Tuesday’s night’s game between the disappointing Washington Nationals and the underachieving New York Mets probably drew more attention than normal for a late-spring matchup between a couple of losing teams — thanks largely to some drama supplied by Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton and Mets third baseman Todd Frazier.
Both clubs went into the contest at Citi Field on edge after Eaton and Frazier got into a heated exchange during Monday’s 5-3 Mets win.
Eaton had to be separated from Frazier after the two exchanged words on the field.
After the game, Eaton blasted Frazier to reporters, calling him “childish.” Then on Tuesday, Frazier sounded off on Eaton to reporters in the clubhouse — leading to another response from Eaton. The two apparently have a long-standing dislike of each other, for reasons not publicly known. They were teammates on the 2016 Chicago White Sox, but have had multiple confrontations since then.
Monday’s incident started when Eaton grounded out into a double play to end the third inning. Between innings, cameras caught the two jawing at each other.
“He’s chirping all the way across the infield,” Eaton told reporters on Monday. “I don’t know. He must really like me because he wants to get my attention, it seems like, every time we come here to town. He really cares what I think about him, I guess. I don’t know what the deal is. He’s always yelling across the infield at me. He’s made a habit of it. He’s one of those guys that always says it loud enough so you can hear it, but you can’t understand it.
“You’ve got to be a man at some point. So I turned around, had a few choice words with him. It’s funny. I was walking toward him and he didn’t really want to walk toward me, but as soon as someone held him back, then he was like, all of a sudden was really impatient, like trying to come toward me. Like I said, just being Todd Frazier. So what’s new?”
Eaton and Frazier also yelled at each other across the infield last August.
It is unclear how the beef between Eaton and Frazier originated. The 2016 White Sox were a trainwreck with a series of notable storylines — from the controversy of the team banning Adam LaRoche’s teenage son from the clubhouse to pitcher Chris Sale cutting the team’s retro uniforms so they wouldn’t have to wear them. But there weren’t reports about Eaton’s and Frazier’s dislike for each other.
At first, Frazier downplayed Monday’s incident to reporters, saying it was nothing at all.
But on Tuesday — after getting wind of Eaton’s comments — Frazier had a different tone.
“At the end of the day, you think about what a man really is: You say that stuff out in the field, you don’t really talk about it,” Frazier said. “That’s basically what I do. … I heard what he said. It didn’t really bother me that much, but at the end of the day, you ask guys that when I played for the White Sox in 2016 … they know what happened.
“For him to talk after that, I don’t know how you talk after that. … Men usually settle it on the field.”
Frazier did not expand on what happened between them. He told reporters he wasn’t surprised of Eaton’s response, calling him immature.
“If you know Adam like every team he’s been on, you hear what people say, you understand,” Frazier said. “I was part of it for a year-and-a-half.”
On Monday, Eaton said he had no choice but to say something back.
“He’s very childish,” Eaton said Monday. “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.”
Said Frazier: “Pay off your mortgage, I don’t know what to tell you.”
As part of his response on Tuesday, Eaton clarified to reporters he does not have a mortgage. He laughed off Frazier’s comments.
“He’s like an old girlfriend,” Eaton said. “I’m not going to bring it up. It’s very childish honestly. You guys care about what happened in 2016? This is 2019, guys.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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