Former Yankees fan favorite shares brutally bleak take on Rob Manfred

From the moment many baseball players met Commissioner Rob Manfred, it appears they did not enjoy the presence he brought in the immediate aftermath of Bud Selig’s also rocky tenure.

Apparently, based on the way he’s negotiated in bad faith for the past three months, as well as his comments devaluing the World Series trophy and everything MLB players stand for, the feeling is mutual! This guy hates players, players hate him. What a … breathtaking and wonderful steward for this beautiful game we all love.

Though many said it well, perhaps former Yankees champion Phil Hughes said it best, tearing down Manfred’s pompous, smarmy air right from the start of their relationship.

Let’s set the scene. The year is 2015, and almost every baseball fan has just finished an extended sigh of relief in the aftermath of Bud Selig stepping down. Finally, the era of steroid abuse and tied All-Star Games has ended! Nothing short-sighted or misguided will ever happen in Major League Baseball again! “Uptown Funk” is at the top of the charts! A new era of joy has washed over the American people.

And then … everybody met the new guy.

According to Phil Hughes, the ex-Yankees hurler who was trying to battle through his MLB career back in ’15, he hated Manfred from the start, and every player he came into contact seemed to know the league was now being led by a clown with a big honkin’ nose.

Yankees fan favorite Phil Hughes hated Rob Manfred from the jump

Yup. That’s always good when the entire workforce is distrustful of the boss and doesn’t believe in him from Day 1. A beautiful starting point for a relationship.

Unfortunately, since the early days when Hughes and his cohorts first met Manfred and judged him accurately, things have only gotten worse.

Especially in the wake of his cancellation of the first two series of 2022 (at the very least), players across the Twitterverse lashed out, unafraid to say out loud what they’d surely been thinking for quite a while.

Marcus Stroman was perhaps the most brazen, but the MLB players we saw were unified behind his sentiment.

Hopefully, the two sides can come together and have substantive, non-clownish discussions about baseball’s future soon.

Manfred’s head, though, is just a hunk of metal, so those talks might not get far.

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