Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday that the league has no plans to vacate the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox World Series titles in the wake of each teams' electronic sign-stealing scandals.
Manfred appeared on Fox Business on Wednesday -- his first interview since issuing penalties against the Astros -- where he was asked about the Los Angeles City Council's measure to ask MLB for the Dodgers to be awarded both the 2017, 2018 World Series titles.
"Well, we haven't concluded our investigation with the Red Sox so it's a little hard to take the trophy away from somebody who hasn't yet been found to do something wrong," Manfred said. "We don't know what the outcome of that's going to be. The second flaw is whatever the impact of the sign-stealing was, it could've changed who was in the World Series. Absolutely unclear that the Dodgers would've been the World Series champion.
"I think there's a long tradition in baseball of not trying to change what happened. I think the answer from our prospective is to be transparent about what the investigation showed, and let our fans make their own decision about what happened."
After a months-long investigation, the league released a nine-age report summarizing the Astros' illegal use of high-tech sign-stealing. The investigation into the 2018 Red Sox is currently ongoing.
The fall out from the league's report and subsequent punishment resulted in three separate MLB managers losing their jobs. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and Astros manager A.J. Hinch were each suspended one year from baseball, and then fired by Astros owner Jim Crane. Red Sox manager Alex Cora parted ways with the club and Mets manager Carlos Beltran was out before even managing a single game.
"I think that four really accomplished baseball people lost their jobs over this," Manfred said. "Nobody likes to see that happen, but I do think it's the kind of message that will serve as a deterrent for this behavior going forward.
"In terms of [MLB's] continuing investigation, we have an open investigation on the Red Sox. What I've said to the owners is if I have some credible evidence that any other team was involved, they will be investigated with same thoroughness that we investigated the Astros."
