Jonathan Papelbon calls out Ruben Amaro Jr on Boston radio, says he completely ruined the Philadelphia Phillies
Jonathan Papelbon is obsessed with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The former Phillies closer simply won’t shut about about Philadelphia. Back in January, he was on a podcast talking about how much he loved the 2012 Phillies team and even called it the best group of guys he’s ever played with.
Last month, Papelbon then decided he was going to rip Bryce Harper and the Phillies leadership after the Joe Girardi firing.
Jonathan Papelbon Early July with Betway Insider
“It’s like a shit show there. And, for me, I see the shit show continuing. I mean, they fired their manager, what, two months into the season? As long as that stuff happens, Philadelphia will never win again. Philadelphia will never get back to the playoffs.”
“Thumbs, fingers, wrists, all those are very, very hard to come back from when you’re a hitter….I don’t necessarily see [Bryce] being a huge leader of the team, because he was never really a leader when I played with him. He kind of went about his own business and more was a me-guy or an I-guy, and wasn’t really into what was happening in the clubhouse, and didn’t have that pull for the team.”
Side Note: Jonathan Papelbon was completely wrong. Loser.
Now, we have another update from Papelbon. This time, he was in Boston on WEEI’s Bradfo Sho (horrible name) and continued shit talking the Phillies. This time, it was in regards to Ruben Amaro Jr’s handling of the ball club while he was a member of the team from 2012-2014.
I went there one, because they were the ones that wanted me the most. And two, I thought I was gonna go there and win two more championships, at least, Rob. I mean you look at what we had. We had Roy Halladay, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, myself.
Ruben Amaro was handed the keys to a damn Lamborghini and crashed it.
RAJ undoubtedly deserves a chunk of the blame during that era of Phillies baseball but there were a million other factors that played into the Phillies fall from grace in the early 2010s.
The 2012-2014 seasons were riddled with injuries. The pitching staff was getting older, there was the Ryan Howard extension in 2010, Cliff Lee was traded and then re-signed again. The bench and farm system were both nonexistent.
I mean hell, media members were even calling the Phillies a new dynasty in the likes of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. That clearly didn’t hold up very well over the past 10 years.
However, at the end of the day, the window to win multiple World Series in Philadelphia was between 2008-2011. By the time 2012-2014 came around, it was basically shut and the Phillies had an aging core that were all past their prime years.
Ruben Amaro Jr took the high road in his response to Papelbon on Twitter
At the end of the day, there might be some merit to what Papelbon was saying but at the same time, you can’t really take his side in anything. He’s out of the spotlight and now running around talking about the Phillies from 10 years ago grabbing headlines. That’s basically the playbook for washed up, angry athletes. It’s nothing new and it’s something that we’ll definitely deal with time and time again.
Good riddance.
