Jimmy Rollins Says He And Sandberg Have Not Spoken About Benching
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Jimmy Rollins has been noticeably out of the Phillies lineup in Spring Training. Many have theorized that new manager Ryne Sandberg was trying to send Rollins a message. Rollins doesn't know, because no one has told him.
"Whatever it is, [Sandberg] hasn't spoke to me about. So, I really don't know how to answer that. When he wants to talk to me he can do that," Rollins told 94WIP's Michael Barkann and Ike Reese on Thursday. "I don't have any problems with Ryne [Sandberg]. I've never had any problems with Ryne."
Rollins says that it will have to be his manager that starts a conversation on the subject.
"I'm not gonna seek him out. If there is something that he has an issue with then he'll come to me, and that's the way it should be," Rollis said. "Players don't go to managers and ask what's the problem unless they know they've done something wrong or they feel they've done something wrong. But until then, you just keep working at it and if there is something that he has an issue with, when he's ready to talk about it he will."
Rollins drew headlines earlier this week when he said he 'doesn't care' about results during Spring Training.
R"ight now, what's going forward has no prelude to what the season is going to be. It isn't about the wins and losses, it's about getting in the work and not going through the motions, but getting in the work," Rollins said. You're getting out there, like I said, you're working on things and sometimes they're gonna work. Someone has to win, someone has to lose, no one goes out there with the intent to lose, but at the end of the day you can be the best spring training player ever. You go out there in April, no one is going to care what you did in spring training because you're not doing it when it counts. Wins and losses, is your team getting to the playoffs and are you helping out?"
"Well you can't turn oranges into apples. As much as you want it to taste like an apple, it's an orange. And that's spring training and the season. You can't make these games more important then they are and that's just the truth. You could try to push and push and push, but until that winning and losing is on the line, is my team getting to playoffs? Does this at-bat count for a game winning run? It's hard to turn that on and you being a competitor [Ike Reese], you know what I'm talking about. When the season starts everybody turns up."
Listen to the entire interview:
