Tradegate!

What would a season be without some controversy? Nothing, I tell you! Nothing but boring. And what better way to attempt to distract fans from another dismal season than a controversy? No better way! That’s really what I think Tradegate, my name for this whole hullabaloo over the trade of Gary Majewski, along with Royce Clayton, Bill Bray, Brendan Harris and Daryl Thompson to Cincinnati for Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez last July. Basically, the Reds are mad because almost as soon as they got him, Majewski went on the DL and hasn’t been the same pitcher since. Oh, that and the fact that the other players in that trade haven’t exactly saved the Reds from an abysmal start to the season, either.

The Reds filed a grievance with MLB today that alleged the Nationals did not disclose the extent of Majewski’s tendonitis to the Reds prior to the trade, the logic being that had they known, the trade wouldn’t have happened. At this point, no one’s really talking much about it. The Reds and Nats both aren’t saying anything, mainly because they know that one wrong word could cost them the case. However, Bow Bow has said in the past that the Nats provided Cincinnati with every medical record and report they asked for and that Majewski’s arm troubles were plastered all over the media. I can only vouch for the second part of that statement being true. Majewski’s tendonitis was a known secret around DC last year. And I would assume that Bow Bow wouldn’t be foolish enough to screw around with a big trade like that by hiding information about a pitcher’s problem that was bound to get out anyway. Bow Bow had to know that it was only a matter of time before Majewski’s arm got really injured. Otherwise why trade him along with three other players, including a promising reliever in Bill Bray? Why take two (theoretically) good pitchers, the position you’ve said many times you’re focusing on to build the franchise, and trade them away for two position players? So, following that logic, why try to hide the problem?

If anything, you’d expect this to have leaked long ago. Washington is a town built on poorly kept secrets (Watergate being the easiest example). And with the supposed dissension in the ranks of the Front Office, I would think this sort of fraud would have made its way to the Washington Post by August of last year. Some pissed off employee would have let it slip, certainly. But, so far as I know, that didn’t happen.

So, at this point, here’s my theory. The Reds are just mad because they made a terrible trade. Not the worst trade ever, but still one where they got the short end of the stick. They’re mad that their bullpen is atrocious because Bray and Majewski aren’t adding value. And they’re mad because they lost two long-time Reds in the deal at the hands of their former GM of ten years. Below is a link to Federal Baseball, where you can get the summary of my theory by looking at his graphic of the grievance document.

I’m interested to see what MLB has to say on the matter. At this point, there’s really not enough factual information out there to make a real educated guess, despite my theory above. Although it’s pretty much air tight, in my opinion. Just kidding.