After making a big trade for him last July, now the Washington Nationals are dealing with an unhappy Jonathan Papelbon. What went wrong here?
Last summer, the Washington Nationals made a “big splash” sort of trade, acquiring Jonathan Papelbon and cash at the deadline for a minor league pitcher. The Phillies had tried to trade Papelbon for a long time with no suitors due to his contract ($11M in 2016).
This created all kinds of issues in the Washington clubhouse, putting a wedge between the club and their young closer at the time of the trade, Drew Storen, who had saved 29 games before the trade with a 1.73 ERA and a 9/44 BB/K over 36 1/3 innings. The led to the club trading Storen in the offseason due to a relationship that had become foul between the player and the club.
UPDATE- The Nationals granted Papelbon’s request Saturday afternoon.
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Of course, the incident that everyone remembers last season was the confrontation between Papelbon and Bryce Harper. Harper was in the midst of an offensive season that we haven’t seen since Barry Bonds was at his peak performance with the Giants, but he didn’t give the hustle on a particular play that Papelbon thought he should, leading to Papelbon placing his hands on Harper’s neck in the midst of a heated confrontation.
Papelbon absolutely was the one who turned a heated verbal confrontation into a physical one, and he brought out a lot of the old guard against Harper, nevermind that Harper is renowned for his hustle and that the rumor mill all offseason was that the fact that manager Matt Williams didn’t back Bryce Harper lost him the clubhouse and eventually his job when he was let go in the offseason.
Now, after the Washington Nationals have endured all of that, Papelbon has taken offense that the team responded to his terrible 2016 performance by acquiring a veteran closer at the trade deadline when they brought in Mark Melancon (for significantly more than they paid to get Papelbon). Melancon has pitched incredibly well and has taken over the closer’s role since his acquisition, and now Papelbon today, according to ESPN (and other reports), has asked the team to release him.
Papelbon is only 35 and was bound to be a free agent this offseason, so, even though he’s in the midst of his worst professional season, he should have suitors in the offseason. He is second only to Craig Kimbrel in saves since 2010, and amongst active closers, is second only to Francisco Rodriguez in saves. However, with his poor clubhouse reputation and poor performance in 2016, it’s tough to imagine he’s going to get a lot of attention as a closer anymore, and he certainly will have difficulty finding $11M again.
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Here’s the video of that Harper incident from last season, just to refresh your memory: