If Rob Manfred has any major regrets about his tenure as Major League Baseball commissioner, they center around the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
In a sit-down interview with “Time” magazine last month, Manfred said there are some decisions over his eight-year reign he’d like to have back, starting with the time he referred to the Commissioner’s Trophy as a “piece of metal ” in trying to explain why MLB didn’t need to take away the Astros’ 2017 title.
“I mean, if I could take back the rather flip comment I made about the World Series trophy at one time, I’d take that one back,” Manfred said. “There have been times, particularly in times of pressure, when I look back, taking a little more time might have led to a different outcome.”
In addition, he questioned his decision not to punish players in exchange for revealing what they knew about the Astros’ scheme.
“I’m not sure that I would have approached it with giving players immunity. Once we gave players immunity, it puts you in a box as to what exactly you were going to do in terms of punishment,” Manfred said. “I might have gone about the investigative process without that grant of immunity and see where it takes us. Starting with, I’m not going to punish anybody, maybe not my best decision ever.”
No players were disciplined as a result of the scandal, but then-Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch were fired, and retired player Carlos Beltran had his offer to become manager of the New York Mets rescinded as a result of their involvement.
Rob Manfred addresses other hot MLB topics
In the interview, Manfred also tackled several other subjects that have been in the news recently.
— On an increase in pitcher injuries this season: “It’s very hard to isolate a single factor. But we’re not seeing anything in the data that leads us to believe that the pitch clock is related to increased injuries. We take that issue really seriously. At the end of the day, you have to balance what is maybe a risk for a few players against what’s best for the game and what’s best for our fans.”
— On the possibility of so-called “robot umps” in the majors: “(W)e went down the path of the automated strike zone for the simple reason that we thought if we got it right all the time, if we could get the technology to that point, that would be a benefit to the game. It’s always better to be right than wrong. The technology is actually amazingly accurate.”
— On MLB taking over local broadcasts of teams whose contracts are in limbo, as it has this year with the San Diego Padres: “Well, I think that it’s clear that next year, we’ll have at least two teams where we’ll be supporting their local media efforts. (Colorado and Pittsburgh.) The principal reason that you have not seen any disruption in local broadcasts is the fact that we’ve made clear to the people who currently control the rights that if they don’t broadcast, we will step in and make sure that our fans are served. From a digital perspective, we do every game already, it’s a question of flipping a switch so that it’s available in-market as opposed to just outside the market.”
— On the A’s situation in Oakland: “[Team owner] John Fisher devoted the better part of a decade, and a willingness to put up the largest private financing for a baseball stadium ever, and still couldn’t get a deal done. At some point, you need to find an alternative. I don’t like that idea. I would have preferred in some ways for it to have worked out in Oakland. But at some point, you have to admit that it’s not going to get done and find an alternative that’s better for the game.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB commissioner expresses regrets over how he handled the Astros scandal