A’s fate: Commissioner Rob Manfred says he remains committed to Oakland as a major-league market.
WASHINGTON — Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday he remains committed to Oakland as a majorleague market despite the A’s continued failed attempts to secure a ballpark site.
The A’s were rejected in December in their latest bid to find a new home, this one near Laney College, and said they’ll announce their next target, either the Coliseum site or Howard Terminal, by the end of this year.
“I believe that there is not another market in the United States that has the upside potential that Oakland has,” Manfred told members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday, “and I think we would regret leaving Oakland if we did that.”
As for locales outside the U.S., Montreal and Mexico are candidates for expansion if baseball moves to 32 teams, but Manfred has shelved expansion talk until the A’s and Tampa Bay Rays resolve their stadium issues.
Manfred called the Laney College venture “an unfortunate misstep, but there is no human endeavor where you get it right every single time.” He said A’s owner John Fisher, who has not commented on any ballpark pursuits, would agree.
Both remaining sites are viable, Manfred said.
“We will be continuing to encourage the A’s to get to a decision point sooner rather than later on where they want to be so that you can get to the next step, which is determining whether you have economic viability in terms of financing and the like,” Manfred said.
The A’s, who will stop receiving revenue-sharing checks in 2021, according to the collective bargaining agreement, have the majors’ lowest payroll, $66 million at the start of the season.
Asked if it’s justified in the Bay Area market, Manfred said, “I categorically reject the notion that payroll should be the measure of whether somebody is trying to win in our game today. I reject that not because I prefer low payrolls to high payrolls. I reject that because I know that the correlation between payroll and winning in baseball is extraordinarily weak.
“You do not guarantee yourself wins by having a high payroll, and as the Oakland A’s have showed, you can win with a low payroll. So I really reject the premise of that question. Those are the economic facts.
“Falling into this notion that payroll is a measure of whether an owner is trying to win is literally sophistry.”
However, the A’s are the subject of a grievance filed in February by the players’ union, which accused four teams (the Rays, Marlins and Pirates are the others) of failing to comply with the rule on spending revenue sharing.
Union chief Tony Clark, addressing the Baseball Writers’ Association of America earlier Tuesday, said the union continues to monitor the A’s. Oakland’s 21-6 run in the past month pushed it 13 games above .500 at the AllStar break, three games behind the Mariners for the second wild-card spot.
“Is Oakland a team we have interest in paying attention to?” Clark asked. “Yes, we do. And we have for some time and will continue.”
That the A’s and Rays have winning records, Clark added, has no impact on the grievance.
“The concerns are still the same,” he said. “We’ve got two weeks before the (trade) deadline. It’s going to be very interesting to see what manifests itself. Concerns with the reason for the grievance being filed haven’t changed.”
Manfred, though, said the union filed the grievance without first investigating what the teams may have done to warrant a grievance, and suggested it might have been done for publicity purposes.
“I don’t know why you would file the grievance saying they made inappropriate decisions without first learning why they made those decisions,” Manfred said, “but that’s their prerogative.”