In 2016, Commissioner Rob Manfred established Major League Baseball’s Diversity Pipeline Program initiative to identify and develop front-office candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.
This past March, without prior announcement, MLB removed that program’s website. It also altered its “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” webpage, removing the title and scrubbing the word “diversity,” as initially noticed by Craig Calcaterra.
A day later, MLB released a statement, saying, “Our values on diversity remain unchanged. We are in the process of evaluating our programs for any modifications to eligibility criteria that are needed to ensure our programs are compliant with federal law as they continue forward.”
The removals came at a specific time when President Donald Trump’s administration had been pushing hard for companies to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. And in the months since, MLB has also seemingly taken other steps to appease Trump, such as rescinding Pete Rose’s ineligibility for the Hall of Fame (which Trump had called for) and downplaying the diversity and racial impact of Jackie Robinson on Jackie Robinson Day, which came weeks after his military legacy was temporarily removed from the Department of Defense’s website and his biography was flagged for removal from the Naval Academy library.
Earlier this year, Manfred stated on several occasions that while MLB’s values haven’t changed, the organization is making these changes in line with current laws. However, his thoughts on the matter have evolved somewhat. Manfred’s comments during All-Star Weekend struck a slightly different tone.
in this same audio, Manfred was asked why the diversity pipeline was scrubbed from MLB’s website. this was his answer:
— jen ramos eisen 🇵🇭 (@jenramose.online) July 21, 2025 at 9:29 AM
“The diversity pipeline, let me say it this way,” he said in an audio recording journalist Jen Ramos Eisen obtained of Manfred speaking with the BBWAA last week. “There were certain aspects of some of our programs that were very explicitly race-based and/or gender-based. We know because there were public comments to the effect that people in Washington were aware of that and we felt it was important to recast our programs in a way to make sure that we can continue on with our programs, to continue to pursue the values that we have always adhered to without tripping what could be legal problems that would interfere with that process.”
“You know, that’s a judgment, my judgment. At the end of the day, I think I made the right one.”
A basic reading of that quote suggests that Manfred doesn’t understand what values are. The general definition for values is the beliefs one has, especially about what is right and wrong and what is most important in life. Taking the commissioner at his word, it sounds as though MLB’s values are actually very malleable and can change depending on which way the wind blows. (For instance, while he seems to chide race-based and gender-based programs now, he gladly touted MLB’s focus on them in 2015.)
It’s that, or his and MLB’s values actually more closely align with those of Trump’s, which is how it appears when you consider the league’s actions rather than its words.