Robert Dean Manfred Jr. (born September 28, 1958) is an American lawyer and business executive who is serving as the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as MLB's chief operating officer. Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner on January 25, 2015. Manfred's tenure has seen a number of rule changes to the sport, including the introduction of the pitch clock and ghost runner rule. He has also overseen the expansion of the World Baseball Classic, MLB's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal.
Early life and career Manfred was born on September 28, 1958, in Rome, New York. As a child, he played tennis, golf and baseball, opting to focus on tennis by his eighth grade year, which he continued to play through college at Le Moyne. He attended Rome Free Academy and graduated in 1976. Manfred enrolled at Le Moyne College where he played tennis for the Dolphins for two seasons. In 1978, he transferred to Cornell University. He earned his Bachelor of Science from Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1980 and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1983, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
After law school, Manfred clerked for Judge Joseph L. Tauro of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1983 to 1984. He then joined the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he worked on labor and employment law.
Major League Baseball
In 1987, Manfred began working with Major League Baseball (MLB) during collective bargaining. Following the 1994–95 MLB strike, he worked for the owners as a labor lawyer on their negotiating committee, eventually taking a lead position. He joined MLB on a full-time basis in 1998, serving as the Executive Vice President of Economics and League Affairs. Manfred negotiated MLB's first drug testing agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) in 2002, and represented MLB in negotiations with the MLBPA when forming new collective bargaining agreements in 2002, 2006 and 2011. In 2013, Manfred led MLB's investigation of the Biogenesis scandal.
At the end of the 2013 season, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig promoted Manfred to chief operating officer of MLB. The position had been vacant since Bob DuPuy resigned in 2010. Following the announcement of Selig's retirement, effective after the 2014 season, Manfred became a finalist to succeed him as Commissioner.
On August 14, 2014, MLB owners elected Manfred to succeed Selig, beating Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and MLB executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan. Manfred assumed office on January 25, 2015. He stated that his primary goals as commissioner were youth outreach, embracing technology, quickening the pace of play, strengthening player relations, and creating a more unified business operation.
As commissioner, Manfred instituted rules before the start of the 2015 season to address the pace of play, including having batters remain in the batter's box and the installation of time clocks to limit the time spent around commercial breaks. For the 2017 season, no-pitch intentional walks were approved in MLB for the first time. The first Little League Classic was also played in August 2017, which received widespread praise. Before the 2018 season, Manfred introduced more rule changes to affect the pace of play, including reducing the time in commercial breaks and limiting player visits to the pitcher's mound. He has also advocated for expansion franchises, listing Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, Montreal, and Vancouver as possible locations for new teams.
On November 15, 2018, the owners extended Manfred's contract through the 2024 season.
On July 26, 2023, his contract was extended through the 2028 season. In February 2024, Manfred said that he would step down when his contract expires in January 2029.
Broadcasting changes In 2021, Manfred oversaw the beginning of the league's push toward streaming by placing games exclusively on Amazon Prime; while MLB-TV had offered a chance to stream live games since 2002, in 2021 the New York Yankees became the first team to offer certain broadcasts exclusively on Prime.
In May 2022, Peacock began airing a slate of games on Sunday mornings. Dubbed "MLB Sunday Leadoff", the games air starting at 11:30 or Noon Eastern Time and due to television rights, the Sunday morning game is offered in an exclusive window. As a result, all afternoon games were pushed back from 1:00 starts to 1:30.
In February 2025, the MLB opted out of its longstanding broadcast deal with ESPN to televise Sunday Night Baseball, ending a 35-year partnership with the network due to what league claimed was "a scaling back of coverage" by ESPN and demand for a reduction in rights fees. This includes the Home Run Derby and the Wild Card Series. The Sunday Night games moved to NBC, the first games on NBC in 25 years, while the Home Run Derby moved to Netflix.
All-Star Game changes Starting in 2022, Manfred revived the practice of having "legend(s) picks" to the All-Star Game, recognizing players who were not voted into the game by fans or selected by managers, but who the league feels are deserving of special recognition.
In 2025, Manfred returned to the practice of having the All Star players wearing their teams' jerseys instead of custom "American League" or "National League" jerseys, which had been the case since 2021.
Houston Astros sign stealing scandal
In 2020, Manfred led an investigation that found that the Houston Astros had used illegal methods to steal signs during the 2017 season, in which they won the World Series, as well as part of the 2018 season. Manfred fined the team $5 million, the maximum allowed by the MLB constitution, and revoked their first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. Astros manager A. J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were each suspended for the entire 2020 season, including the playoffs. No Astros players were punished because they received immunity in exchange for their cooperation in the investigation.
