Jim Edmonds criticizes Reds’ doctors, Brandon Phillips

First, a little backstory here.

Jim Edmonds signed a minor league contract with the Cardinals in February, but was forced to retire weeks later due to a nagging right Achilles injury. It was an injury he dealt with prior to accepting a trade to the Reds last August, but he didn’t have another at-bat after September 21.

OK, now that you’re all caught up, check this out. According to Mark Sheldon of MLB.com, during a radio interview with KFNS in St. Louis that aired Thursday, Edmonds criticized the Reds for the way the injury was handled.

“It’s still awful. I still can’t do the things I want to do,” Edmonds said. “I’m really frustrated. I don’t know the right words to use towards the Cincinnati doctors. I’m in a situation now where I thought I’d never be in. I went so far in my career without really having a huge injury and had a bunch of surgeries. I thought ‘Gosh, I’m going to be able to get out of this with my health, my kids will be happy and I’m hoping to be able to walk out of this.’ Now I can’t walk and chase my kids around. Surgery is the option right now. That would be a year rehab. I’m not looking forward to that.

“The worst thing I did was accept that trade for [Reds general manager] Walt Jocketty. I should have shut it down and went home. I would be healthy right now and probably playing.”

Ouch. Edmonds also had some choice words for Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips, who was front and center in the infamous benches-clearing brawl with the Cardinals last September. The brawl occurred just one day after Edmonds was acquired from the Brewers.

“Other than that one situation with that one player, they’re a young, talented, nice group of guys,” Edmonds said, referring to Phillips. “I think that one incident was very unfortunate and it put a black eye on the rest of the rivalry. ... He says he wouldn’t take it back, but hopefully he learned from that and realizes that he was overboard there and causing another distraction that especially the Reds didn’t need.”

Meanwhile, Phillips took to his Twitter feed to respond yesterday, saying the following:

LOL. Awww! That’s so sweet! Trust me, there are so many things I can say about him [and] y’all would look at him different! “HATER IN DA HOUSE”

We’ll probably never know if Edmonds has a legitimate gripe with the Reds doctors -- remember, this is a 40-year-old we’re not talking about, not someone who is 25 -- but it’s safe to say that the rivalry between the Reds and Cardinals just got a little more juice. As if it needed it.