MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday that three San Francisco Giants pitchers who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night hats during a June 12 game will not be disciplined.

In a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Manfred said "MLB takes discrimination against its players or in any form related to the league very seriously."

"The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be," Manfred wrote.

Manfred wrote that the Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers have been allowed to wear Pride emblems on their uniforms and hats since 2023, after the league stopped permitting special uniforms for most celebration days.

"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.

Manfred blamed a communications lapse by the Giants, saying "some players apparently did not understand that they had the option to wear their normal uniform" and "elected to add messages to their hats bearing the Pride logo as a result."

Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker were allowed to wear the hats bearing the biblical references throughout the game.

They had written "Gen. 9:12-16" on their rainbow caps, a reference to God's covenant with Noah and all living creatures following the flood.

A fourth pitcher, Sam Hentges, apparently knew of the exception and wore a standard cap.

The Giants lost to the Chicago Cubs 5-1 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

"After the game had 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," Manfred wrote.

"By warning the Giants players that they may not include Bible verses on their caps in the future, MLB was not discriminating or chastising those players based on their religious beliefs; rather MLB was enforcing (with only an oral warning) a long-standing, collectively bargained rule that keeps uniforms clean and avoids controversy," Manfred continued.

"The rule has been similarly applied to a variety of messages, some as innocuous as messages to a player's mother or honoring a deceased friend," he wrote.

Manfred said the rationale behind the policy is that "the league does not desire for its players to become messengers for political or social issues while in uniform playing baseball games because many messages have the potential to offend some segment of our fanbase, even if that was not the intent of the player."

"MLB's policy must be uniformly enforced regardless of the message in order for it to survive legal challenge, which means prohibiting both the positive message and the negative message," he wrote.

In a post on X, Hawley wrote: "@MLB Commissioner writes to me and admits they were wrong to threaten the Giants players over Bible verses and promises never to fine or discipline these players — or any players for their religious beliefs."

The Department of Justice referred MLB to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on June 19 over possible religious discrimination.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier opened his own investigation a day later and subpoenaed the league's uniform records, due July 23.