The underachieving Washington Nationals flirted with the idea of selling at the trade deadline. In the end, they only departed with reliever Brandon Kintzler, whom they traded to the Cubs for A-ball pitcher Jhon Romero.
Considering the Nationals had other members of their bullpen on the block, and considering they're still going for the division, the trade of Kintzler stands out. Sure enough, the Washington Post reported that the club believed Kintzler had loose lips.
The Nationals gave their reasons for trading Kintzler publicly, but a significant reason went unspoken. Club officials believed Kintzler was an anonymous source for reports that cited clubhouse strife, according to people with knowledge of the situation. In a radio interview on 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday, Kintzler denied he was a source for Yahoo’s recent story, which called the Nationals’ clubhouse “a mess.”
“I’ve never talked to that [author] Jeff Passan guy in my life, so that’s an interesting accusation,” Kintzler said on “Grant & Danny.” “I know for a fact that someone got him to admit his source was not a player, so it wasn’t me. I’ve never talked to that guy in my life.”
Passan's story on the Nationals painted a vivid picture of the third-place Nats, and when it comes to these stories, I tend to CTRL-F "Eaton" to see if our old friend Adam Eaton shows up.
Eaton rubbed various Sox personnel and radio guys the wrong way for reasons that were never quite specified and were to some degree unfair. However, given his running record of playing for teams that imploded -- before Robin Ventura's White Sox, he was on Kirk Gibson's Diamondbacks -- I thought he might be in the mix.
That doesn't seem to be the case so far, although the Post's description of Eaton as an "impromptu clubhouse spokesman" suggests a suboptimal situation, because he still has the tendency to talk himself past the runway and into a retaining ditch. He did OK here:
The veteran was given the night off but he felt compelled to address the situations surrounding the team. He was most ardent about suggestions of clubhouse strife.
"Anybody reaching for this clubhouse is a mess or Davey's not doing a good job, whatever it may be, is a load of crap," Eaton said. "You can go to anybody on this back wall, these veteran guys and the guys that have been here, done that, we're going to stand behind that and we're going to all say the same thing because it's true."
But not so much here:
"There's really no room for that kind of talk or language in the game of baseball, or really America and in the world," Adam Eaton said. ". . . That being said, the year and a half I've known Trea, he's been an outstanding person in all walks of life — doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, black, purple, orange. He's been an outstanding person to all of us."
Spare Parts
Speaking of people who didn't cover themselves in glory during L'Affaire LaRoche, Chris Sale hit the DL with something that'd never bothered him before. But circumstantial evidence suggests it might not be that big a deal. First, he maintains it'll be a short stint:
Sale also was quick to push back against the notion that there was more than inflammation.
“If this was something more serious, I would tell you,” he said. “We’re not hiding anything. This is not something that we’re worried about. This is a concern at most.”
Sale went 4-0 with a 0.36 ERA in July to bolster his lead in the American League Cy Young race, so there's nothing in his recent performances, either. My guess is that one of Sale's teams finally has a chance to give him a breather so he can try to avoid his usual September swoon. Boston leads the Yankees by 5½ games.
Reynaldo Lopez keeps citing "focus" as the main culprit in his recent struggles, shooting down the idea of fatigue being a main factor, so James Fegan explores this notion. It could be true on multiple fronts -- he just became a father, and we've seen other pitchers have to work to channel their energies when things aren't going well. Then again, it's harder to focus when fatigued, so I wouldn't write off the idea that Lopez is hitting a wall.
Paul Konerko will join Hawk Harrelson as a guest analyst on Aug. 19, and it could be an experiment worth listening to. Konerko still has a knack for very detailed, nuanced answers to questions he could more or less shrug away. For instance, when asked about the launch angle revolution:
This is a great example of Konerko's literally inside-baseball thoughts -- lengthy, in-depth, but not rambling. I want to hear all of it. I just wonder if he can shape them to fit between pitches, outs and innings.
That's assuming Harrelson will let him expound in the first place, which I'm not counting on. But give him Jason Benetti -- somebody who can set him up without treating it like an interview -- and I think it'd be fun to hear him for a series a season.
