Background and career
Robert Dean Manfred Jr. (born September 28, 1958) is an American lawyer and business executive who is serving as the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as MLB's chief operating officer. Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner on January 25, 2015. Manfred's tenure has seen a number of rule changes to the sport, including the introduction of the pitch clock and ghost runner rule. He has also overseen the expansion of the World Baseball Classic, MLB's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal.
Manfred was born on September 28, 1958, in Rome, New York. As a child, he played tennis, golf and baseball, opting to focus on tennis by his eighth grade year, which he continued to play through college at Le Moyne. He attended Rome Free Academy and graduated in 1976. Manfred enrolled at Le Moyne College where he played tennis for the Dolphins for two seasons. In 1978, he transferred to Cornell University. He earned his Bachelor of Science from Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1980 and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1983, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Manfred clerked for Judge Joseph L. Tauro of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1983 to 1984. He then joined the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he worked on labor and employment law.
In 1987, Manfred began working with Major League Baseball (MLB) during collective bargaining. Following the 1994–95 MLB strike, he worked for the owners as a labor lawyer on their negotiating committee, eventually taking a lead position. He joined MLB on a full-time basis in 1998, serving as the Executive Vice President of Economics and League Affairs. Manfred negotiated MLB's first drug testing agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) in 2002, and represented MLB in negotiations with the MLBPA when forming new collective bargaining agreements in 2002, 2006 and 2011. In 2013, Manfred led MLB's investigation of the Biogenesis scandal. At the end of the 2013 season, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig promoted Manfred to chief operating officer of MLB. The position had been vacant since Bob DuPuy resigned in 2010. Following the announcement of Selig's retirement, effective after the 2014 season, Manfred became a finalist to succeed him as Commissioner. On August 14, 2014, MLB owners elected Manfred to succeed Selig, beating Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and MLB executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan. Manfred assumed office on January 25, 2015. He stated that his primary goals as commissioner were youth outreach, embracing technology, quickening the pace of play, strengthening player relations, and creating a more unified business operation. As commissioner, Manfred instituted rules before the start of the 2015 season to address the pace of play, including having batters remain in the batter's box and the installation of time clocks to limit the time spent around commercial breaks. For the 2017 season, no-pitch intentional walks were approved in MLB for the first time. The first Little League Classic was also played in August 2017, which received widespread praise. Before the 2018 season, Manfred introduced more rule changes to affect the pace of play, including reducing the time in commercial breaks and limiting player visits to the pitcher's mound. He has also advocated for expansion franchises, listing Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, Montreal, and Vancouver as possible locations for new teams. On November 15, 2018, the owners extended Manfred's contract through the 2024 season. On July 26, 2023, his contract was extended through the 2028 season. In February 2024, Manfred said that he would step down when his contract expires in January 2029.
In 2021, Manfred oversaw the beginning of the league's push toward streaming by placing games exclusively on Amazon Prime; while MLB-TV had offered a chance to stream live games since 2002, in 2021 the New York Yankees became the first team to offer certain broadcasts exclusively on Prime. In May 2022, Peacock began airing a slate of games on Sunday mornings. Dubbed "MLB Sunday Leadoff", the games air starting at 11:30 or Noon Eastern Time and due to television rights, the Sunday morning game is offered in an exclusive window. As a result, all afternoon games were pushed back from 1:00 starts to 1:30. In February 2025, the MLB opted out of its longstanding broadcast deal with ESPN to televise Sunday Night Baseball, ending a 35-year partnership with the network due to what league claimed was "a scaling back of coverage" by ESPN and demand for a reduction in rights fees. This includes the Home Run Derby and the Wild Card Series. The Sunday Night games moved to NBC, the first games on NBC in 25 years, while the Home Run Derby moved to Netflix.
Starting in 2022, Manfred revived the practice of having "legend(s) picks" to the All-Star Game, recognizing players who were not voted into the game by fans or selected by managers, but who the league feels are deserving of special recognition. In 2025, Manfred returned to the practice of having the All Star players wearing their teams' jerseys instead of custom "American League" or "National League" jerseys, which had been the case since 2021.
In 2020, Manfred led an investigation that found that the Houston Astros had used illegal methods to steal signs during the 2017 season, in which they won the World Series, as well as part of the 2018 season. Manfred fined the team $5 million, the maximum allowed by the MLB constitution, and revoked their first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. Astros manager A. J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were each suspended for the entire 2020 season, including the playoffs. No Astros players were punished because they received immunity in exchange for their cooperation in the investigation. Manfred was widely criticized for his handling of the situation. In an interview with ESPN, he defended his decision not to discipline players involved with the scandal, arguing that the MLBPA would not accept it. He also refused to strip the Astros of their 2017 World Series title because "It has never happened in baseball" and that he believed "that precedent happens and when you deviate from that, you have to have a very good reason." During this Manfred used the phrase "hunk of metal" to describe the Commissioner's Trophy. After many fans and players pushed back to the description, Manfred issued an apology, stating his intent was to make "a rhetorical point". In June 2023, Manfred reflected on his decision to grant Astros players immunity and referred to it as "maybe not my best decision ever."
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
