PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Rob Manfred's current term will be his final as MLB commissioner. Who could replace him in 2029?

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

Rob Manfred announced on Thursday that this will be his final term as commissioner of MLB. We discuss his time and his legacy as commissioner, if we would step away from being paid a reported $25 million per year, and who could replace him in 2029. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

and welcome in to another audio-only edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX, and I am joined by Jesse Friedman, occasionally known as my vice mayor and your thunderstick. And Jesse, what a first week we had being back out at Salt River Fields. I mean, I just absolutely love being around baseball. You know, I was telling my wife this tonight. I was just, you know, I'm tired. I'm exhausted.

You and I both questioned how, why are we so tired? We didn't really do that much physical activity. It's just the standing around in the sun makes you very tired. I just felt like I really am thankful for having the coolest job in the world. I mean that. I love baseball so much. And to be out there just around guys doing drills and taking batting practice and throwing bullpens is incredible.

It feels great. I mean, getting to do this show with me every day. I mean, talk about a dream job. Like, what more could anyone hope to do? I mean, what more could you ask for in a co-host, Derek? I mean, come on. I mean, whatever. But anyway, baseball, though, the weather was great.

Being out at Salt River Fields was great. I had a pocket sandwich. That was awesome. It's great to pre-plan. Like, when you know that you're going to, going to be hungry later and you take care of yourself later, Jesse. It's a great feeling. I know you're not a fan of it. I know you don't take care of yourself like you should, but I have been proud of the amount of water you've had. You did have sunscreen

on. So these are all things that makes me feel like we're both growing as people and getting better at doing this job. Of course, there was just, you know, the typical things to be seen around, you know, around spring training so far. But I did think that the fan presence was very cool. I don't know if it's more people than it's been in the past out, uh, watching these guys do this stuff. But, uh, it does, it does feel like the, the crowd has gotten a little bit bigger after the Diamondbacks postseason run last year. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what it's like over the weekend. Um, I think those Monday, two Monday is a holiday for sure. You know, you're going to have the players reporting. That's a great point. Yeah, with, with all the position players reporting and it being a

holiday yeah i'll be very curious to see what that's like and i think all of this is leading up to you know the ultimate question which is what is chase field look like on opening day you know what does the support for this team look like right out of the gate and i suspect it will be very strong i suspect that they will you know be able to sell out chase field which is something they've done in in you know most years on opening day regardless of how good the team was but um you know it's not just about how many how many people are in the stands about how how much noise are they making? You know, how engaged in the game are they?

You know, players really seem to enjoy just the level of engagement they saw from the fan base, you know, in the playoffs and toward the end of the regular season as well as things were kind of ramping up. So, yeah, you know, there's certainly a new buzz around this team. And it's hard to judge that in the first few days of spring training. But we'll know before too long kind of where this fan base stands after that run. I think it's also going to be interesting to see. how the crowd responses that next series.

Because the Diamondbacks open up their season with a four-game series against the Colorado Rockies. And then that is immediately followed up by a three-game series against the Yankees. And obviously, like a Yankee series normally is going to be a heavily attended series anyway. It doesn't matter when in the season. and it kind of arrives. But it's almost kind of nice that you know, you can kind of feel confident that those seven games are probably going to be very, very crowded at Chase Field.

And that's going to be an excellent way to start the season. I mean, and again, even if it's not just because of what the Diamondbacks did in the postseason, even if it's because it's the Yankees, it's still, I think it's still cool that you can feel fairly confident that we're going to see that building rocking for all seven. of those games. And then they go on the road after that. So of course, we'll see how things go. Speaking of going on the road, Rob Manfred, as we discussed on Friday's episode, did not go on the road to the Cactus League. He's staying over there on the East Coast and he went to the grapefruit league. He stayed in Florida.

