(Updated: November 19, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. PT)

A lot has happened since Rob Manfred replaced Bud Selig as the commissioner of Major League Baseball back on January 25, 2015. As soon as he was voted into office by MLB owners, the then 57-year-old Rome, New York native stated that his primary goals as commissioner would be “youth outreach, embracing technology, quickening the pace of play, strengthening player relations, and creating a more unified business operation.”

Sounds impressive and very political-candidate-ish, doesn’t it?

Manfred has indeed made significant strides towards his stated goals and in fact, had his contracted extended by MLB owners on November 15, 2018 through the 2024 season. But when all is said and done, baseball’s 10th commissioner could very well be remembered for something that had absolutely nothing to do with “youth outreach, embracing technology, quickening the pace of play, strengthening player relations, and creating a more unified business operation.”

No, depending on what the now 61-year-old Manfred does in the next couple of weeks over the Houston Astros 2017 World Series sign-stealing scandal – and it is every bit a scandal – that could very well end up being his legacy. In fact, depending on what actions he does or doesn’t take could very well lead to efforts to have him removed from office.

To be fair, for the most part, Manfred has done a pretty good job in his soon-to-be five years in MLB’s hot seat. In fact, he may soon be known and best remembered as the guy who brought the Automated Ball/Strike System (ABS) – aka ‘robot umps‘ – to our national pastime … if he handles the Astros sign-stealing debacle correctly.

But what exactly is ‘correctly?’ If you ask Dodger fans – any Dodger fan – the proper penalty would be a firing squad at dawn for the entire team and staff, including scouts, who allegedly were the first to carry out instructions from upper management to observe, film and immediately report opposing catcher’s signs to the Astros dugout. This was later disputed and even debunked according to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich’s November 17 article in The Athletic (subscription required).

However, what wasn’t disputed and debunked is that the Astros went so far as to install a special centerfield camera at Minute Maid Park to capture the catcher’s signs and transmit them in real-time to a monitor located near the Astros dugout. Then, using a less-than-sophisticated trash-can-pounding code, someone would notify the batter at the plate when an off-speed pitch was coming in sort of a Paul Revere “One if by Land, Two if by Sea” signaling system.

…and it worked, with former Dodgers right-hander Yu Darvish and current Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw being the two primary victims.

But wait … There’s more!

Early Monday evening, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow gave what will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most incredible statements in MLB history – one that every five-year-old on the planet would be proud of – when he said, and I quote:

“We haven’t done everything properly, but I do feel confident that in general, most of the time, we did things right and we try and follow the rules…”

No seriously, he actually said this. This isn’t just a tacit statement, this is a full-blown admission of guilt.

So here we are heading into week three of ‘Trash Can-gate,’ and Manfred’s office remains mum. And while this most certainly is to be expected and nobody wants a rush to judgment, it would probably be a good PR move by the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball to give the baseball world something about the investigation, don’t you think?

The ball is in your court, Rob.

Don’t drop it.

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(Updated: November 19, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. PT)

Early Tuesday afternoon just prior to the start of the 2019 MLB owner’s meeting in Arlington, TX, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred met with reporters after touring the Texas Rangers new stadium and told them – in no uncertain terms – that a thorough investigation into the Astros sign-stealing allegations is currently underway. Manfred added that thus far in the investigation, there is nothing to indicate that the alleged cheating went beyond the Astros organization.

“Right now, we are focused on the information that we have with respect to the Astros,” Manfred said “I’m not going to speculate on whether other people are going to be involved. We’ll deal with that if it happens, but I’m not going to speculate about that. I have no reason to believe it extends beyond the Astros at this point in time.”

As expected, reporters asked the commissioner what the extent of any punitive action might be in this matter and, as expected, he declined to say. He did, however, indicate that he would use his full authority as MLB’s chief executive and hinted that it could be quite severe.

“I’m not going to speculate on what the appropriate discipline is,” Manfred said. “That depends on how the facts are established at the end of the investigation. The general warning I issued to the clubs, I stand by. It certainly could be all of those [past disciplinary actions], but my authority under the major league constitution would be broader than those things as well.

“Any allegations that relate to a rule violation that could affect the outcome of a game or games is the most serious matter,” Manfred added. “It relates to the integrity of the sport. In terms of where we are, we have a very active what is going to be a really, really thorough investigation ongoing. But beyond that, I can’t tell you how close we are to done.”

Stay tuned…

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