Rob Manfred is denying there are plans for a lockout, again

Rob Manfred is contradicting the words of Rob Manfred once again.

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For some reason, people keep asking MLB commissioner Rob Manfred about the looming threat of a lockout after the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement. It’s so weird how this happens after you use an interview at the New York Times (by way of the Athletic) to say that there will be a lockout after the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement, but that’s just how the media works, am I right?

Manfred has spent the first half of 2025 pretending he didn’t say that lockouts should be considered the new normal, as just part of the process of negotiating a new CBA, that he didn’t liken them to “using a .22, as opposed to a shotgun or a nuclear weapon.” In February, Sportico relayed that Manfred had “tampered down his rhetoric” by saying that, “I’m not going to speculate how we’re going to negotiate with the PA. We’re a year away. I owe it to the owners to coalesce around our bargaining approach. And quite frankly I owe it to our fans not to get into this too early. It’s bad enough when you’re doing it and bargaining, and everyone is worried about it. We’re just not there yet.” Attempt number one at putting the cat back in the bag, basically.

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MLB’s investment in Athletes Unlimited intrigues

MLB has made a significant investment in professional softball, which could end up being great news for the sport.

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Obviously, it’s a rarity in this space when MLB’s business activities are brought up and not immediately ripped apart for some deserved transgression. So hey, let’s enjoy something happening where I’m leaning far more toward, “huh, neat” than “what’s their goal, here?” with eyes narrowed.

I’m speaking of, as the headline already alerted you to, Major League Baseball’s significant investment in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, or AUSL. Last summer, I wrote about the AUSL for Baseball Prospectus, in a piece titled “Athletes Unlimited and a New Model for Pro Sports.” Here’s a bit of that to get you up to speed on the league and my thoughts on it:

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It’s not just the Rockies

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Saying that the Rockies have taken up all the oxygen in the room when it comes to 2025’s losing teams is probably pushing things a little far, but it is, at least, fair to say that they’re at the center of that particular attention economy. How could they not be, considering that, heading into Tuesday’s action against the Cubs, they’re sitting at 9-45, the worst-ever modern (i.e. 1901 and beyond) start through 54 games of an MLB season? Given that the 2024 White Sox set the modern loss record with 121 defeats, and Colorado is currently on pace for 135 of them?

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Brandon Hyde suffers for Orioles’ organizational sins

The Orioles didn’t struck when they should have the way they should have, and it’s becoming their defining feature under Mike Elias.

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There’s a common theme to 2025’s worst MLB teams, and it’s that they were pretty clearly going to have rough seasons. And yet, none of them did the things that would keep this from occurring. Three of those four squads have also fired their managers already — the Orioles being the latest thanks to getting rid of Brandon Hyde, following the Rockies and Pirates doing so a little earlier in May — because that’s one way to pretend you’re Doing Something about losses that have been brought about by an organizational-wide philosophy.

You can argue that the Orioles weren’t expected to be quite as bad in 2025 as they’ve been — they’re 15-30, on pace for 108 losses — but this is just arguing a matter of degrees. The O’s made it so that a whole lot of things had to go right for them to compete in 2025 like they did even a year ago when they won 91 games and lost in the Wild Card round, and none of those things have gone right. Instead, they’ve just hit the worst-case scenario in a few instances, but all within the realm of plausibility without the need for hindsight.

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Pirates, Rockies shuffle some deck chairs

Firing the managers will fix everything, sure.

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On Thursday, the Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton. On Sunday, the Rockies fired their manager, Bud Black. The Pirates had just lost seven games in a row and sat in last place in the NL Central, while the Rockies were one day removed from a 21-0 loss to the Padres, at home, that pushed their run differential to -134, twice as low as the next-worst team, the Marlins.

The Pirates made it seem like firing Shelton would be a move that would turn things around for them sooner than any other possible move, as if it was Shelton’s fault that they were the way they were, and simply elevating Don Kelly from bench coach to manager would undo that damage. The Rockies, similarly, let go of Black because what else are you going to do when you’re on pace for the worst season in modern history (and then some)?

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What we’re missing by focusing on the Pete Rose Decision

The stories have focused heavily on the Pete Rose part of the meeting with Trump, but there’s much more going on here.

