Rob Manfred says that Major League Baseball is committed to making strides in minority hiring, amid the possibility the 2016 season will begin without an African-American manager.

Lloyd McClendon, baseball's only black manager, was fired by the Seattle Mariners after the regular season.

The Washington Nationals are still in the market for a manager and reportedly are considering longtime big-league skipper Dusty Baker.

"There's a certain cyclical nature to this," Manfred said. "Field managers are high turnover jobs, and you're going to have peaks and valleys in terms of representation. Having said that, we are focused on the need to promote diversity -- not just African-Americans but Latinos as well -- in the managerial ranks.

"We have had a year where our numbers are down, in terms of our diversity in some key positions, and I think it's incumbent upon us to come up with additional programs and ways to make sure our numbers look better over the long haul."