The Chicago Cubs seemed a bit taken aback when news hit the clubhouse that former pitcher Brett Anderson had taken a shot at the team’s coaches on Twitter. Over the weekend, Anderson tweeted out a one sentence comment that didn’t call his former team out by name, but everyone on the Twitter-sphere seemed to know what he was talking about. “It’s crazy what happens when you aren’t tinkered with and can just go out and pitch.” He wrote on his social media account.
While the club initially remained silent, allowing the tweet to stand on its own, Joe Maddon and company apparently felt it was eventually worth responding to.
Pitching coach Chris Bosio, who appears to be the coach who is in the Toronto Bluejays hurler’s crosshairs had nothing but nice things to say about Anderson, though it seems as if a backhanded slap might have been hidden in his comment.
The Chicago Cubs comments on Anderson
“I’m happy he’s healthy and he’s pitching,”Bosio said before his team lost on Labor Day to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bosio was asked for a little more, and as he walked away, he said he was just going to leave it at what he had already said. It’s that last comment especially which might hold a well-placed barb in it. Anderson has had a history of injury over the course of his career.
Those injuries are why the Cubs brought Anderson in on a relatively low-priced contract.
It’s also why the club wasn’t exactly counting on the pitcher to give them 32 starts. Anderson served a DL stint with the Cubs before he started to get lit up and then after. Eventually the club decided he simply wasn’t going to be a part of the 2017 plans. Those injuries were at least a part of that decision.
That makes the comments by Bosio that he’s happy Anderson is “healthy and pitching” seems to be a shot of his own at his former player.
Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon didn’t really talk directly about what Anderson said, but seemed to be making light of the situation in general.
“That’s why I love Twitter so much." Maddon said when he was asked about the comments. He then added that he found it funny how you could send out your deepest darkest thoughts in just a few characters.
Maddon not taking it personally
Maddon did add that if a guy is going to say something like that, he’s had a tough year. The manager, who lobbied to bring Anderson to Chicago in the first place had one final thought about the whole deal. Maddon said he hopes the pitcher is able to come back to what he once was.
