Nick Piccone
After this Hallmark moment yesterday, Jonathan Papelbon talked to reporters not only about the fight with Bryce Harper in the dugout, but he also clarified statements he made a few weeks ago about the Phillies not wanting to win. He apparently was talking about team management and not the players. [CSN Philly]
“It wasn’t about the players,” he said. “It was about the difference between the front office and the players. They’ve got players that want to win and want to become every-day big leaguers. It was just hard for them to be put in a situation for that to happen because the front office never allowed that.”
Papelbon said he did not have a problem with management entering a rebuilding mode. He just wishes the front office hadn’t announced its intentions.
“It was more along the lines of my frustrations at them coming out and saying we were rebuilding,” he said. “When you say that, you don’t trust your players to win. It doesn’t give them the chance to win.
“They should have never said that. You take the field and let your young players develop. Let them play. That put us all in a tough spot from the get-go of spring training. It cast a shadow over everything from Day 1. That’s what I was getting at, whereas the players fought every day trying to scrape together wins. That’s what it was geared toward.
“I think the players know where I was coming from. Guys I played with know my passion and the way I play the game. You don’t have very many opportunities in this game to play it the right way.”
I see where Papelbon is coming from, and there’s no chance he could have known how much of a downward spiral the team would go on after signing his mega-contract in 2011. And the fact the team refused to spend more money to replace ailing parts was a catalyst in that spiral, opting to penny pinch when the attendance at the ballpark was still high so they could still make their money. [Now, they’re paying for it. Literally.]
However, Paps seems the furthest from a guy who his teammates genuinely like and root for; they probably let everything go in one ear and out the other when he speaks [excluding Ken Giles, who loves the guy].
UPDATE: Perfect timing. Papelbon’s been suspended for the rest of the year.