Elephant Rumblings: Historic rule changes could be Manfred’s legacy

Happy Wednesday, Athletics Nation!

We’re all big fans of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred around here, right?

No, you say?

My bad.

Most of us see Manfred as a servant of greedy club owners who assail players’ interests through hardball tactics like the 2021-22 lockout that left us wondering if we’d even get a full season last year. Neither did The Commish generate a lot of goodwill when he essentially let the Astros off the hook for technology-assisted sign stealing during Houston’s 2017 championship season.

More importantly to us A’s fans, he’s seen as an ally of John Fisher, willing to pressure and bully the City of Oakland with relocation threats to help the A’s owner extract as much taxpayer…