La Ruina

This is a great story.

CINCINNATI — Because of tampering rules and the desire to keep thoughts close to the vest, Major League general managers are often reluctant to discuss other teams’ players in any way, shape or form.

Yet Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi broke from the current etiquette in a huge way. Ricciardi publicly ripped Reds left fielder Adam Dunn on Wednesday night, saying, among other things, that he wouldn’t want him on his team and that he lacked passion for baseball.

During Ricciardi’s Toronto radio show, a frustrated caller asked the GM about acquiring Dunn. Instead of saying only that he had no interest, Ricciardi went several steps further.

“Let me ask you something. What do you know about Adam Dunn?” Ricciardi said to the caller. “He’s a lifetime .230, .240 hitter that strikes out a ton and hits home runs.

“Do you know that the guy really doesn’t like baseball all that much?” Ricciardi continued. “Do you know the guy doesn’t have a passion to play the game that much? How much do you know about the player? There’s a reason why you’re attracted to some players and there’s a reason why you’re not attracted to some players. I don’t think you’d be very happy if we brought Adam Dunn here.”

The reasons behind the comments didn’t matter much to Dunn, who read a transcript of what Ricciardi said. The 28-year-old Dunn was expectedly displeased on Thursday morning.

“I know nothing about this clown. I have no idea who he is,” Dunn said. “I don’t really care what one guy thinks, to be honest with you. If I’m a GM, I don’t know if I would go out of my way to kind of discredit a player.”

After talking for a few more minutes, Dunn showed he really did care about Ricciardi’s comments.

“It [ticks] me off, to be honest with you,” Dunn said. “He doesn’t even know me. If he knew me, fine, say what you want. This guy doesn’t know anything about me, other than what he sees on whatever ‘SportsCenter’ they have up there. That’s it.”

Dunn might have a little more incentive to beat the Blue Jays, but he said he wouldn’t take his displeasure with Ricciardi out on them.

“The players didn’t say anything,” said Dunn, a lifetime .247 hitter. “It was some clown sitting in the front office pushing paper.”

In the option year of his contract that pays him $13 million this season, Dunn can be a free agent after this season. It’s already made him the subject of trade rumors. Don’t expect any Dunn-to-the-Blue Jays rumors to surface now.

“If anything happens, I ain’t going to Toronto,” Dunn said. “I can eliminate one team. I’m not converting my dollars to loonies and toonies just yet.”