Manfred was widely criticized for his handling of the situation. In an interview with ESPN, he defended his decision not to discipline players involved with the scandal, arguing that the MLBPA would not accept it. He also refused to strip the Astros of their 2017 World Series title because "It has never happened in baseball" and that he believed "that precedent happens and when you deviate from that, you have to have a very good reason." During this Manfred used the phrase "hunk of metal" to describe the Commissioner's Trophy. After many fans and players pushed back to the description, Manfred issued an apology, stating his intent was to make "a rhetorical point".
In June 2023, Manfred reflected on his decision to grant Astros players immunity and referred to it as "maybe not my best decision ever."
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic On March 12, 2020, one day after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, Major League Baseball cancelled spring training and delayed the start of the 2020 season by at least two weeks. Four days later, it was announced that the start of the season would be pushed back indefinitely due to the recommendation made by the CDC to restrict events of more than 50 people for eight weeks. On May 26, Manfred made the league's first proposal for the 2020 season, which included a reduction of the richest salaries by over 75 percent. This proposal was immediately rejected by the Players Association. The MLBPA later voted 33–5 to reject a proposal from Manfred and the owners for a 60-game season that would include an expanded postseason format and no provisions for salary guarantees in the event of a cancelled season, then rejected a third proposal for a 72-game season with 80% pro-rated pay. Manfred and the owners had also rejected the players' proposal for a 70-game season. On June 22, Manfred imposed a 60-game regular season that was unanimously approved by franchise owners. The season imposed by Manfred included the implementation of a sixteen-team postseason format (proposed by the players' union and later approved by the owners), a universal designated hitter and extra innings beginning with a runner on second base. (This latter rule change has been referred to by fans and media alike as the "Manfred Man", a play on the name of the musician.)
Inclusion of Negro leagues In December 2020, Manfred announced that MLB would classify seven Negro leagues as additional major leagues, adding them to the six historical "major league" designations it made in 1969, thus recognizing statistics and approximately 3,400 players who played from 1920 to 1948. On May 28, 2024, MLB announced that it had integrated Negro league statistics into its records, which among other changes gives Josh Gibson the highest single-season major league batting average at .466 (1943) and the highest career batting average at .372.
2021 All-Star Game relocation On April 2, 2021, Manfred announced that the 2021 All-Star Game would be moved from Atlanta in protest of a voting reform law passed by Georgia's legislature. The move was supported by President Joe Biden and the MLBPA, the latter of whom claimed that the law "disproportionately disenfranchises the Black community." The decision was opposed both by Republican state officials including governor Brian Kemp and by several prominent Georgia Democrats including activist and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and senator Raphael Warnock. The Atlanta Braves also opposed the move remarking that they were "deeply disappointed" by Manfred's decision and "businesses, employees and fans in Georgia are the victims of this decision." On April 5, Manfred announced that Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, would host the All-Star Game. On November 16, 2023, following an owners' meeting, Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that Major League Baseball would return to Atlanta for its 2025 All-Star Game.
2021–22 lockout
Following the expiration of the league's collective bargaining agreement in December 2021, team owners unanimously voted to enact a lockout at 12:01 a.m. EST on December 2, indefinitely lasting until a new CBA was signed. Manfred formally announced the lockout in a press release titled "A letter to baseball fans," an action that received criticism from various baseball media members. After several rounds of meetings between MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association that were described as "unproductive," the league set February 28 as a deadline to complete negotiations at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, or else regular season games would begin to be cancelled. MLB and the MLBPA worked late into the night on contract negotiations on February 28, ignoring the deadline and working into the early morning hours of March 1. Around 2:30 a.m. EST on March 1, the league decided that there was enough progress on negotiations to push the deadline to 5:00 p.m. on the same day. As negotiations began to resume on March 1, a players' union representative stated that the two sides were further apart on key issues than what was being reported and claimed that Manfred and MLB were pushing an overly-optimistic storyline for their own gain. Just before the 5:00 p.m. deadline, the league contingent made a final offer that was ultimately turned down by the players' union. As a result, Manfred announced in a press conference outside Roger Dean Stadium that a chunk of the season's first games (later revealed to be the first two series) would be cancelled. Manfred received online criticism for smiling and laughing before and during the press conference.