Though Rob Manfred has yet to discipline any Astros players involved with the illegal sign-stealing scandal, the embattled commissioner argued on Sunday that the people who cheated their way to and through the 2017 World Series have suffered enough.
“I do take issue with is the notion that anybody in the Houston organization escaped without punishment. I think if you look at the faces of the Houston players as they’ve been out there publicly addressing this issue, they have been hurt by this,” said Manfred during a press conference held at the Braves’ spring training facility in North Port.
Though the league suspended GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch for one season, fined the Astros $5 million, and stripped the team of their first two draft picks in 2020 and 2021, Manfred promised players interviewed full immunity from disciplinary action for cooperating with the league’s investigation. The latter has been a controversial decision that has received much ire from fans and active players, including teams like the Yankees and Dodgers, who lost closely contested playoff series in 2017. Manfred said this applies to the ongoing investigation against the Red Sox.
According to Manfred, player punishment was delivered in the form of “questions about what went on in 2017 and 2018.”
Earlier on Sunday, Manfred claimed in an ESPN interview that the intense public scrutiny was “a form of discipline, and maybe the most powerful deterrent of anything that we did here.”
The one group that Manfred will discipline aggressively: pitchers who hit Houston batters. “Retaliation in-game by throwing at a batter intentionally will not be tolerated,” said Manfred, a measure the commissioner plans to expound on in a forthcoming memo to the league.
“It is simply not appropriate to express whatever frustration you may have by growing out of the Astros situation by putting someone physically at risk by throwing at him,” Manfred said during his ESPN interview. Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling admitted he’s contemplated throwing at Astros batters for cheating during the World Series his team lost.
While Manfred said that public shame was the best discipline, he also complained that public shaming was unfair. “The back and forth that’s gone on is not healthy,” he said. That back and forth includes Cody Bellinger saying that Jose Altuve stole an MVP, Yu Darvish saying the 2017 Word Series should be vacated, Carlos Correa saying Bellinger was wrong to accuse Altuve of wearing a buzzer because he actually had a bad tattoo, and much more.
He doubled down on the claim that granting immunity, which he said was conditional based on their full cooperation, was necessary for getting as much information as possible about the Astros scandal.
Manfred said that MLB’s goal was to make sure it “found the facts, completed the investigation, figured what was going on, and put ourselves in a position to be as transparent with our fans and the other clubs.”
“The worst possible outcome for this institution would’ve been if we conducted an investigation and came back and said ‘You know what? We just can’t figure out what went on.’ People had a right to know what happened and we did achieve that goal.”
Manfred’s press conference was not particularly transparent, though. Neither the MLB Network, MLB.TV, (the league’s primary streaming application) MLB.com, nor any league-controlled social media accounts or cable rights holders broadcasted it.
Manfred also defended his decision not to strip the Astros’ of their title, calling their World Series trophy a “piece of metal.” Instead, they’ll have to suffer in the court of public opinion. “People will always know that there was something about the 2017 season,” Manfred told ESPN.
That piece of medal has a name, as Eireann Dolan — wife of Nationals reliever and 2019 champion Sean Doolittle — reminded everyone on Sunday. It’s the “Commissioner’s Trophy.”
