MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Questions Padres Sustainability

Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort questioned the San Diego Padres spending earlier this offseason and now MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has joined the party. He spoke to the media today and gave his thoughts on Peter Seidler’s spending.

“I think that the investment that the club has made in talent has allowed them to grow their revenue to the point that they will be a payor under the revenue sharing system this year,” Manfred said according to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin.

“The trick for smaller markets has always been sustainability. Hats off to Peter Seidler. He’s made a massive financial commitment, personally, to make this all happen. And the question becomes, how long can you continue to do that? And what happens when you have to go through a rebuild? But they have done a really, really good job of capitalizing on their talent to drive their revenue.”

I applaud Manfred for praising Seidler but if he wants more teams to try harder to win—like San Diego’s doing—it doesn’t make sense for him to question the sustainability of the Padres spending. He should’ve used the opportunity to only praise the Padres, as he did, and then say something like ‘I wish more teams would be like the Padres and try harder to win by making a greater financial commitment to the roster’.

Teams such as the Oakland Athletics and Colorado Rockies are hurting the game because they aren’t trying their hardest to put together a winning roster. If more teams were being run like how the Padres are being run, then there would be more cities excited about their team.