The Angels don’t like that Rob Manfred wants Mike Trout to market himself:
In an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting commissioner, the Angels issued a statement Wednesday strongly defending their franchise player, Mike Trout, against criticism that he ought to dedicate more time to selling himself and his sport.
“We applaud him for prioritizing his personal values over commercial self-promotion,” the statement read. “That is rare in today’s society and stands out as much as his extraordinary talent.”
For a long time I’ve heard complaints that MLB did not market players due to friction between the owners and the union. Now MLB wants to market their best position player, and he doesn’t want to do it. I’m seeing more ads with Jose Altuve, which is great. Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, Kris Bryant, Jose Ramirez, etc. would all be great people to promote, young great players who are going to be around for a while. There are plenty of others from which to choose.
Two problems
1) Trout plays on the late night coast so it’s harder to market him
2) Baseball doesn’t have the NBA deal with ESPN, so you are not going to get the Kobe/LeBron love that leads to marketing.
Manfred seems like a guy who is a decent subordinate/yes man/lackey, but totally unqualified to be in charge. It also seems as if he is 1-Not a baseball guy 2-Has no sense or knowledge of the history of the game 3-Has no soul for the game