This has been a major story since the All Star break. It all began when MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made some strange comments to USA Today:
‘Mike has made decisions on what he wants to do, doesn’t want to do, how he wants to spend his free time or not spend his free time,’ Manfred said in the hours before MLB’s All-Star Game at Nationals Park. ‘I think we could help him make his brand very big.
‘But he has to make a decision to engage. It takes time and effort.’”
The context of that quote is not immediately clear, but what most people gathered from it was that baseball’s commissioner believes the game’s best player is not putting enough effort into expanding The Brand.