6:08pm: Manfred has been elected the 10th commissioner in baseball history, according to multiple reports. Bill Shaikin says the final vote was 30-0. Apparently the other eight teams didn’t flip, they just realized they wouldn’t win. Randy Levine told reporters the Yankees were strong Manfred supporters from the start.
5:00pm: Via Jon Heyman: MLB COO Rob Manfred fell one vote short of being elected MLB’s next commissioner at the quarterly owners’ meetings today. He received 22 of 30 votes with the other eight going to Red Sox chairman Tom Werner. MLB executive Tim Brosnan voluntarily dropped out of the running earlier today. Bud Selig is retiring in January.
The owners are currently working to resolve the situation, according to Heyman. The Yankees were said to be supporting Manfred due to his relationship with the players’ union. Werner is considered an old school type who is likely to attempt to strong-arm the union into getting a favorable deal for the owners when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires following the 2016 season. That would greatly increase the chances of a work stoppage. Selig has made it clear he wants Manfred to replace him, but it appears there is still some politicking to be done.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.