This was brought up in the comments for the previous post, but as said, it does deserve its own thread.
Click here to read Steve Kline already saying his teammates suck and he's miserable. He's certainly right about the latter.
Kline clashed with Tony LaRussa, whom he says he misses, in St. Louis. I'm willing to let Kline be Kline as long as he pitches. But so far he hasn't. Right now, I don't want to hear about Steve Kline telling me that St. Louis fans are better than us because they don't boo a player for being horrible. If Kline is going to go out there and serve up meatballs and throw fits in April because of early season-type errors, yeah, we'll boo that, because he's being a baby.
He's right when he says the plays in the Oakland game were "really stupid" - in fact, nothing he says about why he's frustrated is really wrong. But if Kline doesn't want to be here, and he's already saying he wishes he hadn't signed the contract, then what do you do about that? It's going to be a problem if he seriously wishes he was not on the team.
I understand there's frustration involved, but this is really bothersome because it's just something we don't need. All the talk of Sosa being a combustible element, but Sammy has been getting along fine. It's Kline who's emerging as a clubhouse cancer already.
What do you do with Kline if he stays this way? Deal him? Because someone will take a proven lefty reliever no matter how bad he's been for a small part of the season. And I'm not saying now, but maybe in late-May or early-June if this is still how he feels. We've got a team with a very small window of opportunity (very, very small) and can't afford a guy like Kline screwing with team chemistry or the dynamics of the clubhouse, which despite all my new-age thinking in regard to the game, I still think plays a part in how well a team does. You can't have a jerk upsetting everyone and expect it to not creep into something, particularly if it's a lefty reliever getting moody and grooving fastballs.
I don't know, I'm pretty stunned by this whole thing. You'd think a veteran would know better, but apparently not.