David Wells, who retired as a World Series-winning pitcher after playing for several teams including the New York Yankees, offered a scathing rebuke of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday.
Wells, appearing on Outkick's “The Ricky Cobb Show,” called Manfred “the worst commissioner in baseball” and accused him of trying to change the game too much.
The critical remarks came during a discussion about pitch counts.
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New York Yankees pitcher David Wells pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York on September 12, 1998. (Lou Capozzola/USA Today Network)
Cobb noted that Wells threw more than 100 pitches in a game during the 1999 season with the Toronto Blue Jays. Wells said pitchers don't pitch the way they did when Wells was there. Instead, they're too focused on pitching in the zone.
“They don't do long tosses. They don't do anything,” Wells said. “They study the game, they study the zone to pitch to, but we've always had to pitch in the zone. We've had to understand our opponent, but these days they're getting everything handed to them on a silver platter.”
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Toronto Blue Jays pitcher David Wells plays at the SkyDome during the 1992 season. (USA Today Sports)
“So, for me, it's a mindset thing. Go out there and execute. And know which guys are going to beat you, which guys are having success, and still be careful. You've got to hit your spots. And these days, against certain hitters, you throw to the zone, or you throw to just one zone. And for me, I don't know if I'm going to buy into all these new analytics. I just pitch to my strengths. A lot of guys did that back in the day. They pitched to their strengths, and it worked. But now they're trying to change the game.”
“To me, baseball has been the same for over 150 years, and now we have the worst commissioner in history trying to change the game. If you look at the early guys, or Bob Gibson and the others, they were pitching 300-400 innings a year. They had no arm problems. They were running. They were doing everything in the offseason. They were working out.”
“So why undermine success? They've been trying to undermine success lately with all this analysis. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit.”
Wells did not say which changes he opposed.
Manfred has been MLB commissioner since 2015. Since then, baseball has imposed pitch time limits to speed up the game and cracked down on pitchers using sticky substances to increase ball velocity.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Jr. speaks during the 2024 Grapefruit League Spring Training Media Day at George M. Steinbrenner Field on February 15, 2024 in Tampa, Florida. (Mike Carlson/MLB Photo via Getty Images)
Last year, Manfred defended the pitch clock rule despite opposition.
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“We've been pleased with how we've used the clock and managed infractions, especially late in games, in those high-leverage situations that we've been looking at,” Manfred said.
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