We’d heard for a year and a half that Carlos Silva was not a particularly pleasant teammate, but had yet to actually see the fruits of those whispers.
Now that he’s been cut, Silva is all too happy to indulge us.
“No chance,” Silva said when asked if he would take the Cubs up on their request that he head to the minors. “That’s not in my mind right now, not at all. I’m not an insurance player. My guess is that’s what they want.”
I can understand not accepting a minor league assignment – he’s earned that right as a nine-year veteran. But keep your mouth shut about it. You’re not an insurance player? You’d be lucky to be employed as an insurance salesman at this point.
If that wasn’t enough, Silva took a few swipes at new Cubs pitching coach Mark Riggins, with whom Silva clearly didn’t get along this Spring.
“[On Friday], I wanted to throw my pen and I felt really good. Riggs came to me and said, ‘What a day, and now go out there and do your workout and continue pitching the way you’re doing.’ A half hour later, he called me into the hall and started talking to me.”
That talk apparently set Silva off.
“I’m like, if you have to say something, be straight,” Silva said. “[Riggins] has to learn he’s in the big leagues now, know what I mean? There’s no kids around here anymore. The way he laid it out, I don’t know what he was trying to do. He said, ‘Man you’ve been throwing good, you can pitch, blah, blah, blah.’ He said, ‘What if you go to Triple-A and throw some games to continue building and continue getting better?’ I told him I don’t need to go there, I’m ready to go, I feel good, I’m ready to pitch.”
Some of his frustration is understandable, but when you’ve struggled for as long as he has, it can’t really be that shocking to learn that you didn’t make the team, big contract or not.
Silva certainly isn’t doing the Cubs any favors in their efforts to trade him – which may be part of the reason he’s taking shots on the way out the door. Mark Riggins has to learn that he’s in the big leagues now, you say? You’re right, Carlos. Riggins is in the big leagues now. You aren’t. Good luck finding your way back onto a Major League diamond when the Cubs inevitably release you or somehow manage to dump you on another hapless team.
Oh, and please: let the door hit you on the way out.