The White Sox have been among the most disappointing teams in MLB this season. While Chicago entered the year with a top-heavy roster, they expected to compete with Minnesota and Cleveland in a lackluster AL Central. The division has been as bad as expected, but Chicago started slowly and never looked like a viable playoff team.
As a result, the Sox moved a number of veterans before last week’s deadline. One of the players shipped off — middle reliever Keynan Middleton — criticized Chicago’s clubhouse culture after being traded. The now-Yankees righty told Jesse Rogers of ESPN last night that players “came in with no rules.”
“I don’t know how you police the culture if there are no rules or guidelines to follow because everyone is doing their own thing. Like, how do you say anything about it because there are no rules,” Middleton continued. “You have rookies sleeping in the bullpen during the game. You have guys missing meetings. You have guys missing (pitcher fielding practices), and there are no consequences for any of this stuff.”
Middleton first joined the organization on a minor league deal in January. He’d bounced between the Angels, Mariners and Diamondbacks over parts of six MLB seasons before signing with Chicago. While Middleton participated in big league Spring Training, he wasn’t on the MLB roster until the Sox selected his contract in mid-April.
From a performance perspective, the 29-year-old had one of the better stretches of his career in Chicago. He worked to a 3.96 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate over 36 1/3 frames, allowing the Sox to flip him to New York for minor league righty Juan Carela even though he’s an impending free agent. However, Middleton was clearly displeased with the culture, which he said predated his arrival.
“When I got to spring training, I heard a lot of the same stuff was happening last year,” Middleton told Rogers. “It’s happening again this year, so not sure how I could change it. They don’t tell you not to miss PFPs. They don’t tell you not to miss meetings, and if it happens, it’s just, ’OK.”
He directed his criticism primarily at the team’s position players, saying that while the pitching staff “went about our work the right way … the rest of the team struggled to do the right thing.” Of course, the mention of skipped pitcher-fielding practices would only be a problem for the pitching staff.
One of Middleton’s former teammates backed up his assertions. Veteran starter Lance Lynn — who spent two and a half seasons with the Sox before being traded to the Dodgers last month — briefly addressed Middleton’s comments this afternoon (relayed by Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). “I was (with the White Sox) a lot longer than Key was. He’s not wrong,” Lynn stated.
Chicago has a first-year manager in Pedro Grifol. Hired last offseason after Tony La Russa resigned because of health concerns, Grifol had no previous MLB managerial experience. Middleton’s and Lynn’s comments imply that what they perceived to be a lack of accountability began during the La Russa era and has continued under Grifol’s leadership.
General manager Rick Hahn defended Grifol this afternoon. “It does take a manager a certain amount of time to implement the culture that they want,” Hahn said (link via Bruce Levine of 670 The Score). “I know early on Pedro wanted to observe and follow what the culture was in the clubhouse before he started putting thumbprints all over it.”
However, Hahn pushed back at the extent of Middleton’s criticism, taking a swipe at the reliever in the process. “Quite frankly, it’s a little bit ironic that Keynan’s the one saying this because my last conversation with him face to face was a week ago in this clubhouse where he sought me out to apologize for his unprofessional behavior – unprofessional behavior that Pedro had called him out on and had an individual meeting with him about, and Keenan wanted to apologize for,” Hahn said (link from Tori Rubinstein of NBC Sports Chicago). “I told him at the time I figured that was a one off and not something that anyone need to get into greater detail of. And he shared that he understood there was a trade deadline coming up and that if we moved him, he would be very interested in returning to us as a free agent.”
Hahn conceded the club has unspecified “cultural issues” and admitted “we need to improve the leadership in that room.” However, he denied the assertion that any player fell asleep in the bullpen mid-game or that players were free to skip meetings. “One thing we’re not going to do is stand idly by while false reports are put out there about the character of the men that remain in that room,” Hahn said.
The White Sox host Middleton’s new club for a three-game set this week. They entered tonight’s game with a 45-68 record, the third-worst mark in the American League.
This happens when there is no leadership anywhere in the organization. It begins at the very top with Reinsdorf. One thing is certain, Renteria was a terrible in-game manager, but the clubhouse culture was much better with him in charge. That firing certainly backfired with the selection of TLR.
Sounds a lot like “Animal House”
Mind if we dance wif your dates?
It’s all Jackie’s fault
Wit
If I was in your shoes, I’d be uh..
