World Series champ David Wells takes swipe at MLB commish while talking about pitchers’ habits

David Wells, a retired World Series champion pitcher who played for the New York Yankees, among other teams, took a swipe at MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Wednesday.

Wells appeared on OutKick’s “The Ricky Cobb Show” and called Manfred the “worst commissioner in the game,” accusing him of trying to change the game too much. 

The critical remarks came in a discussion about pitch counts.

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New York Yankees pitcher David Wells in action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y., Sept. 12, 1998. (Lou Capozzola/USA Today Network)

Cobb noted that Wells regularly threw more than 100 pitches in games during the 1999 season when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays. Wells said pitchers no longer do things pitchers used to do when Wells played. Instead, pitchers are too focused on pitching to zones.

“They don’t play long toss. They don’t do anything,” Wells said. “They work on the analytics of the game, zones that they got to pitch in, but we had to pitch in zones all the time. We had to figure guys out, and now they got everything on the silver platter for them these days. 

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Toronto Blue Jays pitcher David Wells in action at the Skydome during the 1992 season. (USA Today Sports)

“So, to me, it’s a matter of mindset, going out there and execute. And know what guys can beat you, what guys you have success, but you still have to be careful. You just have to hit your spots. And, nowadays, they throw to zones and one zone only against a certain hitter. And, to me, I don’t know if I would indulge these new analytics. I would just pitch to my strengths. And that’s what a lot of guys did back in the day. They pitched to their strengths, and it worked. But now they’re trying to change the game. 

“To me, they got the worst commissioner of all time in there trying to change the game of baseball when the history of the game for 150-plus years has been the same. When you look at all these guys back in the early days — or how about when Bob Gibson and all of these guys, they were throwing 300-400 innings a year. They didn’t have arm problems. They ran. They did all the stuff in the offseason. They did their workouts.

“So, why mess with success? And they are trying to mess with the success nowadays with these analytics. To me, I don’t dig it. I don’t dig it one bit.”

Wells didn’t specify what changes he disagreed with.

Manfred has been MLB’s commissioner since 2015. Since then, baseball has instituted a pitch clock to help speed up the game and cracked down on pitchers using sticky substances to help with spin rate.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Jr. speaks during the 2024 Grapefruit League spring training media day at George M. Steinbrenner Field Feb. 15, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (Mike Carlson/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Last year, Manfred defended the pitch clock rule despite objections.

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“We are comfortable with the way the clock and the violations, particularly late in the game in high-leverage situations we’ve been watching, have been managed,” Manfred said.

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