In a brief conversation on the field before Game 4 of the National League Division Series at Philadelphia’s Citizen Bank Park, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he thinks, basically, that things are going well.
The playoffs, for one: He dismissed the idea raised by some fans and writers that the current 12-team format, in which the top two teams in each league receive a bye while the lower seeds battle it out in the wild card series, produces too long a layoff for the top teams.
“It's only year two,” he said. “I'm sort of of the view [that] you need to give something a chance to work out. And I know some of the higher-seeded teams didn't win. I think if you think about where some of those teams were, there are other explanations than a five-day layoff.”
He added that the league would evaluate that question in the offseason, as always, and could discuss it with the players’ union, although no such conversations have yet taken place. Any change to the format would have to be collectively bargained but would not necessarily need to wait until the collective bargaining agreement expires in December 2026.
“We all want the competition to be the best it can possibly be,” Manfred said.
He also addressed the Rays’ announcement last month that they have reached an agreement with the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to build a $1.3 billion ballpark on the current Tropicana Field site. The idea would be to begin construction in 2024 and finish in ’27. The Rays are asking taxpayers to foot approximately $600 million of the bill and would need several layers of local approval. They have long insisted they need a new ballpark to be more competitive in spending, but it’s not clear that remaining in the same place as the stadium that recently drew 19,704 fans to a playoff game, the smallest postseason attendance figure since 1919, will do the trick.
“This is fundamentally a local decision,” he said. “It's not like relocation where there has to be some type of vote or review by the commissioner or whatever. It's fundamentally a local investment decision. And I think that we always rely on the fact that it’s the owner making the investment. They know the market the best. And I do think St. Pete is different now than it was five years ago.”
On the topic of relocation, he said the committee has been meeting weekly since August, including a two-hour call on Thursday, to discuss the A’s plan to move from Oakland to Las Vegas. He said the committee will brief the executive council, and then, by the end of the postseason, he will prepare a recommendation to the clubs for voting at the owners’ meetings in November.
He also addressed the Diamondbacks’ decision to stay at the JW Marriott LA Live, whose employees are striking, during their National League Division Series against the Dodgers. Manfred said that clubs are responsible for their own travel arrangements and that he personally usually stays at that hotel, but had chosen to respect the strike and stay instead at a different hotel. “I took about an hour and a half out of my life, staying in Beverly Hills,” he said with a laugh. Rob Manfred, friend to labor everywhere.
