MLB reporter Rosenthal's contract dropped after critical comments

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(NewsNation Now) — Veteran baseball reporter Ken Rosenthal has been called out by Major League Baseball.

If you’re a baseball fan, you probably know Rosenthal, if only for his signature bow ties. Rosenthal is widely considered one of the top baseball reporters in the business. He’s seen in the dugout during the postseason as Fox Sports’ lead reporter and he also writes columns for The Athletic, a prominent sports website.

And until this past week, he was a correspondent for the MLB Network. But Rosenthal’s contract was not renewed by the MLB Network. The reported reason stems back to the spring of 2020. In several columns for The Athletic, Rosenthal was highly critical of Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred.

Rosenthal believed Manfred was derelict in striking a labor deal with the players to return to action for a COVID-19-shortened season. In one particularly pointed article for The Athletic, he wrote, “For a guy who suddenly is looking for labor peace, Manfred sure has a funny way of showing it. He and the owners, supposed stewards of the game, are turning the national pastime into a national punch line, effectively threatening to take their ball and go home, while the country struggles with medical, economic and societal concerns.”

Rosenthal was suspended for three months shortly after his articles were published. He did return to the network in the fall of 2020. But his contract lapsed last week on Dec. 31, and was not renewed.

The New York Post has reported that those articles were the reason why.

It’s a particularly tough time for Major League Baseball. The league has locked out its players as the two sides are far apart on long-term labor deal. The stalemate threatens to shut down the sport through spring training and maybe even the regular season and beyond, with potentially billions of dollars at stake.

According to Andrew Marchand, the sports media writer for the New York Post who broke the story, the Rosenthal scenario is somewhat predictable.

MLB Network and mlb.com, Marchand points out, have brought in top names such as Rosenthal, Bob Costas, Jon Heyman, Joel Sherman and Tom Verducci. The reason? Credibility. But now, when that top talent is drawing a paycheck from Major League Baseball, that credibility can get put under pressure.

“I think everyone who comes in agreement with MLB Network, when you work for another publication, or you’re an established journalist … they know that it’s not exactly a perfect arrangement, because MLB Network is owned by baseball,” Marchand said on “Dan Abrams Live.” “In effect, you’re working for the people you’re covering. So you’re always gonna have this problem.”

Marchand said that the honesty and credibility of the people brought in by organizations such as MLB is prized, but sometimes those people, writing from a place of honesty and integrity, can ruffle feathers.

“The trade off is, No. 1, you hope that they’ll let them be as honest as possible. And yeah, really they have in large part,” Marchand said. “But then you’re gonna have blowback, like you always do.”