He spoke to media. There were some things that came out. The big story being that Rob Manfred will not be returning after his current term, which is up in 2009, the man will be 70 years old at the end of his current term, and it makes all the sense in the world. Aside from the fact that the revelation that Jesse told me that it's believed that he makes $25 million a year. So I think that that's the one thing that says, yeah, do that shit until the day you die. Just keep doing that job forever until you literally can't do it anymore. But I do say if he has been making $25 million this whole time, man, you have plenty of money. Enjoy your 70s.

Go take lots of trips. Enjoy your family. And, you know, honestly, it's probably best for him and the game of baseball because some of the shit he said, Jesse, makes me feel like Rob Manfred shouldn't be the commissioner of this game. He had the audacity to tell Oakland A's fans that they can root for the Giants. Does he not understand how this works? Does he not understand how much we hate that team over there work sometimes with fans?

My God. To ask Oakland A's fans to root for Giants fans or the Giants is probably one of the most tone-deaf things. I think anybody could ask of a fan base who is currently in the process of losing their baseball team. Yeah, it's true. I mean, I don't really know what Rob Manfred was supposed to say to that question. Like, what exactly are you, like, what are A's fans supposed to do if the A's are moving to Vegas, right?

I mean, there isn't really good. What are Raiders fans do? Did Raiders fans not continue to root for the Raiders when they moved to Las Vegas? Or did they just abandon the team that they've rooted for and find a new team? And I'm not saying that, like, from some sort of perspective or, I guess, place of knowledge. I'm literally asking that. Did Raiders fans abandon their team? or did they just continue to root for them in the new city that they're in?

Because if that's the case, I understand Oakland fans are going to be angry, but it's still the A's and it's still your team. So I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Yeah, I don't really know either. I would still, I would feel like saying rooting for the Las Vegas A's would be better than telling A's fans to root for the Giants because that's just idiot. What are we doing here?

I mean, come on. Let's understand a little bit what's going on here. I guess the answer has to be that, yeah, you know, if you're an ace fan, you just kind of have to do what you might have had to do with the Raiders, which is just follow the team to Vegas and, you know, still root for them from afar. But, yeah, like no one really likes that solution. Vegas and Oakland are not terribly far away, but, you know, they're not neighbors. It's not, you know, a one and a half hour drive or something from Oakland to Vegas. last I checked.

And yeah, A's fans are not going to root for the Giants. Like, that's not how this works, right? You develop rivalries with your, you know, your team across town. You don't, you know, you don't just embrace them the moment that your team is no longer viable. So again, though, I'm not really sure how Rob is supposed to answer that question. The tragedy in the first place is that the A's are moving at all. You know, once you get to that point, there's not really a great answer to that question. Rob Manfred did say of being the commissioner that you can only have so much fun in one lifetime, Jesse.

And I feel like he said that from a place of, I want to feel like it's like a joke. But the man made, if he's making $25 million a year, then yeah, I could see how he would say that phrase and mean it wholeheartedly about being the commissioner of baseball. But I have given him his flowers a bit. have given the devil his due, right? I think that at times, no matter what, you as a commissioner of any league, you're going to have kind of a bad reputation, you're going to have a bad rap because you're going to ultimately make decisions that people don't like. You're going to ultimately make business decisions that people think should be maybe made

more ethically or morally at times where that's not the way that a league is necessarily ran. Like we would like it to be a moral thing. We'd like it to be a bit more ethical. But at the end of the day, money moves everything. And that's ultimately what some of these commissioners are powerless against is how much money is being passed around at times in order to get some of these things done. I do think Rob Manfred took Major League Baseball, though, like I said on Friday show, from a place of kind of being, having a tarnished reputation with a lot of sports fans and did bring it back. to a place of kind of having a little bit of redemption, you know, and then they did make changes that it did feel like the changes they made, even though at times they were tough, even though at times they were admitting their faults of the past, they did do things to make the game of baseball better, safer, shorter, you know, quicker games.