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MLB commissioner Rob Manfred recently met with United States president Donald Trump, and the reports that came out of that meeting — and what subsequent time with the media has mostly focused on — is what this means for Pete Rose. Will he remain banned, will the ban be lifted, if the ban is lifted will he be able to enter the Hall of Fame? It’s not that none of this matters — because it does, reinstating Rose and undoing the idea of “permanent ineligibility” for gambling on sports is a terrible idea in a vacuum but even more so now when sports gambling is as ubiquitous in society as it is today — but there’s a more significant issue that’s been brushed aside a bit because of its existence.

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On MLB’s potential MLB.tv, MLB Network plans

The latest in MLB’s ongoing cable replacement saga.

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Sports broadcasting is in a state of flux, and not just when it comes to Major League Baseball games. For decades now, cable has been at the forefront, and it has paid dividends for leagues to align themselves with cable companies, literally, thanks to the carriage fees that every customer — sports-watching or not — were saddled with. With cable subscriptions trending down, though, and streaming and cable alternatives having taken hold, a new future is needed, to provide new revenue streams. Or, at least, ones that aren’t headed in the wrong direction.

This, in a general sense, is old news with MLB — I wrote about their problems with the regional sports network (RSN) model and the kinds of complaints and negotiating tactics that the Players Association would have to deal with from management back in 2021 for Baseball Prospectus, and it wasn’t necessarily new then, either. It’s reared its head in some new ways of late, however, such as with the end of the ESPN/MLB partnership looming, and MLB’s pretty open desire to switch to a different revenue-sharing model that’s more akin to that of the NFL.

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Notes: Rizzo on the Rockies, NCAA women’s tournament, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Someone else dislikes Dick Monfort as much as I do, why the women’s version of March Madness needs its own TV deal, and why the Jays were right to re-sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

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Before last weekend’s series between the Phillies and Dodgers, Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper made a perfect little statement. When asked about the Dodgers’ spending habits and all the complaining that’s been going on regarding said habits, he said, “I don’t know if people will like this, but I feel like only losers complain about what they’re doing. I think they’re a great team. They’re a great organization.” He’s right, in that this is some loser mentality stuff at work, but the thing is, we need more of that energy out there from players and the media to hammer home just how big that loser energy is.

Alanna Rizzo, formerly part of the Dodgers’ broadcast team but now back at MLB Network, apparently agrees. While speaking to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post about the Rockies, she did not mince words when it came to owner Dick Monfort and his thoughts on the Dodgers and spending:

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Notes: ESPN deal, Rob Manfred talks salary cap again

ESPN doesn’t seem to believe that the MLB relationship is over after 2025, and Rob Manfred is trying to put the cat back in the bag again.

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ESPN opted out of the final three years of their national broadcasting deal with MLB, which wasn’t a surprise, necessarily, especially given the league’s devaluing of their own product in deals with (arguably) Apple and (inarguably) Roku. Over at Sports Business Journal, though, comes sourced word from ESPN that they don’t see this as the end of the relationship between the two after 2025.

Someone might want to let MLB know about that, since the league has been publicly airing its grievances with the worldwide leader and its coverage — or lack thereof — of MLB’s games. You’ll also find plenty of fans who aren’t broken up about ESPN ending things, since they, a little too regularly, act like they’re embarrassed to be covering baseball games. Which doesn’t do much for growing the game, no?

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Notes: Jackie Robinson, Pirates debt, MLB broadcasts

A response to the federal government trying to erase Jackie Robinson, another responding to claim the Pirates are in debt, actually, and Rob Manfred’s latest on MLB’s broadcast plans.

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I had no inside knowledge that Steven Goldman would have a reaction to the Department of Defense briefly taking down Jackie Robinson’s military history to relabel it as “DEI,” but I knew he was good for it, and that it would appear if I would only be patient.

The reward for that patience was significant: Goldman wrote a wonderful rebuttal, explanation, whatever you want to call it to what went into the decision to remove Robinson, the history behind what made his being there in the first place such a significant deal, and some strong jabs at Thomas Jefferson’s trying-to-have-it-both-ways routine, for good measure.

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