One hundred forty-five games into this fetid season, the Phillies’ problem has finally become clear.
They didn’t have enough Jonathan Papelbons.
That’s basically what the man himself said upon returning to Citizens Bank Park on Monday for the first time since being traded to the Washington Nationals on July 28.
“I don’t know if I got a bad rap here or whatever, but I can promise you I was far [from] the bad guy on this team,” Papelbon said before Monday night’s game. “I was one of the few that wanted to actually win, and I was one of the few that competed and posted up every day.”
That’s pretty harsh criticism, accusing former teammates of not wanting to win and of not competing.
Papelbon would not name the teammates that he believed did not “post up” every day. When pressed, he essentially generalized his comments and pointed to the team’s rebuild and the coming and going of young players.
“I say it as a team,” Papelbon said. “If you don't have a team atmosphere that's put together that coincides with winning, you know?
“You've got one guy going down to Triple A, one guy's coming back from Triple A next week. You've got different positions every week. That to me wasn't a formula for winning, you know? We just had too many non-regular guys in there, and granted, we did get hurt, but we didn't have the personnel, the leadership, the A to Z to win. It was felt all throughout the clubhouse and it was felt all throughout the stadium, I believe.”
Who gets the blame for that?
“I think the blame goes all the way from the front office all the way down to the bat boy,” Papelbon said. “When you don't have an organization that wants to win, it's pretty evident and they go out and publicly say, ‘We're not going to win.’ So what more, you know what I mean?”
Papelbon was asked why he did not try to lead more during his time with the Phillies.
“I did. I did. I tried to do certain things,” he said. “I tried to bring certain things to attention that would make us better and it just seemed like everything I brought to attention whether it would be with another veteran or pitcher or infielder or outfielder or another veteran guy, it was like, to me, I was never accepted in that, ‘Hey look, this guy wants to help our team and make us be better,’ way. They just kind of all let it fly by the wayside and never really paid attention to what I had to say.”
Papelbon’s reference to the rebuild that started before this season is fair. But he was a Phillie for three seasons before that. The Phillies tried to put winners on the field those three years and failed. Papelbon signed a four-year, $50 million contract with the Phillies before the 2012 season. By the middle of his second season with the club, he pointed to the losing and said, “I didn’t come here for this.” That comment did not sit well from top to bottom in the organization.
Papelbon had pushed for a trade for a couple of years and the Phillies were eager to oblige him. Finally, in late July they found a taker in the NL East rival Nationals. When Papelbon joined the Nats, they were a game up in the NL East and built their advantage to three games a few days later. Papelbon thought he’d landed with a winner.
Six weeks later, things are much different. The Nats entered Monday night’s game virtually out of contention, 9½ games behind the Mets.
Losing has followed Papelbon to Washington and he admitted to being disappointed by that.
“It is,” he said.” But I think in this game the only thing you can truly ask for is to be on a team you’re happy being on and being in an environment where you have a chance or an opportunity to win. And neither one of those two were able to be done for me with the Phillies, and both of those are the reasons why I came to Washington. All I asked for was a chance to win, and when you have a chance, that’s all you can ask for. You lay the cards out and see how they fold. It is what it is.”
During his time in Philadelphia, Papelbon became the Phillies’ all-time saves leader with 123. He pitched extremely well and helped mentor Ken Giles, who has successfully moved into the closer’s role.
But Papelbon may be remembered more by Phillies fans for the controversial things he said — in word and gesture. There was no love lost between Papelbon and former manager Ryne Sandberg. Papelbon was not a fan of the front office either. He feigned not knowing that Ruben Amaro Jr. had been let go last week before admitting he agreed with the move and was not surprised.
"They’re just unfortunately in a position where they do have to do a lot of other things to become a good organization and I think it’s going to be a while before that happens," Papelbon said.
Papelbon will be appearing at Citizens Bank Park through Wednesday night and for three series next year.
But he probably won’t be invited back to any alumni weekend barbeques when his career is over.
“I don’t like the barbeques at the alumni weekend anyway,” Papelbon said. “It doesn’t really hurt my feelings. The way I look back on it is I came here as a free agent and I looked to produce day in and day out, and I felt like I did that. We had a lot of injuries and a lot of guys fall by the wayside, but I was still able to be there grinding every day and posting up so that’s the way I look at it. It just so happened to be an unfortunate situation where you just lost one game after another.”