Fortnite? Pingpong? Phillies players respond to questions about clubhouse distractions last season

CLEARWATER, Fla. — There were times near the end of last season when the Phillies’ clubhouse took on the mood of a kids’ funhouse.

Multiple players confirmed Monday an ESPN report that detailed Phillies players delighting in online gaming, pingpong, and other diversions even as their playoff hopes faded, behavior that led then-first baseman Carlos Santana to smash a clubhouse television after a Sept. 28 game at Citizens Bank Park.

But pitcher Jake Arrieta claimed “untruth” in the report, disputing Santana’s assertion that players retreated to the clubhouse during games to play Fortnite. And although Arrieta and Rhys Hoskins acknowledged that the Phillies instituted new policies to govern pregame clubhouse conduct, they also defended manager Gabe Kapler’s philosophy of allowing players to set and enforce team rules.

“This has absolutely nothing to do with Kap," Hoskins said after working out at the Carpenter Complex. "Kap is a great leader. He knows how to bring us together. He left it up to us players to kind of police ourselves. When you’re winning, the chemistry in here is great. Everybody is bonding. But when you’re frustrated and losing the way that we did at the end of the year, you search for answers. What are we doing wrong? Emotions run high, and I think that’s what we saw with Carlos.”

Speaking before the Phillies faced the Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla., Kapler said he’s unaware of players ever partaking in video games while the team was on the field and classified such behavior as “unacceptable, 100 percent.” He said he met with Santana after the incident involving the television but declined to divulge details from that conversation.

“In the middle of the summer, the chemistry of the clubhouse was very good. As we struggled at the end, understandably, tensions ran high,” Kapler said. “Carlos became frustrated, as happens in high-tension situations. He responded by smashing up some TVs. I don’t think that’s uncommon.”

The Phillies were the youngest team in baseball last season, with Santana and Arrieta among the few veterans. They also maxed out their expanded roster, cramming 40 players into the clubhouse during a September in which they went 8-20 and lost nine in a row.

Santana, who signed a three-year, $60 million contract before last season, batted .229 with 24 home runs and 110 walks in 161 games. He was traded in November, with infielder J.P. Crawford, to the Mariners for shortstop Jean Segura and relievers Juan Nicasio and James Pazos. According to team sources, the move had nothing to do with Santana’s outburst — rather, it enabled Hoskins to move back to his natural first base.

“Carlos Santana is one of my favorite players in the league,” general manager Matt Klentak said after the Nov. 3 trade. “I love the way he plays the game. I love the way he posts [plays] every day. I love the quality of at-bats he gives. I love the type of teammate he is in the clubhouse. I love everything about the guy. This was about making the 2019 Philadelphia Phillies better.”

Neither Arrieta nor Hoskins claimed to have been aware that Santana was angry with his teammates until he took a bat to the television. Even then, Arrieta said, the incident occurred “late at night, well after everybody had left” following a 10-2 loss to the Braves at Citizens Bank Park.

“If there was ever a situation like that, that I was aware of, it would not have happened,” Arrieta said. “I don’t think it was happening, really. I don’t believe that guys were playing video games during the game. That’s something that I would not allow and a majority of the guys on the team would not allow.”

Arrieta conceded that the Phillies did “a lot of video-game playing” and “played a lot of pingpong” but said it always occurred “well in advance of the game.” Kapler convened a team meeting with a few days left in the season to make sure the focus remained on the field.

“I think in September our players could have been more engaged,” Kapler said. “With the players I thought could have been more engaged, those conversations were had. I addressed every situation that clearly needed to be addressed last year in appropriate settings.”

But the Phillies also felt the need to adjust their policies before this season.

Kapler solicited the opinions of more than a dozen players for their input. According to Arrieta, the team had a meeting early in spring training and decided, out of consideration for different ways in which players prepare for games, to implement some guidelines. Specifically, Arrieta said, players will use their discretion in the clubhouse.

“Some guys will sit in their locker, headphones in, and watch ‘Pokemon’ or ‘Dragon Ball Z’ or ‘[Ozark],’ or whatever they want to do to get locked in for the game,” Arrieta said. “On days that I start, it might not be Fortnite — it might be something else — but I’m playing some sort of game. It might be pingpong. But everybody’s wired differently.

“That’s why I say communication should have taken place. Because we could’ve had a conversation about, ‘OK, I understand that you maybe don’t like guys playing video games, but what if someone doesn’t like you on your phone watching a movie before the game?’ It’s just a matter of understanding that guys are different.”

Kapler, for his part, will continue to leave it up to the players to establish, in his words, “boundaries.”

The Phillies remain a young team, but in overhauling the roster this winter, they added veteran left fielder Andrew McCutchen and reliever David Robertson, established All-Stars such as Segura and catcher J.T. Realmuto, and superstar right fielder Bryce Harper.

And if the clubhouse turns into too much of a funhouse again?

“I think there’s enough presence in this clubhouse that it won’t get to that point,” Hoskins said.

Staff columnist Bob Brookover contributed to this report.