MLB teams trading draft picks, All-Star Game host qualifications and more from Rob Manfred

Scorching summertime temperatures in Sacramento mean that the Oakland A’s home schedule next year is expected to include as many night games as possible.

“The vast, vast majority of the games can be played at night when it’s cooler,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said this week during MLB’s All-Star festivities.

MLB is also planning to use a playing surface that “has a specific hydration component to it in terms of water being added,” he said.

Some day games are necessary on the schedule because of so-called getaway days — when teams depart town for the next city directly after playing. But Manfred said the league is going to make it so that teams typically do not have to travel to a faraway destination upon leaving Sacramento, which might give them some further scheduling flexibility.

The A’s are hoping to open a stadium in Las Vegas in 2028. For the three seasons in the interim, they plan to play at a minor-league stadium in Sacramento, Sutter Health Park. Sacramento just had the hottest 20-day stretch in its history, breaking 103 degrees as an average temperature, per the Sacramento Bee.

As he did last month, Manfred said he believes A’s owner John Fisher has the necessary funding to proceed with stadium construction in Las Vegas.

Here are more items from Manfred’s media session with reporters. (Read as well about MLB’s plans to test out the automated strike zone, the union’s recovery from a leadership struggle and the latest on MLB’s potential participation in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.)

Baltimore, Toronto in the mix to host upcoming All-Star Games

When Manfred is asked by the media about potential host cities for All-Star Games, he rarely rules a club out or tips his hand too far in one direction. The Baltimore Orioles have expressed interest, he confirmed, and renovations to Camden Yards do not necessarily need to be completed before the team could host a game.

Meanwhile, when asked about the game heading up to Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, Manfred noted “a significant factor should be, when did you have a game the last time?”

“And I think you kind of know how that lineup looks,” he continued.

Toronto hasn’t hosted since 1991, while Baltimore hasn’t hosted since 1993. The only other two teams with longer waits are the A’s, who last hosted in 1987, and the Cubs, who last hosted in 1990. (The Tampa Bay Rays, meanwhile, are the only team to have never hosted the game. The franchise started in 1998.)

Manfred says Pride night not “determinative” for choosing All-Star Game locations

The host of this week’s All-Star Game, Ray Davis’ Texas Rangers, are the only MLB team that does not host an annual Pride celebration game. Asked why MLB would bring the midsummer classic to Texas in light of that, Manfred said he did not see hosting a Pride Night as “outcome determinative.”

“We look at all those issues, and make the best decision and try to give it to the place that we think is going to kind of be the best in terms of marketing the game,” Manfred said. “It’s really important to remember here — here (in Arlington, Texas) — there’s a massive public investment in terms of creating a great new facility. And that, obviously, is an important consideration in terms of awarding All-Star games.”

The Rangers have said previously: “Our commitment is to make everyone feel welcome and included in Rangers baseball. That means in our ballpark, at every game, and in all we do – for both our fans and our employees. We deliver on that promise across our many programs to have a positive impact across our entire community.”

Trading draft picks possible?

Unlike in other sports, most draft picks cannot be traded in baseball, a condition in place at least in part because MLB teams, once upon a time, probably would have made some bad decisions with those picks, given the opportunity. As Manfred put it, the league’s interest in preserving the inability to trade picks — the topic is collectively bargained with the union — was a matter of “paternalism.”

“I’m going to prevent you from doing X because I think it might be stupid,” Manfred said. “ I don’t think we have that many stupid clubs. We’ll see how it shakes out when we go through our bargaining prep. The clubs are really sophisticated now, and I do think that there’s a really good argument that allowing them to decide how to utilize their resources is economically efficient.”

The MLBPA has had an interest in allowing picks to be traded in the past, believing it a means for smaller-market teams to be able to improve their lot. The current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2026 season.

Manfred believes gambling penalties a deterrent

Violations of MLB’s gambling policy have landed multiple players suspensions this year, and gotten one player banned for life. Meanwhile, an umpire is also proceeding through a disciplinary process.

The commissioner thinks the league’s punishments are effective in dissuading violations.

“To work your whole life to get to the major leagues in whatever role, and then lose that over sports betting and gambling — that’s a huge penalty,” he said.

Yet, with the ubiquity of sports gambling, the incidence of punishments is likely only to rise.

“I try to keep perspective on this: I think that the relationships that we built with sports betting enterprises, which has given us the ability to use technology to monitor and betting activities, I really truly, believe that we are in a better position to know what’s going on today than we were in the old days where it was all illegal,” Manfred said.

Yet, it is also much easier for huge swaths of people to get involved in sports gambling today than it was when only a handful of states permitted sports betting.

The league’s attention is newly shifting to threats players receive from gamblers.

“I have had, just complete candor, in the last month or so, players mention this issue to me,” Manfred said. “It’s obviously one that’s of concern. And we’ve been discussing internally what and whether we should do to be more proactive in this area.”

Said the head of the players’ union, Tony Clark: “Do I have concerns? Yes,” Clark said. “I’m not a gambling man in the typical sense. But I had concerns, and we had concerns at the outset, and we still have them now, particularly as more players … find themselves in the crosshairs.”