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Rob Manfred has a message for players. Should they believe it?

Plus: Reds-Red Sox was exciting (but not for the reasons we hoped), Rangers-Orioles was spellbinding for the same reason public meltdowns go viral, and one star returns just as another hits the IL. I’m Levi Weaver, and Ken Rosenthal is off today — welcome to The Windup!

Business: What’s Manfred’s message to players? 

We told you yesterday that we were going to get into this, so let’s go:

On Sunday night, Evan Drellich wrote that commissioner Rob Manfred has been holding meetings directly with players on each of the 30 MLB teams in advance of the CBA negotiations. The existing CBA expires in December 2026, so there’s a season and a half left, but you may remember: The last negotiation was pretty fractious, leading to a lockout that threatened the 2022 season.

Since then, Manfred has been making yearly visits to each team to speak directly to players. His message: Union leadership is out of touch, and has cost players upwards of $2 billion in salary. Union head Tony Clark characterized Manfred’s claims as “full of misleading or downright false statements.”

But is that accurate? And is Manfred a trustworthy source for that information?

We’re getting into some pretty age-old arguments here about organized labor. Generally speaking, unions collectively bargain for better working conditions, pay and other perks that management would otherwise prefer not to provide — hooray for things like the 40-hour work week and the end of child labor, for example.

But the truth is: It requires solidarity to succeed. Whether Manfred’s numbers are accurate or not, divide-and-conquer has been a strategy for as long as organized labor has existed.

I’ll let you read Drellich’s column and make up your own mind, but it’s worth remembering: When the battle line is “owners vs. players” and the commissioner is hired and paid by those same owners, some healthy skepticism isn’t the worst idea.

Welp: Burns crashes, Abreu makes history

It was appointment baseball television: a legitimate Cy Young contender in Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox, and a dominant young starter coming off an electric debut in Chase Burns of the Reds. It was expected to be a showcase of pitching excellence, a mano-a-mano faceoff for the “instant classic” files.

That is … not what happened.

If you were expecting Burns to improve on that memorable debut — in which he struck out the first five batters he faced — welcome to the assembly of the disappointed. The Red Sox boat-raced Burns last night.

As in: seven runs (five earned) on five hits, two walks and no strikeouts, in one-third of an inning. The Red Sox sent 13 hitters to the plate in the first inning, and Burns’ ERA jumped from 5.40 to 13.50 in less than an inning. Welp.

-BUT-

The game still gave us something to remember. In the fifth inning, Wilyer Abreu hit a ball to the deepest part of Fenway — you know, that weird center-field cut-out — and it bounced weirdly, evading all outfielders and allowing Abreu to circle the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

Then in the eighth inning, Abreu struck again. This one cleared the fences, and it came with the bases loaded, making him — according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs — the sixth player in MLB history to hit an inside-the-park home run and (separately) a grand slam in one game. It hadn’t happened since Roger Maris did it in 1958. Neat!

Jen McCaffrey has more here.

Wait, What?: Rangers-Orioles game was chaos personified

They don’t put games like this in Ken Burns documentaries, set to string-section swells and orchestral emotion. The highlights for this one should be set to any Sex Pistols album, turned up until the speakers beg for mercy and the neighbors call the cops.

The weirdness started when Orioles catcher Chadwick Tromp tweaked his back during a second-inning at-bat. He stayed in the game for one more inning, but ultimately succumbed to the pain. One problem: With Adley Rutschman on the IL, the Orioles’ only other available catcher — Gary Sánchez — was in the lineup as the DH.

From the third inning onward, the pitcher’s spot would come up in the Orioles’ lineup.

That’s not that weird. But bear with me …

In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Rangers trailing 3-2, rookie outfielder Michael Helman walked, then stole second. Sánchez’s throw went into the outfield, so Helman ran to third, as expected. But, surprisingly, third-base coach Tony Beasley waved him on. It seemed like a very bad idea — the throw beat Helman by almost 20 feet — but Sánchez was unable to field the throw cleanly, and the tying run scored.

In the ninth inning — score still tied — Rangers catcher Kyle Higashioka walked. Trying to win it in regulation after three consecutive extra-innings affairs, Bruce Bochy sent pinch runner Ezequiel Durán to first base (Durán promptly stole second and third).

