Addressing Giants employees’ questions, Manfred talks up A’s
Rob Manfred made one of his strongest statements on his desire to keep the A’s in Oakland, and it took a Giants employee’s question to elicit the response.
The commissioner was at Thursday’s Giants-Padres game and beforehand addressed hundreds of team employees who were sitting in seats behind the Giants’ dugout.
In a Q&A, employees asked about the collective bargaining agreement, All-Star voting and the possibility of discounts for guest-service workers.
Selig never seemed thrilled with the A’s staying in Oakland, and Manfred’s stance is refreshing for East Bay baseball fans even though no ballpark plan is in place.
“For decades, baseball has had a very fundamental policy about franchises staying in the cities in which they’re located,” Manfred said in a news conference after meeting with Giants employees.
[...] policy, my fundamental goal is to help the A’s get a new facility, which they desperately need in Oakland.
“The A’s preference is for the Coliseum site, and I don’t see the process as one whereby football gets to pick and baseball should be Plan B,” Manfred said.
Manfred recalled the Giants had a similar long road to building a ballpark and added, “I do believe there is being genuine progress made towards getting something done in Oakland.”
Manfred didn’t elaborate on any progress but certainly turned the page on San Jose, which he reminded his audience would require a three-quarters vote from major-league owners to overturn the Giants’ territorial rights in the area.
General manager Bobby Evans said the Giants are open to trades to improve their depth, but he played down the need for an everyday player or starting pitcher because the injured players all eventually are due back, starting with pitchers Matt Cain and Jake Peavy and eventually including outfielders Hunter Pence and Nori Aoki.
If the A’s produced bobbleheads of Josh Donaldson’s over-the-tarp catch in Oakland, the Blue Jays need to make statuettes of the third baseman leaping several rows into the crowd for a remarkable catch.
Manfred said he’s fine with separate DH rules in each league (“It’s something that people debate in bars all over America, and when people are talking about baseball, it’s a good thing”) as well as with the All-Star Game determining home-field advantage for the World Series.