Jackie went down so hard, no wonder why they don’t want that fugazi back. Looks like Donaldson was right about that guy.
Interestingly, the Sox are 3-0 since Anderson got TKO’d. He should have started and lost a fight back in April.
valid
Hey who would of that Jackie, was such a fugazi? 1-2-3-4-5-6…
*thought
There you go, the politically correct way to justify violence? Yeah mma fighters get there butts whooped but at least they make millions doing it right? Money talks?
If TA can only get into a fight with Odor, the WS might be contenders.
Maybe its the fact that he’s out of the lineup.
pincrusher – The White Sox situation sounds very much like Tito’s last year in Boston with the chicken and beer environment.
Letting them get away with whatever they want, and there’s never any repercussions or accountability for their actions … hmmm, why does that sound so familiar?
The slight difference was the Sox had won 2 championships and had 5 playoff appearances during Tito’s run. The unfortunate complacency came from a team used to being competitive, the White Sox have been mostly awful going as far back as the end of Ozzie Guillen’s tenure as White Sox manager with two very good examples since after Ozzie being Chris Sale cutting up his alternate uniform because he didn’t like it and Adam LaRoche’s kid being in the clubhouse all season long
The slight difference
========================
Just a teeny-weeny bit different. But anything to tear down a 1st ballot HOF manager.
pincrusher: All I need to know about Renteria is that he got the Sox to the PO three years into a five year rebuild. Apparently larussa’s mental teardown of the team is lingering into this season. With him out of there, the tension seems to be gone. But if you make rules but don’t enforce them, why bother making rules? I can see, as a first year manager, that some players might take advantage of Grifol. Hopefully he’ll learn. I don’t think he’s the right guy to take them through this current rebuild. Hopefully, I’m wrong
So, Middleton is going from one organization with no accountability to another.
“See you in 2035”
Did Cora sit Verdugo for coming to work high on Marijuana?
Supposedly Verdugo showed up two hours before the game (which is an hour late by most team’s standards. If he was high that’s another issue entirely and another strike against Verdugo ever getting that extension he’s said they’ve never talked to him about
But that is the entire point. Renteria sucked donkey balls as an in-game manager, so the “clubhouse chemistry” never got to a point where it mattered. Then Reinsdorf usurped the hiring process when Renteria was rightly sent packing and saddled the team with his golfing buddy. Then they hired a complete incompetent when the golfing buddy wasn’t up to the task.
Correct. The biggest issue was the TLR hire. Renteria needed to go when he did, but Reinsdorf made the worst decision in getting involved in the next hire. We are swinging the other direction with managerial style in Grifol. I think he is in over his head, and the White Sox have had terrible track records with coaching hires. Until there is complete new leadership, I am not convinced they will ever get the manager and GM hires right.
Hmmm…ChiSox cultural issues in the clubhouse,like…TIM (I don’t know how to fight) ANDERSON? Just a hunch…
Actually one of the stories that has come out recently has Anderson in a relatively good light. Grandal wanted to leave the last game before the All Star break early (presumably because he didn’t care about it) and Anderson said something like, “if he wants to quit, I’ll buy his flight”. End result was Grandal came over and smacked him.
No sure how that paints Tim in a good light. A real leader would have tried to get Grandal to stay. Then he gets smacked on top of it? lol
Grandal is obviously checked out and just collecting a paycheck. No one is ego checking that prima donna. Probably felt like he “paid his dues”.
Tim basically saying “then leave” is good leadership.
A real leader knows when someone isn’t pulling their weight, and will call them out.
This is a very draconian outlook on leadership. Knowing when to use negative/positive reinforcement for the desired result just makes you good with people. Leaders toe the line, set the benchmark, etc. They don’t always have to be vocal or even likable. Just like a catcher and pitcher need to be on the same page, as do the clubhouse leaders and coaches. Clearly the Chisox have a lack of quality club house leadership and/or have a coach who’s voice is falling on deaf ears. The entire approach to this season has me dumbfounded. Implement your system then weed out the others. There was no reason to throw away a season for the sake of “Observation”. Top to bottom, all clowns (sans Hendricks)
@GoodTimes- I don’t care for Tim Anderson but some of you will do anything to make him the villain. Plenty of stories have come out with players taking stands this way and were never called the bad guy in the situation. He doesn’t have to be a leader when a dude is trying to quit–at least he wanted to be there.
rct: Grandal doesn’t care. This is the last year of his contract, one the Sox should never have signed him to. He is without a doubt the worst catcher I have ever seen, and no one has to run to analytics to prove that. My biggest fear is that the Sox will re-sign him.
