Let’s rewind the tape to 2016. Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, rolls out the Diversity Pipeline Program—an initiative built to bring more underrepresented candidates into front-office roles. You know, a real push to say, “Hey, baseball’s for everyone, not just the usual suspects in suits.” At the time, MLB was quite vocal about it. Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. Those weren’t just buzzwords—they were on banners, in press releases, even built into the branding of the league.
DEI Language Disappears Overnight on MLB Website
Fast forward to March 2025. That program and Website are gone. “Diversity” on the DEI page? Scrubbed like it was chewing gum on the subway floor. And nobody noticed except baseball writer Craig Calcaterra, who caught the changes before anyone else realized the league had essentially ghosted one of its core initiatives.
MLB’s official response was something that sounded like it was cooked up in a PR war room: “Our values on diversity remain unchanged…” while also acknowledging, hey, maybe we need to “modify eligibility criteria” to stay compliant with federal law.
Hmm. That wouldn’t have anything to do with the wave of anti-DEI sentiment coming out of Washington lately, would it?
A Pattern of Political Convenience?
Look, MLB didn’t just quietly pull back from DEI efforts in a vacuum. This came on the heels of serious political pressure. Trump’s team has made ending DEI programs a central mission, and it’s not exactly subtle. And wouldn’t you know it, just a few months later, the league gives Pete Rose a new shot at the Hall of Fame—something Trump has publicly lobbied for. Coincidence? Sure, and water isn’t wet.
Then there’s Jackie Robinson Day. Once a time to spotlight the power of inclusion and civil rights through the lens of baseball history, it now looked more like a PR obligation. Not to mention the simultaneous military scrubbing of Jackie Robinson’s legacy from Department of Defense websites and the Naval Academy. You start to connect the dots, and it’s not looking like an accident.
Manfred’s “Judgment” and the Elasticity of Values
And let’s talk about Manfred’s latest comments at All-Star Weekend. He admits parts of the diversity pipeline were “very explicitly race-based and/or gender-based” and that people in Washington noticed. So the league “recast” the programs to avoid legal issues. Fine. But if you say your “values remain unchanged,” while completely changing the approach and principles behind your programs, people are going to start wondering if you even know what “values” mean.
Because if your values shift when politics shift, then they’re not really values. They’re strategies.
Manfred says it was “his judgment” and that he stands by it. That’s great. But judgment calls like this aren’t made in isolation. They come with consequences—and they send signals. And the signal here? Baseball’s front office is either being pushed—or willingly marching—into alignment with a political moment that sees DEI as a four-letter word.
So the question isn’t just “What happened to the Diversity Pipeline?” It’s “Where does baseball really stand?” Because right now, it looks like MLB is swinging at political fastballs instead of holding the line on the promises it made nearly a decade ago.
