A ban from Major League Baseball is a form of punishment levied by the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) against a player, manager, executive, or other person connected with the league as a denunciation of some action that person committed deemed to have violated the integrity of the game and/or otherwise tarnished its image. A banned person is forbidden from employment with MLB or its affiliated minor leagues, and is forbidden from other professional involvement with MLB such as acting as a sports agent for an MLB player.
Since 1991, all banned people, whether living or deceased, have been barred from induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, on May 13, 2025, commissioner Rob Manfred ruled that the MLB's punishment on people banned from the league ultimately ends when a person dies as they can no longer represent a threat to the game upon death; as such, the banning of individuals now expires upon their deaths, with eligible contenders for the Hall of Fame including Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Eddie Cicotte now considered eligible for entry by as early as 2027.
Major League Baseball has maintained an official list of "permanently ineligible" people since Kenesaw Mountain Landis was installed as the first Commissioner of Baseball in 1920. Although the majority of banned persons were banned after the establishment of the Commissioner's office, some were formally banned prior to that time while a few others were informally "blacklisted" by the Major League clubs. Most persons who have been banned (including many who have been reinstated) were banned due to association with gambling or otherwise conspiring to fix the outcomes of games; others have been banned for a multitude of reasons including illegal activities off the field, violating some term of their playing contract, or making disparaging remarks that brought the game into disrepute.
History
Prior to 1920, players were banned by the decision of a committee. There were 14 players banned from 1865 to 1920; of those, 12 were banned for association with gambling or attempting to fix games, one was banned for violating the reserve clause, and one was banned for making disparaging remarks.
In 1920, team owners established the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, ostensibly to keep the players in line and out of corruption's way. Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge, was the owners' ideal candidate for the job. He demanded nearly unlimited power over every person in organized baseball down to the batboys, including the authority to ban people from the game. The owners, reeling from the fallout of the Black Sox Scandal, agreed.
Landis banned many players and various others, often for seemingly small offenses, and at times almost indiscriminately. In his 24 years as commissioner, Landis banned more people than all of his successors combined. The last living person banned by Landis was William D. Cox, who died in 1989 at the age of 79.
In 1991, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum voted to bar banned players from induction.
By the 21st century, the use of performance enhancing drugs had replaced the possible influence of gambling as the greatest perceived threat to the integrity of the game. Subsequently, both the Commissioner of Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association came under intense pressure from fans, owners, current and former players, team officials, and the United States Congress to take decisive action against PED use in baseball. In 2005, as a result of the findings of the Mitchell Report, the owners and the MLBPA reached a new Basic Agreement which stipulated that multiple violations of the overhauled Major League Baseball drug policy would result in a lifetime ban.
On September 30, 2024, at the age of 83, Pete Rose became the first player to die while still ineligible after being banned by one of Landis' successors. Rose's permanent ban remains among the most bitterly debated of any imposed after Landis' tenure: while Rose eventually admitted to betting on his team (which under the rules then and now in force are grounds for permanent ineligibility), his supporters argue that a lifetime ban was unjust due to a lack of conclusive evidence that his gambling directly affected the outcome of any games, and also due to modern society's more relaxed attitude towards gambling.
On May 13, 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred modified the lifetime ineligibility so that it would expire upon the banned person's death. In a letter addressing this policy change, Manfred stated that "a deceased individual cannot compromise the integrity of the game," and that the purposes of the rule instituting the policy are only relevant when a banned figure is alive. Manfred also acknowledged that political pressure from United States President Donald Trump was an influencing factor towards the rule change, as Trump had previously criticized MLB and the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) on Pete Rose's exclusion from the Hall of Fame, going as far as to announce a posthumous pardon on February 28.
Following MLB's purge of all deceased players from the list, the oldest person ineligible is Roberto Alomar, who is years old as of .
