MLB Teammates Who Hated Each Other
By
Richard Janvrin
Contributor Updated: 12 November 2024
Richard Janvrin Contributor
Richard has been writing about sports since he was a teenager. Still, his first professional role came in 2015, covering all things NFL and fantasy football-related. From there, in December 2018, he started in the sports betting industry, covering sportsbook reviews before arriving to where he is today.
MLB Teammates Who Weren’t Homies Off Field
The Major League Baseball season spans 162 games during the regular season and even more once you hit the postseason. Any time you spend that amount of time with someone, tensions can become high, but there were some MLB teammates who hated each other outright. That’s right—there’s a strong chance that when you bet on MLB games online, you may be betting on a team with teammates who straight up just don’t like one another.
Of course, there are varying degrees of this, with some being more serious than others.
Nonetheless, let’s look at six sets of teammates who simply didn’t like each other and had their own MLB player feud.
- Evan Longoria and BJ Upton
- Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr.
- Avasai Garcia and Prince Fielder
- Jonathan Papelbon and Bryce Harper
- Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez
- Yasiel Puig and Multiple Dodgers Teammates
Evan Longoria and BJ Upton
While the Tampa Bay Rays had much success in the 2000s and early 2010s thanks to third baseman Evan Longoria and outfielder BJ Upton, the two had a feud behind the scenes as they both wanted to be the face of the franchise.
In 2010, Longoria went on record calling Upton “lazy” and questioning his commitment to the team. This was further amplified during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in which Upton jogged to a ball in the gap of left-center field. Afterward, the two got into a spat in the dugout.
“It’s a byproduct of a frustrated team,” Longoria said regarding the incident. “We’re trying to win games and guys are going to have differences of opinion. I just wanted to know what was going through his head. The bottom line, we’ve talked about it and it goes no further than today.”
Even Rays manager Joe Maddon had something to say about the play.
“B.J. came in off the field after that particular play and everybody saw it, and some guys were not really pleased and certain things were said,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “He was set up on the other side — in other words a right-handed hitter he set up in right-center field and the guy pulled it into left-center. He just did not run as hard as he possibly could have after the ball, that was obvious. That one there just didn’t have a good look to it.”
While the two didn’t come to blows in the dugout, it was a heated altercation that required teammates to separate them.
While saying these are MLB teammates who hated each other might be a bit strong, there was certainly a distaste for one another, at the least.
Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr.
Following the Braves 2021 World Series, Freeman left the team because he didn’t like management or the culture of the team.
Players on the team like Ronald Acuna Jr. sugged Freeman was a bit of a perfectionist. Acuna Jr. was asked what he’d miss about Freeman leaving the team and he said “nothing” and discussed their relationship dating back to his rookie season.
He said he and Freeman had “lots of clashes.”
“When you come up as a rookie, there’s always someone who [wants to tell you how to do things],” Acuna said via ESPN. “You come up from the minor leagues with the big eye black, the sunglasses, the hat low, and a lot of people see that as wrong. And the other person doesn’t see it as wrong because it’s part of the game.
“A lot of veterans [picked on me] when I was a rookie, and they called me into the office themselves and told me: ‘No, you can’t use that.’ And they took [the eye black] off me with a towel like that. And I said, ‘OK, that’s fine.'”
Freeman had a much different mindset toward how to operate as a Braves player.
Again, saying these are MLB teammates who hated each other might be overstated, but they certainly aren’t sad to not be playing together anymore.
Avasai Garcia and Prince Fielder
I want to make it clear that the story behind this MLB teammate hate has never been confirmed, but it’s never been denied, either.
During the 2013 season, Prince Field and Avasail Garcia were teammates with the Detroit Tigers. Rumors circulated that Garcia was allegedly having an affair with Fielder’s wife.
The two allegedly got into a physical altercation, which caused Miguel Cabrera to intervene. During that, Cabrera was injured.
Garcia was eventually traded to the Chicago White Sox, and Fiedler was traded to the Texas Rangers.
Jonathan Papelbon and Bryce Harper
Harper is an extremely talented player, but he’s been criticized over the years for many of his actions.
Regarding him and Papelbon, we have to go back to a game in 2015 when the two were teammates on the Washington Nationals.
Harper hit a pop fly, and while he was expecting an out, he barely moved out of the hitter’s box and didn’t hustle to first base.
On his way back to the dugout, Papelbon shouted at Harper. Papelbon became incensed by the situation, grabbing Harper by the neck and choking him.
To add to Harper’s reputation, in 2019, he was voted most overrated, generating 62% of the vote in a poll done by ESPN.
Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez
The feud between Jeter and Rodriguez dates back to even before they played with each other on the Yankees.
After Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers in 2000, Rodriguez said the amount would be hard to top and used Jeter as an example.
“Even a guy like Derek, it’s going to be hard for him to break that because he just doesn’t do the power numbers and defensively he doesn’t do all those things,” A-Rod said in December.
Speaking with Esquire around that time, Rodriguez also said:
“He’s never had to lead,” Rodriguez said in the magazine. “He can just go and play and have fun. He hits second – that’s totally different than third or fourth in a lineup.
“You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie (Williams) and (Paul) O’Neill. You never say, ‘Don’t let Derek beat us.’ He’s never your concern,” he said.
Rodriguez would say those comments were out of context, though.
While with the Yankees, the general manager asked Jeter to have a fake positive relationship with him. Rodriguez was also absent during the Yankees 2017 ceremony, retiring Jeter’s No. 2.
Yasiel Puig and Multiple Dodgers Teammates
Puig entered Major League Baseball in 2013 with the Dodgers and played there through 2018. However, while there, it seems that his teammates weren’t exactly fans of the Cuban native.
One anonymous Dodgers player said Puig was the “worst person I’ve ever seen in this game.” There were also multiple reports during this time where he had altercations with teammates.
Another Dodgers player said, “We’ve talked about this. At this point, it would be addition by subtraction.”
There were times when he was benched for showing up to the stadium late, got benched for throwing his bat in frustration after striking out, and even a time when pitcher Zack Greinke got off their team bus and threw Puig’s luggage into the road.
It’s one thing to have MLB teammate hate between two guys, but a majority of the roster versus one player? Yikes.
