When you look at baseball right now, this is a sport in trouble. No, it is not in trouble because of any of the oft publicized and overblown issues like “pace of play.” Baseball is in trouble because years of labor peace are at risk, and players like Adam Wainwright and talking strike quite publicly because of how the owners have been treating free agency and other issues. Making matters even worse is Rob Manfred being Rob Manfred.

Addressing the media yesterday, he had the temerity to put the blame on the agents for current free agency hold-up saying, “Do I wish, if I had my way, that Scott Boras or Dan Lozano — whatever agent — would find a way to make a deal with some club sooner rather than later?”

As for making that deal, Boras would disingenuously say this is the result of the way teams now analyze and negotiate with players. He would even go so far as to tell the players to just reap what they sow saying, “I think it’s important to remember that the Major League Baseball Players Association has always wanted a market-based system, and markets change, particularly when the institution around those markets change.”

Looking at it, Manfred is right things have changed. They must have when not every team is on two 26 year old future Hall of Famers. However, it is more than that.

As detailed by Forbes, MLB has yet again had record revenues, which does not included the nearly $3 billion sale of BAM to Disney. What is incredible to contemplate is there is even more money on the horizon, and that’s even with the hand-wringing over the decline in attendance.

Now, consider for a moment, as ESPN reported MLB payrolls actually went down last year. Now, suspensions were part of it, but another part of it is the luxury tax has not been increased in proportion to league revenues. This is important because increasingly teams are using the luxury tax as a de facto cap.

Now, the entire reason there is a luxury tax as well as other similar spending and competitive balance measures is supposedly to create an even playing field. The concept is if you permit the Yankees to spend all they could spend, they would leave a team like the Rays in the dust. That’s a concept Rob Manfred now denies saying, “I reject the notion that payroll is a good measure for how much a team is trying or how successful that team is going to be.”

So, to get this right. MLB has insisted on a luxury tax to keep things even, and then their Commissioner says it is not a measure of how good a team will be. Justin Verlander jumped in with the obvious response:

Agreed… finally we’re on the same page! Awesome! Removal of the luxury tax it is. https://t.co/Omy0SaXZ1z

— Justin Verlander (@JustinVerlander) February 18, 2019

Overall, Manfred stood up and blamed the players and their agents while simultaneously citing one of the things the owners fought long and hard for have absolutely nothing to do with the success of teams on the field. Remember, he “rejects the notion.” Yet, we know someone the owners won’t take that off the table during the next CBA negotiation.

Through all of that, Manfred would then say, “I hate the negativity that surrounds the coverage of the sport right now.”

He hates it so much he points fingers. Oh and by they way, Manfred is pushing a pitch clock because he does not like the pace of the game right now. He thinks it needs to move faster to be more watchable. Somehow, he doesn’t think his repeated negative comments on the pace of play plays any part in promoting negativity surrounding the sport