The next Major League Baseball commissioner has not been selected yet, but the time is nearing. Thursday’s first round of voting produced 22 votes for Rob Manfred and just eight for his sole competition, Tom Werner, leaving Manfred one vote short of the 75 percent threshold he needs to become Bud Selig’s successor. CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman originally reported the figures.
Rob Manfred 1 vote shy of becoming next MLB commissioner (Update)
He’ll likely get his vote in a later round, so we probably know who the next commish is already.
Stephen Dunn
In essence, Rob Manfred, the current Chief Operating Officer for Major League Baseball, will be the next commissioner unless something drastic and unexpected occurs between the time you read this and the conclusion of the second round of voting. Even with Tim Brosnan stepping out of the race, turning this into a two-candidate match-up where Brosnan’s support supposedly went to Werner, Manfred has a massive lead. All it will take is convincing one owner out of eight to switch from Werner and his television background to Manfred and his long-time work in the commissioner’s office under Selig.
How long it will take to convince that single owner is unknown, but if the cookies they’re wheeling into the meeting are gross, maybe we won’t have to wait long at all.
Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times reports that Werner is out and the owners’ meeting is now a straight up and down vote on Manfred or a not-Manfred to be named later:
gap narrowing 4 manfred. he got 22 votes in 1st ballot. werner got 8. manfred needs 23 to clinch. now an up and down vote on manfred
— Michael S. Schmidt (@MichaelSSchmidt) August 14, 2014 One vote later, the owners are back where they started. Though Werner is out, Manfred still has to convert one holdout to his cause:
im hearing second vote on manfred was 22 8 .. again one shy of 23 needed to win
— Michael S. Schmidt (@MichaelSSchmidt) August 14, 2014 Stay tuned as we all await white smoke over the Sistine Chapel announcing the election of Major League Baseball's new head of state.
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