Here is a blog on the eighth-most interesting thing to happen to the Mets in the last couple of days.
Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton and Mets 3B Todd Frazier don’t like each other very much. No one knows why. That’s not true; they probably know why. They’ve just never deigned to share the origins of their enmity. The most educated guess says it dates back to their one season as teammates a few years ago, and indeed, one Chicago reporter says the two got into a fight in the locker room. But further interrogation would require willingly researching and discussing the 2016 White Sox, and I don’t want to inflict that on you, or on myself.
Things spilled over in public last season, when during a game in August, Eaton and Frazier spent some time snapping at each other across the infield. But that was minor compared to Monday night’s run-in, when Eaton, after grounding into an inning ending double-play, jogged out to the field and passed Frazier coming the other way. The two yelled at each other and had to be separated by teammates.
Frazier didn’t feel like talking about it, telling reporters, “it was nothing.” Eaton very much felt like talking about it, meaning we now have a one-sided and still incomprehensible account of this long-simmering beef.
“Gosh, who knows what goes through that guy’s mind? He’s chirping all the way across the infield. He must really like me, ’cause he wants to get my attention,” Eaton said. “It seems like every time we come into town, he really cares what I think about him. I don’t know what his deal is, if he wants to talk to me in person or have a visit or what it is.
“But he’s always yelling across the infield at me, making a habit of it. He’s one of those guys who always says it loud enough that you hear it but can’t understand it.
“It’s funny. I was walking toward him. He didn’t really want to walk towards me. But as soon as someone held him back, then he was, all of a sudden he was really impatient, like trying to get towards me. Just being Todd Frazier. What’s new?”
Now, right around here you’re almost certainly thinking about Eaton’s status as a homeowner. Don’t worry, he is too.
“He’s very childish,” Eaton said. “I’m walking with my head down. The play’s over. I’m walking away. I hear him a couple of times. I’m a 30-year-old man with two kids. I’ve got a mortgage and everything. And he wants to loud-talk as he’s running off the field. I’ve got to be a man about it. I tried to stay patient with the childishness and like I said, it is what it is. I’ve got to stand up to him eventually.”
The Mets won the game 5-3, but the two teams have three more games in this series, then two more series following the all-star break. I look forward to more passive-aggressive chirping between Eaton and Frazier, and, above all, a steadfast refusal to explain anything.