@avenger: yep. I think Grandal has had that attitude wherever he’s been, too.
I can’t agree more other than I really can’t see them re-signing him
Gary Sanchez says Hold my Beer!
I wonder what kind of cultural issues cause a team to have the highest payroll in MLB and sit 8 games behind the Marlins
Mr. Moist Mustache, lovely name by the way, I think their might be some cultural differences but I think it might be more personal ego kinda stuff. Cultural maybe but I get the feeling that Lindor is able to nip most of that in the butt. There seems to be a lot of good characters on the Mets and that’s from a Braves fan. I think their biggest problem was Cohen threw a lot of money at the wall but that the players may not either mesh with the team, or mesh with New York itself. We all know that not everyone can deal with that media area day in and day out. They turn on their team pretty quick. Actually booing their own team at their own stadium. Mentally that has to be tough to adapt to and overcome. Plus Scherzer not being himself didn’t help but that’s a lot of pieces that you hope, mesh. Big moves like what Cohen made can be awfully intimidating on your own team. Crazy though, I heard they are paying more for their roster off the team, than the team.
I think the problem with The Mets was Cohen thought u can buy everything.. When you add new guys usually it takes a yr for players to mesh on new teams hence why im against 1yr contracts.. I think Mets would be a playoff team next yr iff they kept everyone together.. I also believe how to build a winning team is a little combo of Young talent and FA talent.. First sign a Vet player for 5-7yrs than build arround that.. But, yr in yr out you gotta keep molding your farms you cant just trade all ur top farm guys for talent because sometimes it dont gel and it kills the future. Look at the dodgers as a good example
brooklyn62;
You’re a bright guy….
The White Sox have no discipline on the field – having the worst defense in MLB since Ozzie was fired; giving up little league HR’s throwing the ball around the field; playing immobile 1B’s and DH’s on the OF; and employing possibly the worst defensive Catcher in MLB to make their so-called WS run. The SS – supposedly the cog of a defense – is a hot dog (finally being recognized as such) that is constantly out of place on the field when the ball is hit because he has as low a Baseball IQ as there is,,,,what he’s been doing playing SS for a major league is a mystery to baseball evaluators.
Their hitters [sic] play for their statistics (which the national baseball media is finally recognizing) and jump-up-and-down then pose like 8 year-olds when they hit a HR or get a big hit. Meanwhile they do no situational hitting to try to help the team win.
Since Ozzie the Sox have been a totally out of control operation. It starts at the top with the Owner, Team President, and GM. They are enablers, and very probably have grown rich so they either can’t see the forest for the trees or more probably are simply enjoying the good life.
Some of that might not be on the manager, like the GM only signing dumplings to play OF. And some of it might not be on the players, like if defensive positioning is being called (poorly) from the dugout.
But someone is doing these things and it’s been going on in various forms for a long time. THAT is on top leadership. Staying with the “players’ manager” model for this long is not working when the players chosen are not responsible enough to carry their end of the bargain. This is a place where a certain amount of burning to the ground might be really effective.
Guess the record speaks for itself. No discipline shows in the standings.
Silas – I have to disagree somewhat. There have been teams that could handle the freedom to do what they want, such as the 2004 Red Sox who were doing everything from having shots of whiskey before games to naked pullups in the lockerroom.
I think it comes down to maturity and as a team being able to police yourself.
Um, while you make a compelling case overall, not sure naked pullups and pre-game whiskey shots screams maturity. I’m relatively sure the 04 Red Sox had talent and a better manager/GM, but maturity doesn’t seem like what pulled them through.
It wasn’t pre-game whiskey shots. It was one shot of whiskey that every player (that could drink) raised to their lips and had like 1% of one shot. There was more alcohol in their mouthwash.
Down goes Anderson, Down goes Anderson
And Anderson is Back on the Field lol
That call was epic.
I personally enjoyed when the White Sox had Todd Frazier. There was a lot of “Down goes Frazier” chants from the season ticket holders in section 531. Sadly it happened a lot during his tenure…almost as often as LaRoche’s kid was in the clubhouse. Some clubhouse issues never change.
