BALTIMORE — Bud Selig arrived in this city on Tuesday. By the time he leaves Thursday, the baseball commissioner hopes to have a successor in place.
Selig refused to express confidence that actually would happen, though.
At a Camden Yards news conference after visiting with Orioles officials, Selig sat out the speculation game — both the who and the when — regarding how the process to find his replacement will play out. Selig’s contract expires in January.
“A lot of other people are making predictions,” Selig said. “I’m staying out of that business, really because I don’t know.”
The process will begin Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency, when the three finalists — Major League Baseball executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan, MLB COO Rob Manfred and Red Sox chairman Tom Werner — will make presentations promoting their respective candidacies to representatives from all 30 teams. The vote will take place Thursday, with 75 percent (23 of the 30) required to prevail. It isn’t clear where and when the process will go if no one can get 23 votes.
Manfred is regarded as the favorite, and is Selig’s top choice, while Werner has become a surprise challenger, thanks to the support of White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who is said to oppose Manfred for not being militant enough (as per Reinsdorf’s estimation) with the Players Association.
Selig said Tuesday he gave the recently formed succession committee, headed by Cardinals chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt, a list of recommended candidates.
“And these names were on it,” Selig said. “Apparently, I didn’t do too badly.”
Though Selig said he very much hopes not to be around next season, he said it was likely MLB’s expanded instant-replay system, in its inaugural year, would undergo significant changes in 2015.