Photo: Ben Margot / Associated Press Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle before Wednesday’s wild-card game, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred left no doubt that the city of Oakland’s lawsuit to stop Alameda County from selling its portion of the Coliseum site to the A’s could have repercussions.

Manfred and baseball’s owners have supported the A’s efforts to build a stadium in the East Bay, but if the city cannot cooperate, that might not continue to be the case, Manfred suggested.

“I’m very concerned about the developments of the last couple of days,” Manfred said. “I think (A’s President) Dave Kaval and John Fisher and the rest of the A’s organization have made a huge investment to try to get a stadium done here, and to have a city entity turn around and litigate against progress is upsetting.”

Manfred met with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf — who has been behind the A’s efforts to build a stadium at Howard Terminal — and City Council President Rebecca Kaplan earlier in the day.

“I made it clear that it’s time for the city of Oakland to show concrete progress on the stadium effort,” Manfred said. “It’s gone on too long, and things need to fall into place to get a new stadium here. The fans here, as demonstrated by the 55,000 here tonight, are great fans and deserve a major-league-quality facility.”

The timing of the litigation, less than a week before the A’s hosted a playoff game for the first time since 2013, was particularly galling for Major League Baseball.

“I said to the mayor at one point, ‘The timing was such that some people could read it that maybe it is time for us to consider other alternatives,’ ” Manfred said.

Could relocation be a consideration should the city continue to work to counter the A’s efforts when it comes to purchasing the Coliseum property?

“What I would say is we can’t stay in a holding pattern with no progress indefinitely,” Manfred said. “There needs to be a plan to move this franchise forward. I’m hopeful it’s going to be here in Oakland.”

The A’s do not plan to build at the Coliseum property but plan to develop the land in order to fund their preferred Howard Terminal ballpark.

The 155-acre Coliseum site is jointly owned by Oakland and Alameda County; the A’s have offered $85 million for the county’s 50% share, and the county has indicated it would like to make a deal. The city of Oakland sued to prevent that Friday and on Tuesday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch issued a temporary restraining order on the sale and set a Nov. 14 hearing about the lawsuit.

The A’s are the only professional sports team actively trying to remain in the East Bay. The Warriors have moved to San Francisco and the Raiders are going to Las Vegas next year.

“I think it would be a tragedy for Oakland to lose its last major professional sports team,” Manfred said. “I hope the city will come forward and be more aggressive about moving the process forward. The mayor and President Kaplan expressed strong support for keeping the A’s here in my meeting with them and I tried to make clear from them that we need more than verbal support for the process.”

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser