The Washington Nationals were in a weird spot at the trade deadline, standing in third place in the National League East, below .500, and reportedly telling teams to bring them their best offers for Bryce Harper.
The very next day Mike Rizzo, Washington’s GM, said the team wasn’t going to trade Harper and that pretty much signaled that they weren’t going to be sellers. They have plenty of talent to jump back in to the division race, currently 5.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies, but they did make one trade on Tuesday.
Former closer Brandon Kintzler was acquired by the Nationals in 2017, from the Minnesota Twins and the right-hander re-signed with Washington in the offseason, as the team was preparing for another playoff run. On Tuesday Kintzler was traded to the Chicago Cubs and he was caught completely by surprise, thinking it was a joke.
Now, there’s a report in The Washington Post that says Kintzler was an anonymous player leaking things to the media, saying that things were getting bad in the Nationals’ clubhouse.
Have heard from a number of people affiliated with the Nationals since writing this earlier today who have confirmed the central thesis: Washington's clubhouse is a problem, confidence in manager Davey Martinez has eroded and the Nats' trouble runs deep. https://t.co/817PsWn3du pic.twitter.com/kUwnQgj0hi
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 30, 2018
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.”
Kintzler had a radio interview and responded to the accusation.
“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.”
Interestingly enough, Theo Epstein was on ESPN 1000 Wednesday morning and he said that Jeff Passan, who wrote the article on the dysfunction in the Nationals’ clubhouse, called him and said he’d never spoken to Kintzler before.
This is amazing: Theo just told @thekapman on the radio that Passan called him – unsolicited – this morning to tell him he's never even spoken with Kintzler in his life. Sure makes it seem like Nats are floating a bogus explanation for the deal. https://t.co/kfdoWctsQI
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) August 1, 2018
So, that collaborates with Kintzler’s story.
At first it does sound pretty convincing that Kintzer could have been a mole or whatever, as he’s a solid reliever and could help the Nationals, if they believe they can still reach the playoffs. And they do think that, considering they didn’t sell at the trade deadline. So, to trade him was an odd decision.
However, Kintzler’s and Passan’s stories match up and the Nationals just DFA’d a reliever because he slammed his glove on the mound during Tuesday night’s game. Things just seem a little out of whack with the Nationals.
Anyway, the Cubs will welcome in Kintzler, who is hopefully part of another postseason run on the North Side.
