azcentral sports Tue Dec 31, 2013 8:54 PM

It was a footnote to the three-team trade that landed the Diamondbacks slugger Mark Trumbo and sent outfielder Adam Eaton to the Chicago White Sox on Dec. 10.

An anonymous player told Arizona Sports 620 that losing Eaton was “addition by subtraction” and that the 25-year-old was a “selfish me-me type player.” azcentral sports’ Nick Piecoro was told that Eaton “irked people in the clubhouse” and his “attitude had a tendency to wear on people.”

When contacted by phone the week after the trade, Eaton was surprised.

“I haven’t heard anything about any of it,” Eaton said. “I didn’t have any indication. I felt like I left on pretty good terms. I felt like I had a pretty good relationship with most of the guys and the PR department and a lot of the front office people. After the trade they called me and kind of wished me good luck.”

A year ago, when Eaton was still one of the Diamondbacks’ prized, untouchable prospects, the team loved how the outfielder played with a chip on his shoulder, how he would create havoc on the basepaths and drive opposing pitchers nuts.

Eaton cops to having an attitude on the field, and he says it’s a necessary aspect to his game. As a 19th-round draft pick in 2010 and at just 5-8, 185 pounds, Eaton knows he can’t thrive on physical gifts. He has to be a grinder, he said.

He can also see how that would rub some people the wrong way.

“The way I do hold myself, I need to be a little bit cockier,” Eaton said.

“I need to have that presence because everybody tells me something I can’t do. So I kind of have to have that presence about you, I feel. I think that’s what makes me have a little bit of an edge because I am a little bit like that.”

Off the field, Eaton feels he was friendly and outgoing. After missing three months with an elbow injury at the beginning of the season, he said he was surprised he was around long enough to irk anybody.

The allegation bothers him.

“If I did anything to offend anybody, I sincerely apologize,” Eaton said. “I don’t want that to be the lasting impression that I leave. I want the impression to be that I played hard and the team went a different direction and that’s the reason for it. I don’t like that that has been spread. I want to try and squash that. I don’t like that idea of me out there.”

Eaton was just as surprised to be traded as he was to hear of any clubhouse issues. (And no one has suggested that one has to do with the other.) The Diamondbacks had an obvious surplus in center field with former first-round pick A.J. Pollock playing well last year, but it wasn’t so long ago that Eaton was considered the future of the franchise.

Eaton batted .355 through three minor-league seasons, and when he entered spring training before the 2013 campaign he said he was told he’d be the center fielder and leadoff hitter for the next five to 10 years. But his elbow injury forced the team to find other options in center, and Pollock played well enough to be named the team’s Rookie of the Year.

When Eaton returned, he didn’t play as well as hoped, hitting just .252 and going through some growing pains in the outfield. He made what he called rookie mistakes, blowing through a stop sign here and there and failing to run out a ground ball in a late-game situation.

He spent a total of 88 games in the majors in 2012-13, in which time he went from top prospect to expendable.

“I was surprised,” Eaton said. “I thought I was going to be around for a long time. I was excited to be around for a long time. I love the organization, I love the front office. They’re a great coaching staff. I enjoyed my time there, but they decided to go a different direction and that’s part of the business, and I wish the best of luck to the Diamondbacks and everybody involved. I’m sure I’ll see them down the road.”