The decision to trade Kendall Graveman to the Houston Astros is apparently not sitting well with Seattle Mariners players.
Clubhouse equipment was broken and smashed by one player who reacted poorly to the news, sources told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times.
Another player, speaking anonymously, said he felt "betrayed" by the move.
The Mariners sit one game back of the Oakland Athletics in the wild-card standings and are six behind the AL West-leading Astros after beating them 11-8 in comeback fashion on Monday night. In other words, Seattle is in the thick of the playoff race.
"Are you (expletive) kidding me?" the player added. "It never changes. They don’t care about winning. How do you trade him and say you care about winning? And you trade him to Houston? It never changes."
For his part, general manager Jerry Dipoto acknowledged that the trade could initially be a problem for clubhouse chemistry while adding that more moves are on the way for this season's playoff push.
That didn't exactly ease the tension among players who learned of the trade through social media instead of from the team directly.
"He hasn’t come down here," a player said of Dipoto. "He sits up in his suite, playing fantasy baseball and rips apart our team without telling us anything."
