Bryce Reached Out To Papelbon And Apparently They Are Cool Now....And The Nats Plan On Keep Both Pap And Storen For Next Season

WaPo - When Dusty Baker is introduced as the new manager of the Washington Nationals on Thursday, he may have one fewer problem to worry about than most assume. Since the end of the season, Bryce Harper has reached out to Jonathan Papelbon to make sure their relationship as teammates is functional next season.

“Papelbon and Harper are fine together,” one person inside the Natioanls, referring to Harper’s phone call. “Harp just wants to win. All he cares about is that we have a 45-save relief pitcher who’s going to help us.”

In a related note, Nats people also say the team’s current plan is to have both Papelbon and Drew Storen in the end back of their bullpen again next year with the expectation that they will work out a way to “play nice together.”

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I don’t know. It’s pretty easy for Pap to say it’s all good on the phone from the beach in Maui. It’s another thing when that asshole is back to antagonizing an entire clubhouse for an entire season, as he is prone to do. It’s unfortunate that he has a big fat $10 million contract, a terrible reputation, and a fastball in the low 90’s, or it’d be a lot easier to move on. Meanwhile, they plan on keeping Drew Storen, who looked like he was throwing home run derby for the last 2 months of the season. Storen had a hell of a great first half of the year, and then once Pap swooped in and stole his closer job, the rails came off. I don’t really trust either of them finishing out games, nevermind both. The back end of the bullpen is easily the biggest concern for this club going into next season. Maybe it can somehow work? It’s unlikely, but fuck, baseball is weird. We saw how awful it was last year. How dysfunctional. Sure fights in clubhouses happen everywhere. And sure, shit was going to explode due to Matt Williams’ terrible leadership. But Papelbon has always been a cancer. And he’s well past his prime. What’s going to happen when he blows his first save? His second save? When he gets demoted? His ego can’t handle it. It’s almost like we can see the fallout now and the season doesn’t start for another 5 months.