MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred cites Giants' 'lapse of communication' over Pride caps, says players won't be disciplined

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Jun 22, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred penned a response to a United States senator regarding the San Francisco Giants’ Pride Night controversy on Monday afternoon, referring to the team’s communication with its players as being “inadequate and not clear.”

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley had written Manfred in the days following the Giants’ Pride Night game at Oracle Park on June 12 in which pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote Bible verses on the Giants’ special rainbow-tinged caps.

Hawley charged that the league was targeting Christian players because the players had been assessed warnings and put on notice of potential discipline and asked Manfred to answer for “what appears to be a pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.”

Last Thursday, the United States Department of Justice announced it was launching a civil rights investigation into whether MLB had violated the religious rights of the three players.

Monday, Manfred responded to Hawley with a two-page assessment explaining his view of what happened and why.

“Some players apparently did not understand that they had the option to wear the normal uniform and elected to add messages to their hats bearing the pride logo as a result,” Manfred wrote. “The Giants players were allowed to wear the hats with the biblical references for the entire game.

“After the game concluded, my office issued a routine oral warning about the uniform policy violation — unfortunately it was issued before we became aware of the Giants’ lapse in communication. The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be.”

One Giants player, reliever Sam Hentges, wore the team’s standard cap that night.

MLB has 12 league-wide events each year in which the uniform or hat is altered: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Armed Forces Weekend, Play Ball Weekend, Memorial Day, Lou Gehrig Day, Independence Day, Hall of Fame Weekend, Childhood Cancer Awareness Day, September 11th, Jackie Robinson Day and Roberto Clemente Day. All 30 teams must participate in these days.

Along with those 12 events, teams can host other “celebratory or commemorative” events. One such event is Pride Night, which every team (aside from the Texas Rangers) hosts.

But beginning in 2023, the league adopted a policy that didn’t allow teams to use special uniforms, hats or equipment for these celebration days “except under very narrow circumstances." In 2022, for example, five pitchers on the Tampa Bay Rays decided not to wear the team’s Pride jerseys.

“We understand that some players or other on-field personnel have not been comfortable wearing the pride emblem on their uniform based on their religious beliefs,” Manfred wrote. “As a league, we agree with the principle that players or other Club employees — at their place of work — should not be compelled to participate in a celebratory event (particularly by wearing something on their person) if such participation would violate their sincere religious beliefs or values.”

The Giants and Dodgers, however, both requested that their use of the Pride emblem be grandfathered in, a request that the league granted.

“MLB agreed to allow them to utilize the hats/uniforms with the emblems provided that no player or uniformed staff would be required to wear them, and that the team would speak to the players to make sure they were comfortable with the apparel,” Manfred wrote.

But as stated in the letter, Manfred contends that the Giants did not properly communicate this policy with their players.

MLB made two statements last week, first saying they had contacted the three pitchers because they faced possible penalties for augmenting the caps. A day later. MLB issued a follow-up statement emphasizing that Roupp, Brubaker and Walker weren’t warned because of the content of their message, but because they violated the league’s uniform regulations.

The updated statement read that, “writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s Uniform Regulations which provides in part that, ‘(a) Player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment ...'"

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