Contrary to a report from last month, newly acquired Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips insisted Friday that he did not block Atlanta’s initial attempt to land him from the Reds in November.
“I didn’t say no to [the] trade,” Phillips told Mark Bowman of MLB.com. “I didn’t really know what was going on. When I heard about it, I was like, ’For real, why didn’t you guys make that happen?’ That’s why I didn’t want to say anything or to call anybody out. I never said I didn’t want to play for the Atlanta Braves.