Commissioner-to-be impressed by Kansas City’s baseball energy

Baseball commissioner-elect Rob Manfred took about a 30 minute walk in downtown Kansas City before the game Tuesday and was taken aback by what he saw.

“The level of excitement in this market is unbelievable, and it seemed like every other person had a Royals shirt on,” Manfred said, standing outside the Royals dugout before the American League Wild Card Game with the Oakland A’s. “It was just great.”

Manfred will transition from Major League Baseball’s chief operating officer to the commissioner’s job in January. Bud Selig will hand the Commissioner’s Trophy to the World Series winner this year. That will be Manfred’s job starting in 2015.

His first postseason encounter as commissioner-elect matches two small-market franchises with payrolls ranking in baseball’s bottom half. The Royals started the year around $92 million, which ranked 19th. The A’s, at $83.4 million, ranked 25th, according to The Associated Press.

Also in the playoffs are the Pittsburgh Pirates, 27th at $78.1 million.

Three of the top teams in terms of payroll, the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox, did not reach the postseason.

“It demonstrates that markets like Oakland and Kansas City can be in this game, and we have the economic structure that allows them to compete,” Manfred said. “We have a great mix of teams in the postseason.”

Manfred, who spent 15 years as baseball’s executive vice-president for labor relations and led negotiations that resulted in three collective bargaining agreements, rattled off the history.

With the Royals ending their postseason drought of nearly three decades, only the Blue Jays, Mariners and Marlins haven’t appeared in the postseason since 2004.

And even after adding the Wild Card Games three years ago, baseball remains the most exclusive of postseason clubs. Only five of 15 teams in each league reach the playoffs each season.

Clearly, the larger markets have an advantage. Baseball has no salary cap. The Dodgers were free to have the payroll of $235 million. The Royals cannot. The Dodgers are in the playoffs for the fourth time in seven years. The Royals are unlikely to retain Tuesday’s starting pitcher, James Shields, who will become one of the best players on the free-agent market after this season.

“We know and understand who we are,” Royals general manger Dayton Moore said. “We’ve got to grow from within. We’re not going to be players on the free agent market. We just aren’t. … It’s obviously got to fit with what our payroll structure is.”

But here the Royals are, in the postseason with the commissioner-elect in the stands.

“A team like Kansas City is good for our business, just like Boston is good our business,” Manfred said.

This story was originally published September 30, 2014 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Commissioner-to-be impressed by Kansas City’s baseball energy."