The Phillies have lost 8 straight and they’re only a game and a half ahead of the not-quite fearsome NY Mets in the battle for 3rd place in the NL East. “I definitely didn’t come here for this,” moaned reliever Jonathan Papelbon to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, though unlike his last public outburst, the subject of the former Boston closer’s umbrage this time wasn’t fundamentals.
Asked what he thought about the direction the organization is headed, he sighed.“Oh, man,” he said. “We could be here all day.”
So then what about this team’s ability to turn things around, if not this season, then next season?
“It’s going to take, in my opinion, a lot,” he said. “And in my opinion, I think it’s going to have to be something very similar to what the Red Sox went through a couple years ago. From top to bottom.”
“That’s part of it,” he said about Boston’s decision not to bring him back. “That’s part of the business. If you want to go in a different direction and I’m not a piece of that puzzle, so be it. This is a job. There are no feelings in this game. I left. Carl [Crawford] left. [Josh] Beckett left. Adrian [Gonzalez] left. Now look at them.”
Asked after the game if he wants to be traded, Papelbon said, “No, I would like to stay here. But if I’m going to have to put up with this year after year, then no, I don’t want to be here. Why would you? Why would anybody?”