Blue Jays' Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt share differing opinions on Arcia-Harper beef

As followers of the Blue Jays are forced to watch other teams make their deep postseason runs, one of the major storylines to follow in the Braves-Phillies NLDS is the beef between Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia and Phillies superstar Bryce Harper.

A double play ended Monday night's game when Michael Harris II made a fantastic catch in center field and managed to double up Harper at first base to end things. Following the game, Arcia was quoted in the clubhouse as saying, "ha ha, atta-boy Harper!" repeatedly. While only one source had shared this to kick things off, Arcia has since admitted he said it, but wished the reporter did not take it upon himself to share the comments.

Naturally, the world of social media took the initial comments and ran with them. Things got blown out of proportion in a big way, but Harper got his revenge on Wednesday evening when he hit two home runs. While running the bases, he made sure to stare Arcia down to let him know he was not pleased.

Many current and former players are sharing their thoughts on the matter, including both Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt of the Blue Jays.

Gausman initially shared a post on X stating that he was frustrated about how the narrative is that "teams should watch what they say in their clubhouses." He followed this up with another post, this time clarifying that he doesn't like how media members can share quotes or other things they overhear when the player in question was not even speaking to them in the first place.

Gausman's argument has some legs here, sure. It's understandable that, as players, you don't want media members sharing things that aren't for them to share. On the flip side, all the initial reporter was doing ... was his job. There are arguments on both sides.

Bassitt appears to take a slightly different approach. In his own post, he says, "Pitchers love it when position players on your own team piss off the super star hitters on the other team….". Again, this is a fully justified take. Pitchers can't possibly like when position players get other team's players (especially a Hall of Fame-caliber talent like Harper) mad and give them even more motivation to destroy your team.

Elsewhere, Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud made some scathing comments after Wednesday night's game, suggesting that occurrences like this make players want to avoid the media.

No matter which side you're on, this "beef" is good for baseball. Nobody's being hit by pitches, there are no brawls, it's now just a matter of each team doing what they can to one-up the opposition, which is what it should be all about.