“I never thought about being the commissioner” - Rob Manfred on his journey from labor lawyer to reshaping baseball’s landscape

Rob Manfred has been, though at times controversial, the MLB commissioner since 2015. He's been instrumental in some of the biggest changes to the sport. He started his work as a labor lawyer and eventually worked his way up, but that wasn't intentional.

Manfred never wanted to be commissioner and he made sure to let everyone know that he didn't make moves with that goal in mind via The Athletic.

“I never thought about being the commissioner and I never did one damn thing that was purposely designed to position myself to be commissioner,” Manfred said.

Bud Selig, the commissioner Manfred succeeded, added that there was no plan in place for Manfred to take his role forward. He said:

“When one says, ‘Well, was he being groomed?’ Well, it turned out that his experience was a help to him and to us. It’s also true that he and I never talked about it. It was more action, it was more the things that we did, why we did ‘em, and how we did ‘em. So if you said, ‘Who has that kind of experience?’ He had it.”

Manfred has done a lot of work in his life that positioned him to be the best commissioner moving forward in Selig's eyes. However, he didn't groom him to be the next leader and there was a fair process to elect him among his peers.

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Former commissioner details relationship with Rob Manfred

Rob Manfred and Bud Selig had a relationship before the former replaced Selig as MLB commissioner ahead of the 2015 MLB season. They reportedly had a strong relationship before the transition.

Bud Selig supported Rob Manfred (Imagn)

Selig said via The Athletic:

“From the beginning, Rob and I not only hit it off, but are like-minded on many subjects. As any chief executive will tell you, you develop confidence in somebody after they’ve successfully done other things right.”

The relationship allowed Selig to leave with full confidence that baseball was in good hands. In the decade since, Manfred has enacted several changes like the pitch clock, bigger bases and a universal DH.