Nick Piecoro

azcentral sports

Wade Miley doesn't want to upset anyone with the Diamondbacks. He spent the first seven seasons of his professional career with them, leaves behind a lot of close friends and says he has no hard feelings.

But he also sounded annoyed on Tuesday when addressing questions about his preparation habits, about concerns the Diamondbacks apparently had that might have played a part in him eventually being traded to the Boston Red Sox last week.

Let's start here: This isn't a case of a team crushing a player on his way out of the door. It doesn't appear the Diamondbacks had any intention of making this public.

And there's no reason not to believe the Diamondbacks' stated reasons for the deal, i.e., that they wanted to get younger and add more power arms to their rotation. Beyond that, they gained more years of club control, saved themselves some money and are rolling the dice on an upside play with right-handers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster.

But for weeks leading up to the deal, there were indications the Diamondbacks weren't happy with something about Miley's work habits and/or preparation. The team's concerns swirled through enough baseball circles that they eventually made their way to Miley himself.

He said Tuesday he couldn't remember how he first heard. But he didn't like it.

"I think it would tick anybody off," he said.

Miley thinks it stems back to disagreements he had in the past with the team's training staff, which he felt had a tendency to go overboard in its insistence on a healthy diet for players.

Miley doesn't think there is anything wrong with his diet and believes his work ethic is where it needs to be. He admits it wasn't always that way.

"My first couple of years going into camp, I hunted more than I worked out," Miley said. "It was kind of a wake up call."

He said his struggles during his first full season in 2009 helped him learn what he needed to do to be successful.

"That was kind of when it hit me," he said. "I said, 'I've got to do something to get better.' And I've kind of done that. And I might not have a six-pack and be shredded and this and that, but I feel like I eat healthy enough. I've made it through three full seasons. I feel fine. My body feels great. I don't understand why they'd make such a big emphasis on the health part of it."

The part that bothers Miley is that he's weighed 220 pounds in each of the past three seasons, and it was only this year, when his ERA swelled by a run, that he started to hear anything about his diet.

He's not contending he had a good year. He's more than willing to own up to that. In fact, he had an excuse he could have used during the season to explain his subpar results but never did. Midway through the year, he somehow hurt his rib cage but chose to pitch through the injury. He never mentioned it until he was asked about it on Tuesday.

Miley says his diet was something he and the organization "head-butted" about at some point in the year.

"After a while, they left me alone," he said. "But it was always that elephant in the room."

Miley said he didn't want to go into specifics about his diet but did make a passing reference about not being gluten free. He said he wished the team were more willing to tailor its approach toward individuals rather than having everyone doing the same things.

"It might work for some people, but I didn't feel like it worked for me," he said. "I did what I felt like I needed to do to pitch every five days."

None of this is to suggest Miley was welcoming a trade. Nor does it make being traded any easier to fathom. Miley said he'd heard the rumors for weeks and tried to prepare but still felt sort of shocked when it actually happened.

He'll be reporting to a different state for spring training, will need a new place to live during the season and will need to get to know new names and faces throughout a new organization.

"It's almost like a breakup from a relationship," he said. "I've built relationships with everyone in that organization from 2008 on, with coaches, players, staff. Obviously, you stay in contact with people, but you're not around them every day. That's going to be the toughest adjustment to make."