Major League Baseball chief operating officer Rob Manfred was elected on Thursday to replace retiring commissioner Bud Selig, Jon Heyman has reported.
Rob Manfred voted next MLB commissioner
Manfred will become MLB’s 10th commissioner.
H.Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports
The final vote of baseball owners was 30-0 in favor of Manfred, well over the required 75 percent of votes (23) required to become Selig’s successor, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
Manfred, fellow MLB executive Tim Brosnan and Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner were the three candidates identified by the seven-person Succession Committee formed in May. In Thursday's meeting, Brosnan rapidly dropped out, but a hardcore group of Werner supporters apparently held out even after the latter had withdrawn, leaving Manfred one vote short through at least two ballots.
“The seven-member Succession Committee, which was named on May 15th and has been chaired with distinction by Bill DeWitt, has accomplished this goal while working independently to get to the point we are today,” Selig said in a statement released Aug. 8. “I respect the ownership of our 30 franchises and have complete faith that the process will produce an individual that all in Baseball will be eager to support.”
After serving as the league’s outside counsel during the 1994-95 strike, Manfred was hired full time by MLB in 1998 as the executive vice president of economics and league affairs. He was promoted to his current position at the end of the 2013 season.
Selig was voted as the ninth MLB commissioner on July 9, 1998, almost six years after he assumed control of the league on an interim basis following the resignation of Fay Vincent. Selig’s 16-plus-year tenure ranks behind only the league’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who served for 24 years before passing away in 1944.
“Without fanfare or glory, Rob has assembled a long and proven record of helping the game excel in fundamental ways. He combines great intellect and forward-thinking creativity with unwavering respect for the contributions of the game’s many constituents,” DeWitt said in a statement. “The owners wholeheartedly support Rob’s vision for the future of the National Pastime, and we are proud that he will succeed Commissioner Selig in January.”
On Sept. 26, 2013, Selig announced his intention to retire at the end of his current term, which expires on Jan. 24, 2015.
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