For what it’s worth, Lance Lynn didn’t deny any of it while talking to AJ and Erik Kratz.
Yeah, the cultural issues is why he couldn’t keep the ball in the ballpark in Chicago. It is evident with the change of scenery, oh wait…
2 starts. 2.77 ERA.
2 starts, 4 HR’s. It has been a major issue all year for him keeping ball in field of play. Through 23 starts, he has given up 32 HR’s. That is crazy high.
2.77 ERA.
Yes, Lynn had 2 quality starts; however, Lynn still struggles with the long ball. For the season, nearly 1 in 4 hits have left the ballpark. As a Dodger 4 out of 9 hits left ballpark. It is a small sample size for both era and this stat as a Dodger, but it still stands that, when hit, the ball tends to leave the park. That is his overall tendency this season.
Exactly WebSoul, culture and scenery MATTER. Lance was being plugged in to an already well-oiled system. Like Rosario, I think they are both happy to be on a serious winner and contender and it’s showing in their play. It’s only 2 starts but he has been a huge boost to the rotation, period.
@pincrusher Two separate things. You can be in a locker room for a couple years and see things independent of how well you’re playing.
“You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you?”
Lollygaggers.
This team is a hot mess with no salvageable silver lining. I don’t trust this front office to retool properly for next year either.
This might seem crazy but if your teammate is asleep, maybe, I don’t know, wake him up?
Sleepy Sox
Does not surprise me at all, I’ve Said since 2021 that the team has lacked any chemistry, from the outside it looked like nobody was having fun and their was very little structure. It sounds like Middleton may have played a part as well though!
Arcia: 2021…Hmm. What could have possibly happened before that season that could have led to a lack of chemistry, a lack of having fun and a lack of structure? What was his name? Tony something…?
Obviously, it never made since that they fired a manager that brought you to the playoffs to bring in an out of touch guy who hadn’t had a job coaching in a decade to “lead” a club with so much young talent anf flair.
It’s also unprofessional for a general manager to blast a player that he just traded, at least Kenyan made the attempt to apologize and that was exactly why he made those statements, he was probably apart of that crappy culture because he was in that environment all season. But here we have hahn not taking accountability and bashing the player who calls out his bs. At least he apologized, while hahn sits back and lets his current player in Tim Anderson start an all out brawl and instead of holding him accountable he bashes Kenyan instead of tim. Makes sense. There is no accountability in that locker room and players do and act however they please. The way that team acts you’d think they’d be winning a whole lot more game than they are. This is just sad. Hahn needs to go, grifol needs to go, they need to full on trade everyone that has contributed to this cancerous culture and start all the way over from scratch like the A’s. They might be terrible but it won’t be much worse than it already is and at least they can start a new culture to go along with their new team of players, coaches, and front office employees.
Hahn, and his trainers, KW and Reinsdorf (terrible name by the way), is a silver tongued lawyer. He is programmed to talk in circles, avoid promises and certainties, and run far, far away from accountability.
Now do the John Angelos/Kevin Brown fiasco.
John Angelos proving he’s just as petty and contrite as his father Peter was.
Anyone here old enough to remember when Peter forced out HOF announcer John Miller as an Os broadcaster because he got mad John was doing ESPN Sunday night baseball?
Like father, like son. Shameful.
Thank you! My thoughts exactly. A well thought out comment. Thanks again.
Yup. I remember. Miler doing the home teams sports broadcasts and criticized the club. Gone the next season. Pete and son are jerk offs.
Gary Cohen went off on the O’s and their treatment of Brown on the Mets broadcast earlier tonight. Said basically the same stuff you did.
Seems like almost all the games tonight, the broadcasters said something. Kay did for the Yanks. I know it was mentioned on the Angels/Giants game too.
Will be interesting to see if the mothership/MLB network has any comment tomorrow morning.
Also curious to see how, or if, the Orioles or Angelos make a public statement. If they do, I’m sure that will be horribly done as well.
Os/Astros game tomorrow/Tues is nationally televised on TBS.
mrmet17;
That’s all well and good. Count me in on being upset at the way Peter traded not only Kevin Brown, but Davy Johnson as well…which led to Pat Gillick (probably the best GM of a generation) quitting the O’s in support of Johnson – with Pat then going on to build contending Mariners teams and then coming out of retirement to build a Phillies team which won a World Series.