Like, that's something we all like. And more importantly, they just tried to do things to make baseball appeal on a global scale. And I think Rob Manfred did a good job of that at times. There were a lot of imperfections during his terms, but I do feel like he did a good job of bringing baseball back. I mean, I don't know. You can only do so much with a game that was in the condition it was when he became commissioner.

Yeah, I mean, you can only have so much fun in one lifetime, right? I guess he's maxed it out with, all these rules changes and whatnot. Yeah, I think there have been some good things for sure. We talked about this a little bit on Friday. You know, him overseeing these rule changes, which were significant and by and large had a positive impact on the game. There was also, you know, the transition to the DH coming to the National League that in its own right was it was a pretty big deal at the time it was happening. I feel like most people have kind of forgotten about that now. So yeah, it hasn't been, it hasn't been perfect for sure. You know, the lockout,

that whole situation was very ugly. The Astros situation was ugly. There are, you know, other things you could point to. But, you know, I think he has some pretty big decisions to make here in the next few years as well. One of the ideas that's been floating around is that a free agent signing period. I don't know how much you've seen on this, Derek, but the idea of a deadline. a deadline being set so that we don't have this current situation where several of the marquee free agents available in this particular offseason, it would not still be available in mid-February, as is the case right now. He said December. He said December.

We are in February. Pitchers and catchers have in fact reported. And there are the biggest, you know, essentially the biggest free agent names on the market are still currently available and unsigned. Yeah. And Rob in this press conference said that this is a proposal that has already been made to the players association. I believe just in the most recent CBA negotiations, this is a conversation that's been had.

Rob Manfred and I quote said that they were not warmly received proposals along those lines. So I think players have a negative view of this. They may be view. and I know Scott Boris also responded to this and gave his two cents saying that a deadline is basically like taking the life away from players and, you know, in these contract negotiations and kind of snatches away their leverage. But yeah, it's an interesting tug and pull. I mean, December is pretty aggressive. Like that would actually be really fast, I think.

Like, what would we do in January if everyone signed in December? That's when we discover new fan bases like Toronto last year. and such, right? Like, I don't know. I don't know when, I don't know how he expects that to get done. And I feel like he's just kind of saying things. Maybe if he goes to the extreme,

they can come to some sort of middle ground, which is maybe the end of January, which seems far more reasonable to say like January 31st is the cutoff point because that does seem like when clubs and players should be focused on getting ready for camp and not still trying to, to figure out where they're going to play baseball for or who they're going to play baseball for, right? But yeah, I don't know about a December timeline with Christmas and all the other

holidays and such during that. No, that's not getting done. Nothing's getting done during that time of the year. But of course, we do thank you guys for being here in the PHN exports audio podcast thing that we do here. You're subscribed on your favorite audio podcast thing. Make sure you do that. Subscribe. Make sure also to leave us a review. We always appreciate that feedback. Five-star reviews definitely help us out a tremendous amount. If you are not a die-hard yet, make sure to check out the die-hard option. It pays for itself, in fact, especially if you're going to come check out some of our PHNX events, you will get discounts on all of those events. You will get a free t-shirt from the phnx locker.com and so much more, including all of the

wonderful content that we're offering over on the Discord. You can watch Jesse and I face off against each other in video games. There's going to be city council meetings. Of course, there have been a game show called SqueezePlay. Not sure if you're aware, but all of this stuff is happening for our diehards. And of course, you are missing out on it if you are not one. So join us today and become a diehard over at go phnx.com. There's a lot of things that I feel like Rob Manfred said. That made me feel like his admission that this is the end of his term was the right decision, including the thing about the Giants, if you're in Oakland A's fans. That specifically sticks with me.

I also want to say, as a person here in the state of Arizona that has only had one team pretty much in our state in major sports to root for at any time, I do say that like California's multiple team thing has always felt unfair to me. and I really have very little empathy for stealing a baseball team away from that state that already has so many sports teams. But Oakland, that just, that seems wrong. That still seems wrong to me. Another thing that seems wrong is that Rob Manfred is starting to back or defend the fanatics jerseys that Major League Baseball players are going to be wearing in 2024. and there have been a lot of criticism thrown the way of these jerseys.

