Mat Latos’ comments about time with Reds cause quite a stir

Mat Latos is known just as much for his fiery personality as he is for his fire-balling right arm on the mound, so the following shouldn’t come as any suprise.

The 27-year-old starting pitcher was dealt to his hometown Miami Marlins in December after three seasons with the Cincinnati Reds and in a lengthy one-on-one interview with Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Latos touched on a number of subjects about his time in Cincinnati.

He said he was happy with the trade to the Marlins, he questioned the way the organization handled his knee injury last season, and also cited a general lack of leadership in the clubhouse.

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Latos did praise many of his former teammates as well as the team’s ownership but of course those weren’t the comments that became a topic of conversation back in Cincinnati.

The criticisms launched by Latos were obviously not well received by the Reds. Manager Bryan Price and general manager Walt Jocketty were among those who responded.

Price accused Latos of casting “A negative light on our organization. We’ve done nothing to deserve it,” while Jocketty added “It is something that is not true. There were more than a couple of things that were exaggerated.”

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The latest from this story, according to Miami Herald, is that Latos plans to take a break from talking with the media for a few days. From here it appears that both sides have said their piece about the past and that everyone involved is now back to focusing on the upcoming season. Latos is looking to put together a big year in Miami with his free agency looming next offseason. The Reds have their eye on getting back to the postseason after finishing in fourth place in the NL Central in 2014.

Expect this war of words to be short-lived: the next showdown between Latos and his former club will take place on the field.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr