Rob Manfred Considering Petition From Pete Rose's Family for Reinstatement

MLB's hit king died on Sept. 30.

Pete Rose before the Reds' 10–2 loss to the Dodgers on June 17, 2017. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

About five months after his death, MLB appears to be considering former first baseman, third baseman and outfielder Pete Rose's reinstatement.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has received a petition from Rose's family to remove him from MLB's permanently ineligible list, according to a Saturday evening report from Don Van Natta of ESPN. Rose, who was banned from baseball amid allegations that he bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing them, died at the age of 83 on Sept. 30.

"The commissioner was respectful, gracious, and actively participated in productive discussions regarding removing Rose from the ineligible list," family lawyer Jeffrey Lenkov told Van Natta.

Rose has been banned from baseball since 1989, when he cut a deal with commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti to avoid further punishment by voluntarily joining baseball's permanently ineligible list.

News of the petition's reported delivery comes a day after President Donald Trump suggested he would pardon Rose for non-specific offenses (Rose served five months in prison in 1990 for tax evasion).

Rose played 24 years for the Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos—collecting an MLB-best 4,256 hits.

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