Now, I will say just from our perspective, once again, we have seen the Diamondback's jerseys up close. I will say that maybe the name lettering looks a little small, but not really off-putting or weird in any way. And I think the Diamondback jerseys look great. I haven't really looked at them and noticed a lack of quality. I haven't looked at them and noticed a lack of detail. I brought up the other day the snake, like the snake head patch on the side.

Really, when I looked up, looked at it closely, didn't really seem to have like that, you know, that embroidered edge to it. But they have said that these jerseys are being made as performance wear. So in some cases, they do have the ability to change that stuff, right? They do have the ability to make, you know, changes to Jersey so that they're not as heavy, that they're more lightweight. As we discussed with Tommy Henry's comments, they stretch. They're nicer. Like, there's been compliments thrown their way so far from the Diamondbacks camp. But looking at some of these other jerseys, specifically the Cardinals jersey that keeps coming up on social media,

I think there was a comparison on the Chicago White Sox jerseys from last year versus what they look like in camp this year and they don't even look like a good like overseas um bootleg jesse they look like a bad overseas bootleg you know what i mean like they just they look cheap they look low quality they look like the great britain jersey from the wbc that the t is going to fall off you know while while they're in the middle playing baseball and it's it's weird that rob manfred is basically trying to say like, I think after people wear them a little bit, I think they're going to be really popular. Like, bro, it's not a matter of us getting used to them. It's a matter of them looking pretty shitty. Like, it's a matter of them looking bad. And again, I'm just saying that based on the

pictures of other teams. Thankfully, the Diamondbacks, I guess with their jersey changed this year, we don't really have a jersey to compare it to from last year to say, oh, it looks like this, and this is what last year's look like. But some of the comparison shots, to what jerseys and the names and letters on the back of jerseys look like last year definitely are telling of how low quality these jerseys for major league baseball players look there is an element that is low quality for sure i mean you can't you can't see the uh you know the shot of miles michaelis's jersey where the three and the nine or like the nine is like a little crooked and it's a little bit shorter than three is so they you know the bottoms of them don't

line up like they're supposed to that's a clear design flaw that I'm sure I'm sure will be fixed I mean that feels like just some you know something that happened while these while these were being printed or whatnot I do in in Rob's defense I will say I think there's kind of like an eye adjustment period that has to happen where you're just kind of so used to seeing something as it used to be and seeing something that's pretty different from that you know you're maybe going to dislike it kind of by default. fault because it's just different. But just because it's so different doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad

thing. And I think Rob is, and, you know, I think they're kind of counting on that. Rob said that we always pay attention to what people are saying about any new initiative. And with a new initiative, there's going to be some negative feedback. He goes on to say, I think after people wear him a little bit, I think they're going to be really popular. So I guess I'm just saying I understand his thinking that there might be some initial shock seeing something that looks noticeably different, and over time, people will kind of adjust to this new look, and eventually they'll like it. Obviously, there are certain things like crooked numbers that have to be fixed, but if MLB is able to find a way to fix those issues, which obviously need to be fixed, maybe there's a route after that

where people kind of adjust to these things and start to like them. There's some things I don't like about the Diamondbacks home cream jersey. and the odd thing about it is when I look at this picture of the Michaelis jersey going around, it's the same stuff in a way, right? Like you said, it's like you said it at one point, they're very plain. And it's like,

yeah, looking at the back of this, very plain. And looking at the back of the cream color diamond back jerseys, very plain. And it's got that same kind of, like, I can't describe it other than,

and puffiness kind of to it. And like, again, it, it, it almost looks a bit like a throwback jersey or something of the sort. Yeah. It doesn't look like a modern jersey. It looks like something that's older. And I don't know if they were trying to establish some sort of look that did indeed look like a little bit of a throwback or what the case may be.

