Former Boston Red Sox player Jeff Frye thinks baseball is turning into professional wrestling. He recently blasted MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred over the cheap home runs happening in Las Vegas. Frye played in parts in Boston from 1996 to 2000. He knows how the game should look. But after watching a routine pop fly sail over the fence for a home run this week, he had to speak out.

“Sadly, Rob Manfred and his gambling buddies have turned the @MLB into the @WWE with flashing lights and all the glitz and glamour,” said Frye after a fly ball from Jonah Heim left the ballpark for a homer.

The wild game happened on Monday, June 8. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Oakland Athletics 15-14 in a brutal 12-inning marathon. The game took place at Las Vegas Ballpark, a temporary home for the Athletics. The two teams combined for a crazy 34 hits and 11 home runs. The Athletics hit seven homers by themselves and still lost the game.

Manfred previously said that moving the Athletics to Nevada was a good move for baseball. But he never mentioned how the thin desert air would make hitting so easy. Back in 2017, Manfred said that fans like home runs. Now, critics like Frye believe MLB wants these high-scoring games on purpose.

Some say that the ball travels easily because the ballpark sits roughly 2,000 feet above sea level and naturally favors hitters. And that means this is a pitcher’s graveyard, especially with the balls flying like this. One example came from Jonah Heim’s game-tying homer during the extra-innings thriller. The ball left Heim’s bat at just 94.6 mph with a 48-degree launch angle. Despite the modest exit velocity, the fly ball still traveled 398 feet.

Data showed that 10 of the 11 home runs hit that night would have been simple outs in most other MLB parks.

In 2017, Rob Manfred, in one of his interviews, said, “People like home runs,” but that’s not the only instance. He even supported the use of torpedo bats, saying, “They’re absolutely good for baseball.” So what Frye is telling could be the truth.

When the game was finished, Nick Kurtz and Tyler Soderstrom each had hit 2 homers, and Shea Langaliers, Jonah Heim, and Zack Gelof each had hit a homer. And this is just the Athletics. For the Brewers, Brice Turang, William Contreras, Jake Bauers, and Andrew Vaughn each had a homer. Both starting pitchers combined to allow 13 runs. The surprise was that one of the pitchers was Kyle Harrison, who is in the race for a Cy Young with an ERA of 1.57.

Now, we don’t know whether it was the stadium’s altitude or a juiced ball, as Frye said, but this is how games are going to go in Vegas; even baseball’s best pitchers will think twice before pitching there.

But this isn’t the only place Rob Manfred has failed.

Rob Manfred says that the Luxury Tax rule has failed

While Rob Manfred will never take blame for a game having so many homers, he is taking blame for the luxury tax failing and not doing what it was supposed to.

Since the offseason, everything has come back to the next CBA. Every trade, every contract, and every labor discussion has somehow found its way into the growing battle between MLB and the MLBPA.

Now, even MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is admitting that one of baseball’s biggest financial systems is no longer working as intended. After clubs paid a record $402.6 million in luxury-tax penalties during the 2025 season, the league believes that the current model has failed miserably. And that admission is pushing baseball closer toward what could become its biggest labor fight in decades.

Manfred admitted that the tax penalties have not stopped the massive spending gaps between teams. The Los Angeles Dodgers paid about $169 million in penalties while spending nearly $350 million on players. At the same time, the Miami Marlins spent only $78 million. MLB’s proposal requires teams to keep their payrolls between $171.2 million and $245.3 million.

League officials argue that gaps this large leave many fan bases questioning whether their teams can truly compete for the postseason or not.

But the MLBPA strongly disagrees, with interim executive director Bruce Meyer saying that the proposal could cost players more than $500 million if implemented. Manfred insists that the plan would increase spending through higher payroll floors, but with both sides refusing to move is the biggest concern.

Because if the wheels don’t start rolling, a lockout will happen, and it could disrupt the whole momentum despite the rising attendance, growing television audiences, and record revenues.