Rob Manfred, who can’t properly market his sport, is calling for MLB expansion

Rob Manfred rattled off a list of cities he’d like to see the MLB expand to in the near future, despite not being able to market his biggest star.

There was a lot to take away from the MLB All-Star festivities in Washington this week. From Bryce Harper’s iconic Home Run Derby to the heroics of Alex Bregman in the All-Star Game, it’s easy to gloss over the real story.

Rob Manfred did the best player in baseball dirty, seemingly without care. The commissioner of baseball called out Mike Trout for not being able to market himself when asked why he’s not a bigger superstar.

Not being able to a) see the problem with having one of the world’s greatest athletes that no one watches and b) thinking the solution to that problem is to blame Trout is what makes Manfred’s next declaration so laughably problematic.

Manfred publicly came out in support of expanding baseball to 32 teams, listing off markets such as Portland and Montreal as places he’d like to see an MLB franchise someday soon.

"“Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville in the United States, certainly Montreal, maybe Vancouver, in Canada. We think there’s places in Mexico we could go over the long haul.”"

Oh, Robert.

The idea of expansion in baseball isn’t the problem here. We just watched hockey — a sport arguably more niche — expand to a city where there’s no ice and organically generated a loyal fanbase. Expanding to new markets and widening the horizon is great, in theory.

What’s so laughable about the suggestion is the timing and context. Yes, Montreal would welcome a baseball team back with open arms. No, based on literally everything, the league would not do a good job marketing this.

Baseball is archaic in its approach to how things work in the digital landscape. No sport clings to ideals from a half-century ago tighter than baseball. The past has been fetishized to such a degree that no one knows what the future looks like.  Whether accidental or as a result of leaning all the way into the romanticization of the way the game used to be, baseball has been on a mission to snuff out even the smallest example of individualism or self-expression. In a generation of short attention spans and fast flowing news cycles, baseball’s refusal to allow highlights to be shared on social media the way they are with basketball, has a direct correlation to people not caring about the sport.  It’s such a simple fix, but fits with baseball being extremely allergic to change.

None of that is Mike Trout’s fault. If we can lean on the ‘baseball is a business’ cliche to defend things behind the scenes, then it’s perfeclty fair to say the poor marketing of the sport is bad business by the people who run the show.

The idea that Manfred can eviscerate the best player in his league for not being visible enough in a hard-to-watch market, and then suggest building new markets, is goofy amounts of stupid. It also points directly to baseball’s inability to self-identify problems and fix them for the greater good of itself.