One problem (sorry to repeat myself) … the Rangers’ only other available catcher — Jonah Heim — was in the lineup as the DH. Two AL teams, zero designated hitters. Surely we won’t refer back to this later. 

Anyway, the Rangers couldn’t drive home Durán to walk it off in the ninth, so for the fourth consecutive night, Texas went to extra innings. That’s hell on a bullpen, and the 10th inning went about like you might expect: The Orioles scored three runs.

Then with two on in the bottom of the 10th, Adolis García hit a no-doubt, three-run, game-tying blast, prompting the wildest home run celebration I’ve seen in a long time:

Adolis Garcia’s tying home run in the bottom of the 10th for Texas with his reaction from several angles and both broadcasts, the Orioles won in 11 innings but this is *electric* pic.twitter.com/shIxrTWWKV

— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) July 1, 2025

We are not finished.

Did I mention the Rangers’ bullpen was exhausted? Hoby Milner, who entered the night with a 1.94 ERA, finished the night at 2.53, because — pitching for the third time in four nights — he gave up four runs.

And that is how, with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning, and the game on the line, starter Jack Leiter pinch-hit for Milner, a sentence I never expected to write.

By this point, I half-expected Leiter to hit a home run — no, no — a triple. It was just that kind of night. But alas, all parties must end. Leiter struck out, and the Rangers lost 10-6.

🔄: One star down, another star back

It’s never good timing for a division leader’s star player to go down with an injury, but this feels like particularly bad luck: Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña — hitting .322/.378/.489 (.867 OPS) for the suddenly unstoppable Astros — has hit the injured list with a rib fracture.

The injury happened Friday night when Peña was hit by a pitch. Initial X-rays did not show the fracture. But after he was unable to play Saturday or Sunday, he underwent more tests, including an MRI and a CT that showed: actually, yeah. There’s a fracture.

It’s the latest big blow for Houston, which is already without DH Yordan Alvarez and infielder Brendan Rodgers. Pitchers Spencer Arrighetti, Ronel Blanco, J.P. France, Luis Garcia and Cristian Javier are also out of commission.

Going into last night’s action, Peña ranked fourth in the league in bWAR, trailing only Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Shohei Ohtani.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, a Phillies team that went 13-14 without Bryce Harper in the lineup got their man back last night. Harper had been on the shelf since June 5 with a wrist issue.

The two-time MVP and eight-time All-Star is hitting just .258 (.814 OPS) this year, with nine home runs in 57 games. But the Phillies offense has been in dire need of a boost, and sometimes, it’s as much about the presence as it is the actual production.

Case in point: Harper finished 0-for-2 with a walk last night, but the Phillies beat the Padres 4-0 as Zack Wheeler went eight shutout innings, striking out 10.

Handshakes and High Fives

You may have noticed: It’s hot. Andy McCullough and Chad Jennings dive in on what MLB teams are doing to combat the heat and protect their players.

This week’s Power Rankings look at each team’s June trends.

Yankees reliever Fernando Cruz led all big-league relievers with a 14.7 K/9 rate. He’ll be on the shelf for a while — he injured his oblique warming up with a medicine ball.

Seiya Suzuki’s 22 home runs are already a career high — at least stateside. Here’s why the Cubs’ 30-year-old is banging.

We’ve been wondering who would take ESPN’s place on MLB’s broadcast roster. The answer might be … ESPN.

As the Twins spiral, they’ve got to be wondering: What happened to “Clutch Correa”?

Dhani Joseph has a cool story today about the bond between Mets legends David Wright and Tom Seaver. And speaking of the Mets … with all the pitching injuries, why haven’t we seen any of their top pitching prospects?

The draft is less than a month away. Here are Keith Law’s top 100 draft-eligible prospects. Meanwhile, Max Clark and Sebastian Walcott highlight this year’s Futures Game rosters.

On the pods: The “Rates & Barrels” crew took a look back at the totals from the last calendar year, in which Eugenio Suárez has 49 home runs (fourth-best in baseball) and Luis Robert (.267 wOBA) is the second-worst hitter in the game.

Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The origin story of Dave Parker’s “Boys Boppin” shirt.

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(Photo: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)