Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to reporters today about several topics of note. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press had all the choice quotes, and all links below are to his Twitter feed. Here are some of the highlights:
- Manfred expects “some action” in the coming days on the league’s outstanding domestic violence matters. So far as has been publicly reported, Jose Reyes, Aroldis Chapman, and Yasiel Puig all still have open investigations pending. Their respective actions represent three rather different scenarios that will test the league’s new policy in this area.
- The commissioner had some interesting comments on cases where there is no prosecution, as with Chapman and Puig. The policy expressly provides that league discipline can still result, and Manfred suggested the decisions of law enforcement wouldn’t make up his own mind. For one thing, he said, there are “lots of reasons for non-prosecution” and noted that the domestic violence policy “is pretty explicit” that it isn’t required. He also noted that “the standards of proof in a labor arbitration and a criminal case is very different.”
- That’s just one of many items on Manfred’s docket, of course. The major overarching matter is the need for a new collective bargaining agreement, and Manfred said that he had a face-to-face meeting with union boss Tony Clark today to begin putting together a timeline for hammering out a new agreement.
- One topic that’s likely near the top of Clark’s own to-do list is the functioning of the qualifying offer system. Manfred touched upon that briefly today, echoing his prior comments in favor of the system. Draft picks, he explained, are “not penalties, they’re compensation.” As for the ongoing difficulties that some QO-bound free agents have had in reaching deals, Manfred indicated that wasn’t necessarily an unexpected result. “It’s not a surprise to me given the size of the class,” he said.
- Further down the line are considerations of expansion, which he called “important conceptually” but noted was not “an immediate issue for us.” Manfred did suggest that adding a pair of clubs was an appealing prospect. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some near-term opportunities for growth into new markets, though, as Manfred said that the league still hopes to have spring games played in Cuba this year.
- With Jenrry Mejia receiving the league’s first lifetime PED ban, the commish acknowledged that tougher penalties won’t wipe the issue away completely. “I would like to tell [you] the problem of performance enhancing drugs is going away, but I can’t say that,” said Manfred.
Should of talking about the DH!!!!! They should get rid of pitchers hitting
You mean getting rid of the DH and make pitchers hit in both leagues.
Hopefully Kershaw blows out his knee this year so we can finally get rid of the DH.
Finally get rid of pitchers hitting that is.
No you had right the first time but not really sure why you’d hope for a injury to anybody. That’s just not very nice.
AL fans want a DH, NL fans want pitchers hitting. The easy solution is have no pitchers hitting in interleague games, and have them hit in all NL games. And thats only if pitchers want to hit. I think were one more pitcher of Wainwrights caliber to go down away from the NL owners voting for the DH themselves
Ban the DH!
Get back to playing real baseball. DH is for beer league softball
Even better solution would be to get rid of the DH and the STUPID interleague play that causes an unbalanced schedule. Just one of Selig’s many stains on the great game!
Nice.
Ya lets just cater to what half the league wants frig the other half
No expansion. The game is watered down enough. Contraction should be considered before expansion.
I see where you’re coming from but then again I don’t.. I think expansion wouldn’t be a bad idea. Yes the QO is a terrible thing and there’s plenty of good players still available that could help teams out, heck there’s players who don’t have a QO that are still available. I think another team or 2 would help these players not have to wait til mid February/March to see when and if they are going to play. There’s plenty of good caliber minor leaguers who could play in the majors but they are blocked by “better” players. This would give them a chance and not have these free agents waiting so long to sign. But don’t get me wrong, some of these FA’s should have accepted the QO, 15.8 a year is insane!!!
Why not make it simple. The team signing don’t lose a pick. The team that lost the player gets the pick right before new team picks. This way teams can sign players, teams losing player can get a pick and new team keeps their pick
union really let the players down with QO and attached draft picks.
“Chapman could also be required to … relocate from a home shared with his partner and limit his interactions with a partner.”
So Major League Baseball is going to force him to move out of his own house?
Or he could retire. There is no force.
How are there still good players available? There were dozens of players that hit in the low .200’s last season. The league has turned into a relief pitcher boondoggle because many players can’t throw more than 1 inning without being exposed. I don’t like the QO, either, but I fail to see the relationship to quality players of major league caliber. There are too many AAA players in mlb today, in my opinion.
DH should go to many pitchers get hurt running the bases or could get hurt. Pitchers are making to much money to be exposed to extra ways to get hurt.