Rob Manfred Denies MLB Wants Juiced Baseballs, Calls It a 'Flaw in Logic'

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred denied Tuesday that the league desires baseballs that fly farther and increase home run totals.

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Manfred insisted owners and executives are concerned about the amount of homers that have been hit this season:

"The flaw in logic is that baseball wants more home runs. If you sat in owners meeting and listen to people on how the game is played, that is not a sentiment of owners for whom I work. There's no desire among ownership to increase homers in the game, to the contrary they are concerned about how many we have."

MLB owns Rawlings, which is the producer of the league's baseballs, but Manfred added that MLB has not handed down any directives to juice the balls, per ESPN's Jeff Passan: "Baseball has done nothing, given no direction, for an alteration of the baseball."

According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, Manfred also said MLB will announce changes ahead of time if it decides to alter the ball to lessen or increase the likelihood of home runs.

Manfred's comments came days after Houston Astros starting pitcher and All-Star starter Justin Verlander railed against Manfred and Major League Baseball for the state of the balls, per Passan:

"It's a f---ing joke. Major League Baseball's turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you've got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the f---ing company. If any other $40 billion company bought out a $400 million company and the product changed dramatically, it's not a guess as to what happened. We all know what happened. Manfred the first time he came in, what'd he say? He said we want more offense. All of a sudden he comes in, the balls are juiced? It's not coincidence. We're not idiots."

Since Manfred took over as MLB commissioner in 2015, there has been a dramatic rise in home runs.

According to Passan, homers are up nearly 60 percent from where they were in 2014, and with 3,691 home runs hit before the All-Star break this season, the league is on pace to hit 6,668 on the year.

That would break the single-season record of 6,105 set in 2017.

While there are drawbacks to the uptick in home runs, including the fact that it eliminates some strategy from the game, there are also positives.

Monday's Home Run Derby was perhaps the most exciting, entertaining show MLB has put on in years. New York Mets rookie first baseman Pete Alonso beat Toronto Blue Jays rookie third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the finals even though Guerrero set the single-round record with 29 home runs earlier in the competition.

Also, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were vying for the single-season home run record in 1998, it captivated the nation and put baseball back at the forefront.

Casual baseball fans seem to gravitate toward the long ball, but as of May 30, MLB attendance was down 1.4 percent this season compared to the end of May 2018.

That suggests more homers aren't the answer to increasing fan interest, and that alone may cause MLB to take a closer look at the baseballs, whether they are being intentionally juiced or not.