You're right, though. I mean, at the end of the day, jerseys are jerseys, right? Like, actually, the jerseys don't even really seem to be the, problem as much as the pants and the problem we talked about with them lacking customization options. But as we progress, Jesse, there shouldn't be fewer customization options. There should be more. We should be getting down to the point where we pinpoint these uniforms for athletes so that they fit the exact desired way. You know, I talked about Merrill's baggy pants. I saw Merrill out there today in the new uni's. He's wearing the baggy pants still. Like his look just fine.

It doesn't look like he had any problem finding a pair that fit him the exact same way that the uniform used to fit him. But not everybody is going to have that. And not everybody is going to be able to find their exact. Like there's nothing more frustrating than like, oh man, I like it where it's really like it's cuffed at the ankle. And then it goes up here and it does this. And now you go to look at this year's pants and those options just aren't available to you anymore. And that was just something that made you feel comfortable when playing your sport. And now they're taking that away due to a company with, I guess, lower quality, you know, taking over.

That doesn't seem to be the move. That doesn't seem to be the move in the right direction. Does anyone like fanatics? Like, I feel like I've never heard a positive thing about fanatics ever. Let me tell you, the biggest nightmare ever happened to me and it is related to fanatics. You know, I'm a big fan of the pitching ninja. and he did a collaboration with a, I believe it was a KBO team, right? And so I went to go check out this website,

and I wanted to see just how much the shirts and the hoodies and the jackets were and if they shipped internationally and such. And Jesse, I recoiled in horror when I clicked on the link. And even though it was in a different language, it was still a fanatics website. And that's what pissed me off more than anything was, even though it was in a completely different language, I still recognized that it was the fanatics,

like, font and the way that they put stuff. And I was like, no! Like, no! No, not fanatics, not fanatics. And like, that's how bad fanatics is. I don't, like, okay, Nike has a reputation of being expensive, but I don't recoil in horror when I, see that it's a Nike website or a

league that uses Nike or whatever. I actually... Exactly. I actually would feel like that's a higher quality product due to it being manufactured by Nike. And now, what are we doing, Nike?

You're letting fanatics make your stuff, but throw your logo on it. Did you learn nothing from Bally's? Did you learn nothing from Bally's sports? Did you learn nothing from the Diamond Sports? do not let someone else represent you out here because remember at the end of the day sinclair broadcasting is going to walk away like kaiser sose in the wind you're never going to see

them again but meanwhile ballies sport or ballie gaming ballies ballies with a little boche venez they are forever going to be associated with the nightmare that was the regional sports network and that's such a weird thing that's such a weird bag to be left holding and honestly in this case, Nike is kind of going through the same thing in a way because it's their logo on the jersey, yet they're letting fanatics make them. And all of the criticism seem to be quality, right? Quality, lack of quality, lack of, I mean, lack of, of, like, even if, even if these are how they're making the jerseys, these are how replica jerseys should look. And I, again, this is something I'm beating the death and I've talked about before. But they, like, the, the,

the big leaguers should have a better looking jersey and that's just the way that it is sometimes. It should be a higher quality jersey. But no, you're right. Nobody likes. I feel like you're, I feel like you're being unnecessarily like, like, Bali, they didn't do anything wrong. They just purchased the naming rights to have their name plastered on all of the different RSNs, right? Whereas in this situation, fanatics, they're not just like naming rights. Like they're the ones who, are actually doing all the damage. But what I mean is is Nike's logo is going on that stuff. Like typically, when I go to Fanatics website,

I'm very particular about not buying Fanatics branded stuff. Like, because Fanatics makes their own version of the jersey, and they put their little Fanatics logo on it, and it's usually the lower end silk screen version of like a Sun's jersey. And then the higher quality ones are from Nike, and they're made by Nike, and they're different.

and they're embroidered, and they're not made also, they're not also made by Fanatics, right? And like, that's where this is crossing over because you're, you're now having the Nike name being associated with Fanatics quality. And essentially, that's just going to make us think that Nike is poor quality. Right. Yeah.

