Rob Manfred ‘sorry’ to A fans for team move, says owner John Fisher not to blame

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The news that the Oakland Athletics are likely to move to Las Vegas is still brand new, and many A fans are still (and will remain) deeply hurt by what looks like a naked cash grab from the notoriously cheap owner of the club. team, John Fisher. But do not worry ! Commissioner Rob Manfred is there to salt all those fresh, bleeding wounds.

Speaking to The Associated Press sportswriters on Monday, Manfred took a full millisecond to express his regret about the A’s move before immediately defending Fisher and saying he shouldn’t be blamed for anything.

I’m sorry for the Oakland fans. Really, Manfred said via the AP. But for the city of Oakland, pointing the finger at John Fisher is not fair.

We’ve shown incredible commitment to Oakland fans by exhausting every opportunity we can to try and get something done in Oakland, he added. Unfortunately, the government does not seem to have the will to do so.

Instead of blaming Fisher for choosing to stop negotiating with the city of Oakland, Manfred instead believes the Oakland city government is responsible for not giving Fisher, the billionaire team owner sporty, whatever he wanted. Compare that to Vegas, where the A’s are promised half a billion Nevada State dollars for their new ballpark.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred believes the city of Oakland is to blame for the A’s move, not team owner John Fisher. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Manfred says moving will make A’s more ‘competitive’

Apparently, a new stadium and a willing government investor are enough to fix a franchise that has had deep, deep competitive issues for decades.

For me, everything should be positive competitively, added Manfred. You have some really smart people for baseball operations. You have owners who want to win, and I think Las Vegas will present a real opportunity for increased revenue. So I think you’re going to have a good product.

Unless the A’s find new owners when they move to Las Vegas, it’s never really been proven that Fisher is an owner who wants to win. He’s a money-loving owner (like all sports team owners), which is why he buys a giant piece of land in Vegas. There will be a stadium there, but theoretically there will also be restaurants, hotels, cinemas, shops and other things that bring money to landowners.

But when it comes to A’s competitiveness, who knows what Manfred is talking about. The A’s have never in their entire history had a payroll over $100 million. Fisher never invested enough money in the team to make it sustainably competitive. Instead, general manager Dave Kaval occasionally stumbles upon a good team after another year of having to scrape the bottom of the free agent basket. They’ve traded in nearly every star they’ve ever had for minor league lottery tickets that sometimes net them a great player…which they’ll trade as soon as they have to pay him what he’s worth. They even traded their manager to the San Diego Padres after the 2021 season!

But according to Manfred, a permanent, expensive and unnecessary city change will cure the A’s of all the competitive problems they endured under Fisher. Unless the Vegas stadium deal requires Fisher to undergo a “Young Frankenstein” style brain transplant before he begins, no one will believe him until they see him.

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