Rob Manfred Discusses Broadcasting Situation ABS Pitcher Health

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MLB commi sioner Rob Manfred recently conducted an interview with where he discu sed a variety of topics that have made headlines around the league of late, including the leagues plans for the future of MLB broadcasting, the future of the automated ball-strike system that was tested during Spring Training this year, and the ongoing conversation around the league regarding the rise in pitcher injuries over the past few years.  Regarding the broadcasting situation, Manfred once again acknowledged that any overarching changes to William Wallinder Jersey  the status quo for broadcasting around the league will likely need to wait until after the 2028 season, when MLBs national TV deals with FOX and TBS expire. The same was true of ESPN, though both the network and MLB decided to of the final three years of that agreement earlier this year, leaving ESPN to stop broadcasting MLB games following the 2025 campaign. It has long seemed likely that the commi sioners office has its sights set on a more that MLB.tv currently offers, and Manfred reiterated his desire to  get out of the busine s of blackouts  going forward.  None of that is exactly new information, but one thing Manfred did note is that fans in Japan may see a change in how they acce s MLB games when the leagues broadcasting deals expire after 2028. Manfred suggested to Schmidt that while the league has previously sold its broadcasting rights in Japan to Japanese broadcasting companies, that may no longer be the case in 2029 and beyond. Instead, Manfred suggested that the leagues international broadcasting rights, including those for Japan, could be sold to an international streaming company.  I think [Japan] is vitally important from a busine s perspective,  Manfred told Schmidt.  When you can say to a streaming company, I have the ability to deliver an audience of 25 million people in Japan for a game, theyre interested.  That would be a major change in the status quo for fans in Japan but could also result in a substantial windfall for the league, allowing them to leverage the leagues rapidly growing fanbase in Japan financially in a more impactful way. Manfred said as much during the interview, suggesting to Schmidt that the value of those broadcasting rights in the streaming market is  way more significant  than the value the league would be able to extract by continuing to sell to traditional broadcasters in Japan.  Its against that backdrop of upcoming potential streaming deals, both domestic and international, that the next round of collective bargaining between the league and the MLB Players A sociation will occur. The current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in December of 2026, and while thats still more than 18 months away the po sibility of another lockout after one disrupted the 2021-22 offseason during the most recent CBA negotiations has been widely discu sed. Just last month, MLBPA chief Tony Clark that the players a sociation expects a lockout following the 2025 season, and recent discontent among fans regarding the disparity in spending between the leagues top teams and those at the bottom has teed up a potential fight over the clubs economic system.  The league has frequently pushed for a salary cap over the years, even as the MLBPA has always considered the idea a complete non-starter. While Manfred did not discu s the idea of a cap directly in his interview with Schmidt, he did make clear that he is  cognizant  of and  sympathetic  to fan frustrations regarding the disparity in spending among MLB clubs. He went on to note that teams that are outspent by the top teams can overcome that disparity, as seen in the past succe ses of smaller-market clubs like the Brewers and Guardians, though he suggested that the perception of inevitability surrounding top spenders like the Dodgers and Mets can impact ticket sales for smaller clubs.  The outcome result is not perfectly correlated with the spending,  Manfred told Schmidt,  But the fact of the matter is the inability or the constant failure to spend affects the busine s in a way thats bad for it.  Manfred went on to agree  one hundred percent  with Schmidt when asked if the disparity in spending  is a ma sive problem  that the league needs to addre s. MLBTR readership clearly agrees, as a poll from back in January found that two-thirds of respondents want a salary cap to be instituted in the next round of CBA negotiations, while just over half of respondents went as far as to suggest they would be willing to lose the entirety of the 2027 campaign if it meant that a salary cap would be put into place.  It should be noted that while a salary cap is the most often discu sed way to reduce payroll disparity, its far from the only method. Many smaller market clubs do not spend in a way thats commensurate with the revenue sharing dollars they receive. The MLBPA has filed grievances against the Pirates, Rays, Athletics, and Marlins in the past over just that i sue, and the As needed to spend aggre sively this winter in order to get in line and avoid an additional grievance. The Marlins, meanwhile, are risking a grievances by going into the 2025 season with a projected payroll of just under $70MM according to , and thats a figure that could drop further if a pricey veteran like Sandy Alcantara gets dealt at some point this season.  The po sibility of a salary cap wont be the only thing discu sed during this next round of CBA negotiations, however, and Manfreds comments to Schmidt could give the public a window into some other i sues that could be discu sed. Expansion has been covered in past agreements and remains something Manfred has an eye toward, as the commi sioner told Schmidt that he hopes to have the cities selected by the time his final term as commi sioner ends in 2029. Aside from that, a major topic of discu sion in recent years has been how to mitigate pitcher injuries. As Manfred noted to Schmidt, the incentives for both players and teams as things stand are for both to pursue velocity and spin rate over effectivene s.  That analytics have shown premium stuff to be extremely valuable cannot be debated, and its true that teams have increasingly rewarded players with big strikeout numbers, high velocity, and impre sive spin rates that all could correlate with an increased risk of injury. A notable point Manfred made in his interview with Schmidt, however, was that the guaranteed contracts offered in baseball skew player incentives away towards maximizing effectivene s rather than staying healthy.  From a competitive perspective, its absolutely clear to young people that we pay for velocity and spin rate,  Manfred told Schmidt.  So you get injured and they fix you up and you go right back and you do it again. Under our system, because its basically all guaranteed money, you get paid. So the incentives there that apply on the athlete are really misdirected. They actually encourage behavior that increases injuries.  While Manfred did not outright suggest that the guaranteed nature of free agent contracts in MLB could be up for debate during this next round of CBA negotiations, that the commi sioner brought it up when discu sing the need to  alter incentives  for players and clubs in order to keep pitchers healthy is very notable. Some sports leagues such as the NFL allow contracts that arent fully guaranteed, meaning the club may not nece sarily have to pay the player in event of injury, but thats not the case in MLB and would of course need to be collectively bargained with the MLBPA. Much like a salary cap, that seems very likely to be a nonstarter with the union.  One other notable item that Manfred suggested more directly could be part of the next round of CBA negotiations is the automated ball-strike system. ABS was introduced to big league Spring Training games this year as a challenge system, which was mostly viewed as a succe s around the league. Thats led to plenty of interest in ABS being adopted in regular season games, and Manfred suggested to Schmidt that its arrival could come as soon as 2026. With that being said, Manfred noted he was  uncertain  of that because the union would have to approve it for the 2026 season and suggested that  it would not be shocking  if the union pushed for the specifics of ABS to be resolved during the next round of CBA negotiations after the 2026 season.  On the topic of ABS, Manfred noted that the Umpires union (with which the po sible implementation of ABS has already been collectively bargained) actually preferred fully automated ball-strike calls as opposed the challenge system used in Spring Training. Manfred noted that players have expre sed a preference for the challenge system, in part to protect players who have made a career out of elite pitch-framing abilities from having their skills devalued  Joe Snively Jersey