Washington Nationals Editorial: Jonathan Papelbon An X-Factor In 2016

Could Jonathan Papelbon be one of the X-Factors for the Nats this season?

Whether it’s in the locker room, in the dugout, or on the field, Jonathan Papelbon will always give his team a little something “extra.”

It didn’t take long for the first “extra” of the 2016 season to appear. As Papelbon entered the Washington Nationals’ spring training complex in Viera, Florida last Friday, his muscle shirt bore the writing “Obama Can’t Ban These Guns,” with arrows pointing to his tattoo-covered biceps.

As Thomas Boswell reported, he was even planning on wearing the shirt to an “apology press conference” dedicated to his infamous scuffle with Bryce Harper last season. Where that decision was born, we’ll never know; thankfully he was counseled and elected not to do so.

Bullet dodged.

The fact that Papelbon will be a mentor to the younger pitchers and his actions will always be of emphasis with the media worries a noticeable majority of Nationals fans. It may have been easy to bid adieu to his tone-setting choke, considering there was a certain Darren O’Day available and he would have cost four million less per year, albeit for the next four years.

However, the possibility of no locker room issues and an actual productive season from the postseason-aficionado is most often pushed to the backburner. The media prefers to favor his tendency to fly off the pan (see what I did there?) which is understandable.

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The Dusty Baker addition will immediately create a more jovial clubhouse environment. It may even bring an improvement to in-game management.

He’s solved player disputes before, and with significant success. He pulled monster seasons out of the many fights between Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent in San Francisco and solved the dugout debates between Armando Rios and Rich Aurilia.

A rather notable quote from 2002 Baker emerged in response to the player friction:

"“It ain’t a problem,” Baker said. “I went through the same thing in L.A. with a couple of guys. Now we see each other and we’re partners. Usually, this happens on good teams. Bad teams always get along.” (h/t Henry Schulman, Sfgate.com)"

It’s not uncommon for championship-winning teams to have a bad apple or two; on the flip-side, Baker’s sentiment certainly applied to the 2009 Nationals. That team was pitiful and didn’t have any remarkable locker room issues, despite the uncontrollable landslide that season was. When high internal expectations aren’t met, a bad seed is planted.

The players and fans will do no good by focusing on the past and booing Papelbon at the home opener. They’ll do it anyway.

We need to focus on the player we have.

Simply winning will put a check in Papelbon’s box. The Nationals weren’t winning nearly as much as they wanted — or needed — to last year, and that was the source of a lot of the animosity.