MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is retiring after his current term ends in 2029, as announced at a Spring Training news conference on Thursday.
The news came as a shock to the baseball community. Manfred has been the commissioner for the past 10 years, after replacing Bud Selig in 2015. Selig served as commissioner for 23 years in comparison. When his term is up in 2029 he will have served for 15 years. So why is Rob Manfred retiring? And perhaps more importantly, why did he make this announcement 5 years in advance?
Well to answer those questions we need to dig a little deeper and go back to the beginning, when Manfred was elected commissioner in August 2014.
The truth is over a quarter of the league’s owners didn’t want Manfred to become commissioner. Losing the 3/4 majority by just 1 vote, Manfred was still elected as Selig’s successor. A group of owners then led by Tom Werner of the Red Sox, contested the election for the first time in 46 years. However, it was unsuccessful as the third candidate dropped out before the start of balloting. Manfred then took over for Selig in January of 2015, and the rest is history.
Rule Changes
Many still criticize Manfred’s tenure. A litany of rule changes starting with the change to the intentional walk back in 2017, has snowballed into a completely different style of play today. Whether they have been for better or worse is for others to decide. But the facts are, both leagues now have a designated hitter. There is a three-batter minimum that relief pitchers must face when coming out of the bullpen. In extra innings, each team starts each inning with a “ghost runner” on 2nd base. And that was just pre-2023.
2023 saw perhaps the most influential rule changes of them all. They have now outlawed defensive shifting to allow for more hits. They enlarged the bases from 15 to 18 inches to allow for more stolen bases. And each game now has a pitch clock in efforts to speed up the pace of play.
Some people have expressed gratitude for these rule changes, while others have dismissed them as useless or gimmicky. But at the very least you have to give Manfred credit. He heard reports that the game was “hard to watch” by former MLB players and made changes accordingly. And most importantly, they worked.
Last season, offensive production skyrocketed as the league batting average jumped a full 5 points and runs jumped up to around 5 per game compared to the 4 in 2022. Stolen bases were also more common, as there were over 1000 more than in 2022. You would think with all of this action that games were certainly longer than in previous years, right? Wrong. The league average game lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes, which was the shortest average game-time since 1985.
Rob Manfred retiring now only makes sense, as he’s implemented sweeping rule changes that completely change the way the game is watched today. He will leave an everlasting mark. And who’s to say there won’t be more rule changes before he leaves in 2029.
Why Now?
But this has led us to a new question: why now? 2029 is still 5 years away. Why does Rob Manfred feel the need to announce his retirement so hastily?
Someone with knowledge of the matter said, “I think he’s tired.”
Come 2029, Manfred will have worked a combined 40 years in the MLB. And as he’s been aware of from the get-go, managing 30 different teams and their owners can be a thankless job. There’s also the belief that Manfred wants to clear the air now so that he can end things on his own terms and leave nothing up to interpretation for the media.
Furthermore, the question becomes who will be Manfred’s successor? For years now, Theo Epstein has been speculated as the leading candidate for the position. Tom Werner, Boston Red Sox chairman, has also been mentioned. Other names include people already working in MLB’s head office like Noah Garden (deputy commissioner), Dan Halem (deputy commissioner), and Morgan Sword (executive VP).
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