Despite various challenges, Manfred said in late 2022 that league revenue would be a record $11 billion, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. At the time of Manfred’s extension vote in July of last year, the league pointed out on X that attendance was trending up, perhaps a symptom of those pace-of-play changes. Franchise valuations continue to rise over time, highlighted by the recent agreement to purchase the Orioles. A group led to Peter Angelos purchased the club in 1993 for $173M and his family agreed to sell it recently to a group led by David Rubenstein for $1.725 billion, multiplying roughly tenfold in just over 30 years.
Everyone in baseball, from fans to historians to players and owners, will naturally form their own opinions of Manfred and his tenure. For now, he still has much on his plate in the remainder of his term. The A’s relocation is still ongoing and the future of Diamond Sports Group remains up in the air. Manfred has also said that he would like to get the ball rolling on expanding the league to 32 teams by the time he leaves.
The league will also have to start a process for replacing him, though they have five years to plan that out. When Selig was stepping down, Manfred was quickly seen as a favorite to succeed him, having already represented the league in collective bargaining talks for many years. Manfred was named the league’s chief operating officer in September 2013 and Selig reportedly preferred him as his successor. A committee was formed in May 2014 consisting of seven owners, with the eventual vote requiring 23 out of 30 owners to approve a new commissioner. Manfred and Red Sox chairman Tom Werner were the two finalists, with the initial voting in August 2014 resulting in a 22-8 split, which was in favor of Manfred but not enough to seal the deal. It eventually got over the line the next day.
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