Isn't this kind of like, it's like a luxury car brand, like saying, hey, we're going to design the car. And it's going to be real, it's going to be a really, cool design, but then we're going to give like, we're going to have like, I don't know,

what's the bottom of the barrel car? Yeah, we're going to have Kia actually make the thing, you know, and it's just going to be cheap plastic everywhere and it'll vaguely look like the cool design it's supposed to be, but the quality of materials just won't be there. That's the best analogy that I have. Yeah, I mean, it just, it sucks. And I think that the, the, uh, major league baseball players, Association is going to have something to say about this.

I imagine that this isn't going to stand. I also imagine it's probably not going to change. I think fanatics are still going to make the jerseys, but they might get them to make some changes to them about things they don't like. So far, like I said, we personally have not heard any complaints about anything other than the pants.

And again, it wasn't a problem with the pants being low quality. For feedback players, I haven't. Yeah, it was, was just a matter. Like, actually, they, they sound so far, like when Rob Manfred describes this performance gear, this performance wear that they do like them because they are, they said they're kind of like a shirt. They're easier to play baseball in.

And that's, that's a good thing. So the material and everything is fine. It's just a matter of some of the, maybe some tweaks, like you said, before the regular season starts. I just, again, Rob Manfred is getting to a point where he's very defensive, right? And at times, you don't need to be so defensive about everything you do because you are not the company making these jerseys, right? You are not the owner of the Oakland A's moving the team to Las Vegas. I know he has to, for the most part, kind of safe face.

I mean, he's not the owner, but he's the rep for the owner. I mean, he's like. Well, yeah. No, and as I'm saying, he's got to kind of like safe face and make this whole thing look better than it is. But I feel like, you know, if you want to talk about Rob Manfred and his legacy, he has a chance. And I joked about it. He has a chance to go out with doing some good things for baseball.

He has a chance to screw it up before he leaves. But the one thing is is to not go out and constantly defend all of your actions and all the actions of companies like fanatics and the owners moving a team from Oakland to Las Vegas because it's not always defensible. you know, especially when you're going to stay stupid shit, like you have another team right there in the Giants, right? So all of this stuff just kind of makes me feel like in order for baseball to continue to progress,

in order for it to continue to evolve, we do need another commissioner. And with that being said, some of the names that are being thrown out there kind of are a little exciting, including Theo Epstein as a potential replacement for Rob Manfredel. Hey, man, I'm on board with team.

I'm team Theo for sure. You get Theo Epstein in that role. That would be pretty great. I don't think that's way. Let's get him there before he's 65 years old. You know what I mean? Like let's get him there while you're still in touch with maybe the current generation and the younger generation a little bit more.

Like I'm not in touch and I'm 42. Fuck, I'm going to be honest about that. Like I think I'm older than you are. I need Totry and Dave. and Damon, and you definitely don't help out one bit, but I need those guys to keep me in touch with what the younger people are talking about and interested in and music and TV shows and stuff. I don't know, but anyway, we do appreciate you guys,

stop and bye for an obnoxiously long audio episode of this show. Of course, we're done, much like I'm done making Tommy Fam Jock Peterson jokes, thanks to that video I did the other day. We're done talking about Rob Manfred retiring on this show, but we will have all sorts of great stuff coming up with spring training here and with spring training games starting next week. So that's going to be a lot of fun for Jesse to cover. I will be on a boat out in the middle of the Caribbean. And that's not a brag.

That's just facts, but it's also a brag. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kappa underscore K-Bad. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our shows at Ph.NX underscore Dbacks. But of course, all roads duly to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter. Instagram and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for checking out this show.

We appreciate you time. See you on Monday. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Rob Manfred finally calls it quits.