{"id":13050,"date":"2015-09-29T08:05:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/nats-suspend-papelbon-4-games-for-fight-with-harper\/"},"modified":"2015-09-29T08:05:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:05:12","slug":"nats-suspend-papelbon-4-games-for-fight-with-harper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/nats-suspend-papelbon-4-games-for-fight-with-harper\/","title":{"rendered":"Nats suspend Papelbon 4 games for fight with Harper"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 Bryce Harper is not quite sure what he could have done differently to avoid the dugout fight with teammate Jonathan Papelbon that resulted in the Washington Nationals suspending the closer for four games without pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re in a bar or if you\u2019re in the dugout or if you\u2019re anywhere,\u201d Harper said Monday, a day after his scrap with Papelbon, \u201cif someone grabs your neck, your first reaction is to do what I did, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper, a leading NL MVP contender, also indicated he would be OK with Papelbon returning to the Nationals in 2016. The reliever has an $11 million guaranteed contract for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf \u2018Paps\u2019 can help us win a World Series next year, that\u2019s what I need. That\u2019s what this whole clubhouse needs,\u201d Harper said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be fighting or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Papelbon will miss the rest of this season. On Monday, he dropped his appeal of a three-game ban from Major League Baseball for throwing at an opponent\u2019s head last week, and then missed Washington\u2019s 5-1 victory over Cincinnati. After that punishment ends, Papelbon serves the Nationals\u2019 suspension announced Monday.<\/p>\n

Harper was held out of the home finale against the Reds for \u201chis part in the altercation\u201d with Papelbon, manager Matt Williams said.<\/p>\n

Harper, though, said after Sunday\u2019s game that he was scheduled to be off Monday, anyway.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he was disappointed at the way the Washington portion of his season ended, Harper said: \u201cI\u2019ve got three more years at Nats Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

General manager Mike Rizzo said Papelbon\u2019s more severe discipline made clear who the club felt \u201cwas more at fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, after Harper flied out in the eighth inning against Philadelphia, he headed to the dugout, where he and Papelbon exchanged words. The argument escalated, and Papelbon reached out with his left hand and grabbed Harper by the throat.<\/p>\n

Papelbon then shoved the outfielder toward the bench with both hands, before teammates and members of Williams\u2019 coaching staff pulled the pair apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a very difficult 24 hours for the organization,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Williams was at the other end of the dugout and, he said Monday, was not aware of exactly what happened until later in the day, when he saw video that made the rounds on Twitter immediately after the scuffle. Williams said he hadn\u2019t seen that video before his postgame news conference Sunday and hadn\u2019t sought information from his coaches or other players during the game. <\/p>\n

He added that because he was unaware of the extent of the confrontation, he sent Papelbon back out to pitch in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was odd,\u201d Rizzo said of the reliever returning to the mound after the fight. \u201cBut there\u2019s a lot of things going on in the dugout at the time. Matt missed it. He owned up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he eventually did see video of Papelbon clutching at Harper\u2019s neck, Williams said, \u201cI was upset. I was appalled.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he also made it sound as if a truly bothersome aspect was that everyone saw what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, this happens between players in the confines of a private clubhouse. It doesn\u2019t happen in the open, generally,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSo that being said, that\u2019s how we would prefer to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Williams and Rizzo said they had no problem with the way Harper jogged to first base on the fly ball that preceded the skirmish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no problem with his effort level (or) the way he hustles,\u201d Rizzo said. \u201cIt is the job of the veteran players to point out what they think when you\u2019re not playing the game right. \u2018Pap\u2019 must have felt that he wasn\u2019t and he called him on it. It takes a guy with some guts to call a player out nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper, Rizzo added, \u201cdid not deserve it, in my personal opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the reliever plunked Baltimore star Manny Machado and was ejected; Harper called the hit-by-pitch \u201ctired\u201d and worried aloud about whether the Orioles would retaliate by beaning him.<\/p>\n

Rizzo acquired Papelbon from the Phillies in a trade in late July in hopes of a possible postseason push.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill he be with us in 2016? He\u2019s under contract,\u201d Rizzo said about Papelbon. \u201cWe\u2019re going to evaluate every moving part that we have after the season and we\u2019ll make all those decisions once the final out is made in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

That applies to Williams\u2019 status, too, Rizzo said.<\/p>\n

The Nationals began the season as World Series favorites, but their playoff hopes officially ended Saturday, when the Mets clinched the NL East title.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a very disappointing season,\u201d Williams said. \u201cEverybody understands that.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/HowardFendrich<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Bryce Harper is not quite sure what he could have done differently to avoid the dugout fight with teammate Jonathan Papelbon that resulted in the Washington Nationals suspending the closer for four games without pay. \u201cIf you\u2019re in a bar or if you\u2019re in the dugout or if you\u2019re anywhere,\u201d Harper said Monday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13050"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}