Punishment
Prohibited A person who has been banned from Major League Baseball is barred from:
employment with MLB, one of its affiliated minor leagues, or any Major League or Minor League Club, whether as a player, coach, or manager, or in the front office; acting as a sports agent for any Major League or Minor League player, coach, or manager; maintaining business ties with MLB or with any Major League or Minor League Club; The exception to this is that MLB or any Major League or Minor League Club may invite banned persons to participate in events where said participation will not put the banned person(s) in a position where they could influence play (for example, an appearance at a public recognition ceremony). All such participation is subject to the approval of the Commissioner, who has the authority to deal with such requests on a case-by-case basis. The exact privileges that will be afforded for each special event is determined by the Commissioner–invariably, access to the clubhouse and related facilities by banned people will not be permitted. (This exception has evolved over the decades following the banishment of MLB's all-time hit leader Pete Rose in 1989. In the early years of Rose's ban, dispensations for special events were rarely granted. In recent years, especially since incumbent Rob Manfred's assumption of the office, special event dispensations for Rose became more frequent.) induction to the Hall of Fame, provided the person is living (rule change in 2025). This prohibition is not the result of any MLB rule or policy (since the Hall of Fame falls outside the jurisdiction of the Commissioner's Office), but is a policy enforced by the Hall itself. Prior to the late 1980s, the Baseball Writers' Association of America and Veterans Committee each had an unwritten rule excluding banned people from consideration for election to the Hall. (The banishment of Rose necessitated a formalization of this policy prior to 1991 when Rose would otherwise have become eligible for election to the Hall.) Although Commissioner Bart Giamatti had stated at the time of Rose's ban that their agreement did not directly affect his Hall eligibility, he died before he could elaborate on the issue. Nevertheless, the Hall soon voted to formally exclude banned people from induction, a position that was endorsed by Giamatti's successor Fay Vincent. Similarly, in 2008, the Veterans Committee barred players and managers on the ineligible list from consideration. On the other hand, in his most recent statement affirming Rose's ban, Commissioner Manfred stated "It is not a part of my authority... to make any determination concerning Mr. Rose's eligibility as a candidate for election to the (Hall of Fame)... in my view, the considerations that should drive a decision on whether an individual should be allowed to work in Baseball are not the same as those that should drive a decision on Hall of Fame eligibility... any debate over Mr. Rose's eligibility for the Hall of Fame is one that must take place in a different forum." Notwithstanding Manfred's statements, the Hall of Fame's policies remain unchanged.Statement by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Pete Rose How a ban imposed on an existing member of the Hall of Fame would affect that member in light of official Hall policy is not clear, although Roberto Alomar, who was inducted into the hall before his lifetime ban, remains enshrined (see below).
Prior to Rose's ban, two members of the Hall of Fame (Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle) were banned from baseball for associating with licensed casinos (with duties unrelated to sports betting). The Hall took no action as a result of these bans, which in any event were extremely controversial while they were in effect, and were rescinded long before the Hall policy was formalized. Since that time, Roberto Alomar has become the first Hall member to be banned from Major League Baseball. , Alomar remains enshrined in the Hall.
Terms such as "lifetime ban" and "permanent ban" are misnomers, as a banned person may be reinstated (i.e., have the ban removed) whether by the decision of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball or (in the case of players banned since the establishment of the Major League Baseball Players Association) following an appeal by the MLBPA on behalf of a banned player to an independent arbitrator empowered to hear and adjudicate such appeals. Furthermore, in the case of Hall of Fame induction, bans have typically extended beyond a person's lifetime. In the May 13, 2025 letter by the Commissioner to Jeffrey M. Lenkov of Zelms Erlich Lenkov, which represents the Rose family, Manfred stated:
Despite this, a few people remained on the permanently ineligible list, including living people on the list, people who were banned prior to the creation of the office of Commissioner of Baseball, and a few who were banned by Landis that Manfred felt didn't deserve posthumous reinstatement.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame released a statement as part of the MLB statement announcing the purging of names from the Permanently Ineligible List on May 13, 2025.
Non-prohibited Among the activities that a banned person is not precluded from participating (as of 2016) in include:
Participating in baseball leagues that are not affiliated with MLB; This was not the case for players banned by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Early on in Landis' tenure, the new Commissioner made it clear that anyone who knowingly played with or against any banned player would himself be banned from MLB for life. Landis' tenure was before the advent of the modern Minor League farm system, meaning that unlike his successors he lacked any formal jurisdiction outside the then-16 MLB clubs, moreover as Commissioner Landis repeatedly blocked the establishment of what would come to be known as the minor league system. Nevertheless, while Landis took actions which appeared to recognize and/or protect the independence of other leagues his uncompromising stance against banned players compelled every other professional league to honor MLB bans, and in effect gave Commissioner Landis the de facto power to completely exclude personnel from the game. However, some players banned by Landis are believed to have continued playing under assumed identities at the minor league or semi-professional level.