How Rob Manfred’s ineffective reign as MLB commissioner led to baseball’s

It is a “disastrous outcome,” to use MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s own words, that there are regular season games canceled in the 2022 Major League Baseball season. Of course, you wouldn’t have known it to see him smiling and laughing through some of his press conference on Tuesday, announcing the news after negotiations surrounding a new collective bargaining agreement fizzled out.

This wasn’t fueled by a worldwide pandemic, either, or anything else completely out of MLB‘s control. It’s a cocktail of greed laced with Manfred’s incompetence. The laughter was symbolic of someone unable, unwilling or some combination thereof to solve the problem at hand. He had plenty of time to prepare for this, and yet every step of the way, Manfred has seemed ill-prepared to deal with whatever is thrown at him. 

Let’s start illustrating with a personal anecdote. It was 2019 Opening Day in Cincinnati. Before the Reds hosted the Pirates, Manfred had a press conference. He had a bit of an opening statement, and talked about the annual parade held for the great fans in the city of the first professional team. Then he said — sort of tongue-in-cheek, though given everything we’ve seen from Manfred, I think it’s pretty clear this was his earnest request — it was OK to open things up for “some positive questions.” 

Mine wasn’t positive. 

I wondered how, at the time, a system that was paying Tyler Flowers more than eight times more than Ronald Acuña, Jr. was going to be fair for the younger players moving forward — especially when Dallas Keuchel, who won the Cy Young in 2015 while making the league minimum, remained unsigned into the season in his first foray into free agency. 

Manfred was visibly upset. 

“The system in place is a principle tenant that the MLBPA has voted for since my first negotiation which was 1989 and they wanted a seniority-based system,” he said. “That’s what they bargained for and that’s what they have. It’s just not more complicated than that.”  

It seems a little more complicated than that now, doesn’t it, Mr. Commissioner? 

Manfred pointing 30 years in the rearview mirror while scoffing at my question pretty well sums up where we are now, doesn’t it? No foresight. No concerns about something bubbling under the surface with the players (player salaries have decreased as a percentage of league revenue for four consecutive seasons, mind you). No thought that maybe during the course of 30 years and thousands of different players things could change. Nah, just an air of condescension that anyone would dare to question his years of experience and self-assured expertise. 

Why could I see what was coming while the commissioner who makes $11 million a year couldn’t? 

He isn’t solely to blame, to be clear, but Manfred’s incompetence is now part of the equation in a problem affecting a large number of people. Whether it is hardcore fans who are the lifeblood of Major League Baseball by spending money on the product, stadium or team employees who depend on an MLB season to earn a living, minor leaguers who remain severely underpaid or a good number of major leaguers who aren’t part of the inaccurate and pretty mindless “millionaires vs. billionaires” trope, plenty of people out there are at risk of being impacted negatively on some level with this ongoing lockout. 

If my accusation that Manfred is ill-suited for this job stemmed simply from this labor dispute, it would be too hasty. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we’re in the midst of witnessing the most significant item on the checklist, but he’s been a gaffe machine for years. Let’s run through a few examples, while noting this is not an exhaustive list. 

Piece of Metal

Just over two years ago, Manfred called the World Series trophy a “piece of metal.” 

In and of itself, he isn’t factually incorrect. The problem is he’s supposed to be the boss of a sports organization where that piece of metal means an awful lot more than its physical make up. To the players who have been part of World Series-winning teams, it represents a lifetime of the proverbial blood, sweat and tears. It’s all those days riding buses and playing for peanuts in the minor…