Intriguing Revelation Surrounding Tommy Pham’s DFA From Cardinals

Tommy Pham cares about winning. A lot. You can see that in how he carries himself on the field and in the clubhouse. Sometimes to a fault.

He recently was DFA'd by the St. Louis Cardinals after only a month with the team, and was claimed by the Kansas City Royals.

According to MLB Network Radio's Steve Phillips, Pham actually asked for his release from the Cardinals so that he could go and play for a contending team.

The story is that he asked for them to put him on waivers, so that he could go to a team that had a better chance to make the playoffs.

"Wow," was Eduardo Perez's response, who then followed with, "I think they told him, 'Look, we're calling (young outfielder) Jordan Walker up and we're going to let him play everyday, so you're not going to get at-bats."

Pham certainly has had the propensity to rub people the wrong way wherever he's been. When he arrived in the Royals clubhouse last week, he immediately told the players there, "I want you to care about not losing as much as I care about not losing."

For a young team that's been scrapping and battling and playing their hearts out to put themselves in a playoff position, that could certainly be taken as an insult by his new Royals teammates.

To make matters worse, Pham had a brain cramp the next game, failing to tag up and third and score on a fly ball.

Should be an interesting stretch run in the Royals clubhouse.

KC is currently holding down the 3rd Wild Card spot. Pham has batted just .231 for them in three games thus far.