Nevertheless, John Angelos is currently running the Orioles. He hired Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal, and has left them alone to run the organization and ML team. In turn they’ve built one of the top 4 organizations in MLB, joining the Astros, Braves, and Dodgers. These Orioles have nothing at all to do with the older Angelos’ organization.
Maybe the reason the Mets announcers have to live in the past is because of their present. And from what I’ve seen of Steven Cohen, he’s every bit as incompetent of an owner as Peter Angelos was; and in time as his team continues to swirl the bowl while he runs out of schemes to buy a championship, I look for him to attack subordinates as well.
John needs to leave his announcers alone now too. Crazy unnecessary headline to detract from the fantastic season and organization that was built.
Cohen is still relatively new, so I give him some grace time to prove whether he will or won’t prove to be a meddler. He’s had a couple press conferences, and they look to have changed direction within the past few weeks, but it’s not clear if it’s a negative sign of ADHD management by sparkly objects or a positive sign of “listening to subordinates who think a partial teardown and taking a year to lay a sound foundation might be worth consideration when flinging cash didn’t work.” The game is still young in the Mets’ front office.
crise;
Cohen has never not meddled. He’s running the franchise. Everyone else has to carry out his dictates and use buzzwords to make excuses to the media when things go wrong.
How can you not see this?
No qualified FO in MLB came for an interview when he was looking for a GM. A big market team with a big budget – a FO persons dream. Not a one came in for an interview. So he had to recycle Eppler that cleaned up Arte’s messes in Anaheim – never built anything resembling an organization or a farm system there. The proverbial corporate Yes man.
And now the plan is to build a farm system by 2025 that will have it’s graduates on the major league team contending, and a constant flow of prospects being brought up to the majors in the years thereafter. When has this sort of thing – building a farm system in 1-2 years with the graduates becoming the core of a contending team – ever been done successfully? 1-2 years. LOL And people like you are buying this.
When has this sort of thing – building a farm system in 1-2 years with the graduates becoming the core of a contending team – ever been done successfully? 1-2 years.
========================
The Red Sox. This was the crux of Theo’s remarks about it being a bridge year, which approximately 100% of the RS fans misunderstood.
Past that, a rebuild for a large market team is 100% different than a small market team. Texas, for example, took a small amount of home-grown guys, and added 5 high-priced FAs. I expect the Mets to do something similar.
And one other thing. It’s almost comical to see the highest paid team in history racing down for a shot at the #1 pick, but they did win 101 last year. There is no reason to think that next year will be a disaster.
@Joe
The Mets roster IS a disaster though. Alonso/Lindor/Nimmo are good players. McNeil may bounce back. The young catcher can hit but he can’t catch much at all. Marte is washed up & the other OF slot is a ?. The whole pen needs to be rebuilt aside from the closer & the rotation needs another 3 starters with at least one of them being a TOR guy.
It’s not a very good team as constructed. There’s some pieces but also massive holes & a bloated payroll. No minor league pitching is coming soon to help either.
While I don’t know if it’s proper form to criticize the clubhouse culture in public, it does confirm what many suspect. This is a team that under performs and they need significant changes. There’s a clear lack of leadership. We can all joke about Tim Anderson taking a glancing blow to the chin that was reminiscent of Ali taking down Liston, but Anderson’s antics over the years has been part of this culture. Turns out that the bad guy in the Anderson-Donsaldson dispute wasn’t Donaldson, it was Anderson all along. He likes to criticize and play the victim, but he’s too thin-skinned to take it back. If you’re gonna dish it, you better be able to take it. He can’t. The team should move on.
RobM: Donaldson is a troublemaker. Period. During a game against the Sox Donaldson called Anderson “Jackie”. I guess it was Anderson’s fault. That’s why Donaldson was suspended and had to apologize to the Robinson family for his racist remarks.
In no way was that racist.
I thought he was just playfully teasing him.
@avenger65
Josh Donaldson is no racist, furthermore, he ‘had to apologize’ for nothing. Tim Anderson labeled himself Jackie Robinson, that had nothing to do with Josh Donaldson whatsoever, so Donaldson saying to Anderson, ‘hey Jackie’, is hardly racist.
You can’t have played sport at any level to know what goes on on a sporting field. Donaldson’s remark was nothing more than sarcasm, but of course in this day and age it had to be turned by you and others into ‘racist remark’, which is utterly false and it’s garbage.
