{"id":596141,"date":"2026-02-27T13:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/596141\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:54:23","slug":"what-would-you-do-as-mlb-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/596141\/","title":{"rendered":"What would you do as MLB commissioner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently finished this new book<\/a> from Jane Leavy\u2014previous biographer of the likes of<\/a> Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, & Babe Ruth. As baseball nonfiction tomes go, I found it\u2014okay. A LOT of snark, but if you can handle that you\u2019ll enjoy it even more than I did.<\/p>\n

Make Me Commissioner\u2019s basic premise is Leavy analyzing what seems to be holding MLB back at the moment compared to its previous heydays<\/a>. The usual topics of analytics, rule changes, youth specialization, marketing<\/a>, and economic structure are all present and accounted for. The author may be a tad late to the party for die-hard hardballers, but in the end comes to some cogent conclusions.<\/p>\n

This got me thinking: what would I do if given the MLB commissionership (besides of course the obvious eviction of The Pohlad Bunch<\/a> for my hometown residents)? I think my top three ideas would look something like this\u2026<\/p>\n

Decry #1: Fix\u2014or at least work on\u2014competitive balance<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The best team $$$ could\u2014and did\u2014buy. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Right now, MLB is as out-of-whack economically as it has been since the late-1990s. Every offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers & New York Mets\u2014and maybe a few other clubs here and there\u2014load up on the high-octane free agent talent<\/a> while the rest of the league picks through the scrap heap. The luxury tax and cable TV contracts held the competitive balance line as long as they could\u2014but no more.<\/p>\n

For as nice of a bounce-back as baseball has had the last few years, this is a ticking time bomb threatening to destroy hope in most markets before Opening Day dawns. Put in a salary cap to appease the owners and institute a salary floor to make sure those same owners don\u2019t just turtle up<\/a>. But something needs to be done, even if\u2014as much as I hate to say it\u2014it means games lost in 2027.<\/p>\n

Decry #2: Make SP matter again<\/p>\n

Perhaps the idea I most agreed with Leavy on was the notion that \u201cbaseball used to tell a story\u201d. The \u201chook\u201d of the story was the starting pitcher\u2014but now that position is more sacrifice-able pawn than endgame piece.<\/p>\n

\"Baseball<\/a><\/p>\n

Baseball is better when SPs lead the way. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

With hurlers on strict pitch counts to prevent injuries\u2014even that hasn\u2019t made much of a dent<\/a>\u2014and going max-effort on every throw, SP-as-focal-point of any given contest has faded away in favor of bullpen churn-and-burn. No doubt the statistically-significant way to gain an edge\u2014but also dampening the overall aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Gradually shrinking P roster spots? Losing the DH when the SP is removed? I\u2019m not sure what the answer is, but if I\u2019m commish I\u2019m working on it right now.<\/p>\n

Decry #3: Give a little away for free<\/p>\n

From the early-00s to about 2022, TV contracts kept MLB afloat financially. Sure, there were still disparities even within that structure, but the Twins (or other small-market owners) were allowed the opportunity to re-invest that yearly big check without a ton of risk. Cord-cutting and streaming killed all that.<\/p>\n

I like the new Sunday Night Baseball partnership with NBC<\/a>\u2014that\u2019s a good first step. But MLB could go further\u2014especially in-market. Why not put all Saturday\/Sunday games on over-the-air (not cable\/streaming) local TV? Keep them all on the MLB TV plans too, but entice more subscriptions by giving away some product for free.<\/p>\n

MLB needs every new pair of eyeballs\u2014especially the young ones\u2014to continuing thriving. The on-field product has improved fairly substantially<\/a> in the last 2-3 years\u2014now more people need to be able to see it.<\/p>\n

\"Free<\/a><\/p>\n

Free TV! (Undated photograph)<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to give the impression that MLB is a flailing endeavor. But there are clearly some areas that need work in order to preserve its integrity for future generations.<\/p>\n

If you found your name taped over Rob Manfred\u2019s at MLB headquarters, what would you focus on?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I recently finished this new book from Jane Leavy\u2014previous biographer of the likes of Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,28109,822,60,3190,4,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-596141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-book-club","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-twins","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116142938581945675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}