CINCINNATI - Trades can make strange bedfellows.
Fifteen months ago, Edubray Ramos and Asdrubal Cabrera were ready to tear each other apart.
Now they are teammates, bonded by the common goal of trying to help the Phillies get to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Cabrera joined the Phillies on Saturday in a trade from the New York Mets. One of the first people he met when he arrived in his new team's clubhouse was Ramos.
In April 2017, Ramos buzzed a 96-mph fastball by Cabrera's head and basically called him on for a fight (see story). The incident stemmed from Cabrera hitting a walk-off, three-run homer against Ramos the previous September in New York. Cabrera celebrated the homer with a big-air bat flip. The Mets even celebrated the bat flip with a bobblehead the next season.
Ramos did not see any of the fun in the bat flip. He stewed about it throughout the winter of 2016-2017 and sought revenge the next season.
But now, the feud is over. The two men, both natives of Venezuela, talked it over Saturday and laughed about it Sunday morning.
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"We shook hands, we hugged it out, we talked about," said Ramos. "At the end of the day, we're both professionals and we're here to help the same team win. That's pretty much the bottom line."
Cabrera agreed.
"I always say, whatever happens in this game stays on the field, you know? He's from my country, too," Cabrera said. "We said hi and we talked during the game (Saturday). He's my teammate now. What happens in the past stays in the past."
Ramos said news of the trade made him a little uncomfortable at first.
"But I knew (meeting him) was going to happen at some point," he said. "Good thing it was just one of those things you can talk about and get over."
Ramos is 25. Cabrera is 32.
"When I was little I would watch him on TV, when he played in the States and in Venezuela," Ramos said. "I'm not going to say that I have always rooted for him because there are a lot of Venezuelan guys but, of course, it made me proud that a very talented Venezuelan guy was out there."
Ramos is currently on the disabled list with a strained knee. When he comes off the DL, he will gladly take a home run from Cabrera even if it comes with a bat flip.
"For sure," Ramos said with a laugh. "It's going to be much better to have him on this side."
Cabrera showed a sense of humor, too. He still has a few of those bobbleheads the Mets gave away to commemorate his big homer and celebration after taking Ramos deep in September 2016.
"I was thinking of sending him one as a joke," Cabrera said with a laugh.