What is disgusting these days is the fact that people like you and others in the media use fraudulence and lies to accuse people of ‘racism’ and being ‘racist’ when it’s false and unjustified. However, I suppose for people like you, the ‘mob’ are always right with their sanctimonious assertions.
Please. These are grown men. Athletes have been busting chops on each other for so long as their has been competition. TA was the one that compared himself to Jackie Robinson. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it is fair game for EVERYONE.
You can’t see how a racist could use that comment in a racist way against Tim? Not saying JD is racist, but I don’t think that comment is “fair game”
My friends and I did that 100 years ago. If you said you were the next Mickey Mantle, and struck out four times, we’d call you “Mickey” until the joke got old. TA not wanting people to refer to him as “Jackie” sounds entitled.
Yeah youre not wrong. I say at the minimum it is tone deaf in this specific case, and could be a racist comment
Not enough to judge JD on imo but I am not ready to say that he definitely didn’t mean it that way either
It’s been a hoot of game tonight, as they put a Cease and desist order on the Yankee’s tonight. Not in Manila, but a thriller anyways. Watching the Yanks get took the woodshed is always a riot, and it did look like the Sox fighting contagion was spreading to Boone and the Umpire almost coming to blows. Great game tonight.
You’re right about that. The Sox handled the “great” Cole with ease.
@avenger, 2-run HR in the 2nd. Then 3 runs in the 8th. 5 total hits. I think its just a good win but far from ‘handled’ as you insinuate. but then again i just read your reply about the TA/JD stuff so perhaps you are everyday delusional.
Every win over the Yankees is a good win. But it was as much luck as anything else. 6 hits and 8 walks normally delivers a bunch of runs. Heck, they had bases loaded with no one out, twice, and came away with one run.
wow.
How do you use an example of a man who came into apologize as ground for a swipe?
Chisox are a big mess.
Does this all matter? They are playing the punch-less Tankees. Sox to sweep? Maybe they’ll get the culture by beating them??
Just Keyping it real
Eh, Grandal leaving would have been a win by subtraction. Unsurprisingly, neither Grandal or Anderson ended up getting traded. Speaks volumes to their clubhouse issues.
And now he plays for the biggest baby in sports. Let’s see what he has to say after Boone’s childish antics. There is no way that clubhouse respects a guy who throws tantrums like my 3 year-old.
I think Boone is trying to get canned.
I think we all tend to forget that these are all a bunch of very young men privileged enough to play a game for a living. We all need structure in order to row in the same direction or we devolve into chaos. I’m sorry for the Sox and their fans, but if we really think about it, they likely aren’t the only pro team going through this.
I take your meaning, but the average age in MLB is around 28. That’s not “very young.” In addition, they’re constantly around much older men in a wide variety of roles. They’ll have far more mentors than the average man.
Ozzie, Ozzie.
Sorry. Can’t blame the guys in the bullpen or dugout for sleeping. Sox are so damn boring …my daughter always says nothing puts me to sleep faster on the couch than a boring ball game.
Where to begin? They need to trade/fire everyone from the top down but Reinsdorf won’t allow that to happen. They do have a few pretty good ballplayers. It seems as though every player that leaves says the same thing, so just dump them all and start from scratch including the GM especially.
He’s more than likely correct in his comments, but where’s his veteran leadership? Saying he heard about the culture before he got there, then didn’t speak up when he saw it firsthand? Pitchers aren’t at fault, but his examples are all pitching related? Key has a history of this- see his comments about Angels fans in 2020 and blaming them for the team losing. Nothing is ever on him. Good luck Yanks with this guy.
Hahn’s fireback on Middleton is so classless. He’s taking an incident, without any context (we have no idea what it was), and throwing it out there after Middleton owned up to the mishap with an apology. It just smacks of pettiness and diverting from the in-house issues.
It is textbook Rick Hahn! He is such a small, small man.
That’s my issue as well. Did Key come in drunk? Or did Key scream at a rookie for falling asleep? Or did he take a bat to a water cooler after a loss.
These are all different types of infractions.
We had numerous discussions in our fantasy league about this, this news came as no surprise. New management needed, too talented to be this lousy.
