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MLB News: Commissioner Manfred Reportedly Backs Down on Threat to Suspend Season

The most unlikeable guy in baseball injected himself into MLB headlines on Friday when a report surfaced that said Rob Manfred threatened a shut down of play would be imminent if rampant virus outbreaks could not be contained. Not only did the commissioner write to MLBPA head Tony Clark about the potential shutdown, additional rumors swirled that he warned networks to prepare alternative programming “as soon as Monday.

On Saturday, Manfred has a decidedly different tone. ESPN’s Karl Ravech posted a tweet about the change of heart.



Of course, Rob Manfred is “not a quitter” when lots of money is involved. Shockingly, the league agreed to expanded playoffs for the 2020 season one day before opening day. The shocking part was that he came to that decision — which was agreed upon by the players union mind you — before teams had even began to travel or intermingle in meaningful games.

It was a bold strategy, Cotton.

Moreover, a week or two before, Rob stated that with the nature of the coronavirus, a regular season of more than 60 games was never truly going to be in the cards. The league offered the union a 72 game season just a week prior to agreeing on the eventual 60 game season. That longer season, of course, included a fat pay cut for players.

In short, the man is about money. Additionally, the argument could be made that he doesn’t give off the vibe of a person that has the health of players in mind. Dodgers pitcher David Price danced around as much earlier this week.

So in a less than 24-hour span, Manfred threatened and rescinded his threat of a shutdown. Instead, perhaps, the league should consider removing the teams with the virus spikes…

What are your thoughts on this? 

NEXT: Led By Justin Turner, Players Step Up on New Club-Wide Safety Measures

Clint Pasillas

Clint Pasillas has been writing, blogging, and podcasting about the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008. Under Clint's leadership as the Lead Editor, Dodgers Nation has grown into one of the most read baseball sites in the world with millions of unique visitors per month. Find him online on Twitter/X or his YouTube channel!

6 Comments

  1. Remove the teams that don’t follow protocol if it has to come to that. Clearly they don’t care about the season anyway if they’re out partying

  2. Quarantining Covid positive players and forcing their respective teams to play minor leaguers in their place seems to me to be punishment enough. Although, I might be for setting a maximum limit of Covid positive players for all teams that if the team exceeds that limit, it will be eliminated for this season.

  3. The most important act would be to fire Manfred. He is the worst commissioner in the history of MLB, an embarrassment to all who love the game.

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