The news media gave baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred generally good reviews for his 30-game suspension of Aroldis Chapman for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. Excuse me if I disagree.

In the first case under the policy, which was adopted last August in joint action with the union, Manfred opted to negotiate a settlement that produced a shorter suspension than he wanted rather than risk losing in a grievance before baseball’s impartial arbitrator.

“It was for substantially more games,” a person familiar with Manfred’s thinking said of the suspension. “He’s saving his powder for Reyes. It’s a cleaner case.”

Jose Reyes, the Colorado Rockies’ shortstop, is scheduled to go on trial April 4 in Hawaii, where he is accused of abusing his wife during an argument in their hotel room. Mrs. Reyes, police said, sustained injuries to her thigh, neck and wrist.

Manfred is withholding possible disciplinary action until Reyes’ trial is concluded, but the commissioner put him on paid administrative leave Feb. 23, barring him from spring workouts and exhibition games with the Rockies.

Chapman, scheduled to be the New York Yankees’ closer this season, was not criminally charged with domestic abuse, but was accused of choking his girlfriend and firing eight bullets into a garage wall at his home in Davie, Fla. The domestic violence policy allows the commissioner to discipline a player even if he is not criminally charged or convicted.

In the Chapman case, Manfred informed the union the length of suspension he was considering and proceeded to negotiate a shorter suspension, which will allow the pitcher to get enough service time to be eligible for free agency after the season rather than have to wait another year.

Manfred also agreed to let Chapman participate in spring training with the Yankees. Manfred did not allow Reyes to be in spring training with the Rockies.

Dan Halem, MLB’s chief legal officer, and Dave Prouty, the Players Association general counsel, declined to confirm, deny or comment on any aspect of the case, citing the confidential nature of the process.

However, Halem said, in response to my question, that the Chapman and Reyes cases were not linked as far as possible penalties were concerned. “The commissioner takes both cases seriously,” Halem said. “One has nothing to do with the other.”

The difference will come in the length of suspensions. Whether or not he is convicted in Hawaii, Reyes most likely faces a longer suspension. Fifty games would not be surprising.

In negotiating Chapman’s suspension down to 30 games, Manfred most likely wanted to dispose of the first case under the new policy unscathed. Commissioners haven’t enjoyed great success in grievances over suspensions in recent years.

Two years ago an arbitrator slashed Bud Selig’s suspension of Alex Rodriguez from 211 games to a season’s worth of 162. In 1992, Fay Vincent handed Steve Howe his seventh suspension, this one a permanent ban, and an arbitrator overturned it, finding that MLB had not treated Howe for attention deficit disorder.

I called Vincent Wednesday to talk about commissioners and suspensions and was surprised to learn of his view on suspensions for domestic violence and other non-baseball-related matters.

“I’m not criticizing Manfred at all,” Vincent said. “I would acknowledge that Manfred is talking about political reality. “But there is an issue to be raised: why sports should get involved in criminal matters. Baseball doesn’t address the question of why do we add in some cases and not others.”

Vincent said he began thinking of this issue when he received a telephone call in 1991 from Justice Burton Roberts of the New York State Supreme Court. The call was prompted by an auto accident in which Lenny Dykstra, a Philadelphia Phillies outfielder, was accused of drunk driving.

“When Dykstra hit a tree,” Vincent related, “I was considering what to do. I knew Roberts and he called me and raised the very important question. He asked, ‘Why are you getting into this? You’re not balancing the interests of the community, and baseball and you are being arrogant enough to say my punishment isn’t enough. This arrogant commissioner named Vincent has added on.’ He said ‘I think you should stay out of it. It’s none of your business.’”

“Drunk driving is a serious problem,” Vincent added, “but it’s not my problem. Why would baseball get involved in Dykstra’s drunk driving? What about tax fraud? But nobody gets involved with that. Why not?

“If a player owned apartments and was gouging tenants or was a slum lord, no one would care. How do we decide what a player does that requires baseball’s attention?

“We pick out certain crimes. If you break into a house it’s not conceived as terrible as violence against women. There’s something about that that troubles me. I’m not the biggest civil libertarian, but this guy Chapman wasn’t convicted of anything.”

I understand Vincent’s point, but right or wrong, society in general determines which crimes should be prosecuted. Many, if not most, people cheat on their taxes. Many people do not beat their wives or girlfriends. Maybe the difference is one is a silent crime and one isn’t. That doesn’t make it right or okay to abuse the woman you live with or the children who live with you.

I have long questioned why the government makes steroids illegal but allows cigarettes when cigarettes kill far more people each year than steroids. Alcohol, too. Once upon a time in our history, alcohol was illegal. But the people eventually demanded its return so now it’s legal and occasionally kills people. Just like cigarettes.

I get what Vincent says about tax cheats vs. wife abusers as far as baseball and other sports are concerned. But I’d rather leave the tax cheats to the IRS and let MLB and the NFL go after the abusers. I’d also rather see Manfred use the new policy to better effect.

If a 45-game suspension for Chapman had been challenged and overturned, it would behoove Manfred’s lawyers to make better arguments.

The negotiated settlement of Chapman’s suspension included one other element. “It is not precedential,” said the person familiar with Manfred’s thinking. That is, it will have no bearing on disciplinary action the commissioner may take in future domestic violence cases.