Alex Rodriguez credits Rob Manfred for saving baseball: He ‘belongs in Cooperstown’

Alex Rodriguez believes Rob Manfred, the Major League Baseball commissioner who can’t make a public appearance without being booed mercilessly, deserves to be in Cooperstown.

Rodriguez joined Colin Cowherd’s Fox Sports Radio and FS1 show Tuesday afternoon ahead of the 2025 MLB All-Star Game, which airs on Fox. And during the appearance, Cowherd gave Manfred credit for overseeing the league as it welcomed technological advances such as expanded replay, the pitch clock and now the start of the automated ball-strike system. Rodriguez, however, took Cowherd’s praise of Manfred a step further and sought to put the commissioner into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“I’m a big Rob Manfred fan, I think he deserves a lot of credit…with the changes he’s made the last two or three years to really save our game, he probably belongs in Cooperstown.” – Alex Rodriguez pic.twitter.com/h74C4vTMl8

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 15, 2025

“I’m a big Rob Manfred fan,” Rodriguez told Cowherd. “I think he deserves a lot of credit. Singlehandedly, with the changes he’s made the last two or three years to really save our game, he probably belongs in Cooperstown.”

Manfred saved a game that didn’t need saving. Let’s not act like baseball was dead when Manfred assumed the commissioner position in 2015. Credit Manfred for seeking to modernize the game and speed up the pace of play by enforcing the pitch clock, but he’s not a commissioner without missteps.

Manfred oversaw a pandemic season that was shortened to 60 games. And while Manfred obviously doesn’t deserve blame for COVID-19, he does deserve some blame for tense negotiations delaying the start of the season until late July, allowing for just 60 games. Manfred was also at the helm during a work stoppage in 2021 and 2022 amid labor negotiations, and he already anticipates locking the players out again in 2026.

There was that time Manfred attempted to downplay the World Series trophy as just a “piece of metal,” which leads us to arguably the biggest blemish on the commissioner’s resume, the Houston Astros cheating scandal. During the investigation into the Astros cheating scandal, Manfred offered the players immunity, allowing them to get off without punishment, a decision that has been widely loathed by baseball fans.

He’s not the worst commissioner in professional sports history, but a Hall-of-Famer? Consider the source. Alex Rodriguez was suspended a full season for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal while Bud Selig was commissioner of the league. Rodriguez attempted to fight the suspension and even filed a lawsuit against MLB and Selig. The following year, the lawsuits were dropped, Manfred succeeded Selig, and Rodriguez enjoyed a successful comeback that eventually bled into him becoming an ambassador for the sport through media work with ESPN and Fox.

Suing MLB could have permanently ruined Rodriguez’s relationship with the sport in retirement. And it’s reasonable to assume part of Rodriguez’s appreciation for Rob Manfred stems from their ability to repair that relationship with MLB. But trying to put Manfred into Cooperstown is a display of gratitude that is too much.