We had numerous discussions in our fantasy league about this, this news came as no surprise. New management needed, too talented to be this lousy
Considering Anderson made several moves that you learn not to do in Little League and the team has shown absolutely no grasp of defensive fundamentals, I would say we have ample evidence that Key is right.
When is Keynan gonna refute Rick Hahn’s accusation of his “unprofessional behavior”?
Middleton apologized for his unprofessional behavior, as Hahn himself admits. Whether what Hahn said about Middleton is true or not is irrelevant, because only a true unprofessional would try and deflect blame back to the person calling them out, and calling out unprofessional behavior from a player who apologized for it is just low. Professionals can make and behave unprofessionally at times, and Middleton owned up to his mistake even seeking out Hahn to do so when he probably didn’t have to go that far. If you’re a professional who doesn’t own up to their mistakes, then congratulations, there’s a chance you could some day be the GM of the White Sox.
Its called “Whataboutism.” You ignore any accusations by making your own accusations.
Bingo
Hahn’s reaction says it all – ain’t no rider on this stagecoach.
Just now realized it was Keynan and not Kenyan
I don’t put much credence in the mowings of a middle reliever about anything.
mewings
Why not? A middle reliever is the perfect fly on the wall: invisible, unnoticed, supposedly inconsequential, but present.
Fire’em all and let the baseball guru’s free to pick over the scraps. Thanks Jerry R, Ricki H and Kenny W for putting out such underperforming group of malcontents and misfits.
I said step up, not get stepped on!
Rick Hahn trying to act like he knows anything about leadership and accountability is simply laughable. This man must have compromising photos of Jerry to be in his GM position as long as he has, with as unsuccessfully as he’s performed his duties of assembling a winning team.
The club matches the GM, so mission accomplished I guess?
Terrible ownership, front office, poor choice in managers, located on a bad section of town, will always be second to the Cubs. Time to relocate, head to Nashville or Charlotte with new ownership.
As long as he is alive Jerry is not selling…his heirs will inherit the step up in basis and at that point will sell…and as long as Williams and Hahn are so far up Jerry’s ass , no changes…sad
Amazing.
That seems like a really odd choice to make for a guy that is going into free agency.
Obviously has no intention of going back to the White Sox. Lance Lynn didn’t have a problem confirming so there’s definitely truth to that.
Hahn himself didn’t deny what he said. Just attacked him.
Yeah, but reps from the 29 other teams can read it as well. Everything else being equal, I’m sure teams prefer players that don’t openly talk to the press about clubhouse matters.
Maybe it has little to no impact on his impending free agency.. it just seems like one of those situations where he gains nothing but could possibly lose quite a bit.
@CK that’s fair. I doubt it ultimately impacts him but there’s certainly no benefit to himself other than feeling better about saying it.
First base is also important for some PFPs…just saying
They’ve had a culture problem for a while. Probably why they hired LaRussa in the first place. His record looks a lot better in hindsight after watching this dumpster fire of a season.
Bad culture? That’s easily solvable. Where’s the good guy with a gun when you need him? Settle it the American way!
Rick Hahn – I have trouble believing you. You trade players and you say these players were Great clubhouse guys- GiO, Lopez and Burger. Then we find out from another player how bad the clubhouse is . Do, we get rid of the good clubhouse guys and keep the cancerous ones? I have trouble believing than Keynan wants to resign with you in free agency. Hey Joe Giradi would you like to manage this team?
The Sox won’t pay players, you think they’d pay what Girardi would ask?
Gotta love when the sub-par middle relievers start the drama with the media
Stating the obvious here. This White Sox organization is a train wreck. The culture is out of hand and broken. Lots of people need to be fired in order for things to change. The big question is what is the owner, Mr. Riensdorf going to do about this mess? My guess is nothing. He’ll be content to just sum it up as a bad year. I’m going to single out Rick Hahn as a huge disappointment in his judgment of people.
Do any of you recall the Field of Dreams game a few years back it was the Chisox & Yankees I think.
Watching the Chisox with their shirts unbuttoned and big chains and acting like kids when they homered had me thinking this team is a disgrace to the game, not what one would call professional.
At that moment I also thought wow there is a lot of talent on this team, they could make some noise the next few years.
I don’t follow the Chisox but it never came to be and I’ve heard enough about Roberts, Anderson etc and Eloy who missed games constantly, to realize there is a clubhouse issue and that team has underachieved to a large degree. Yeah this is where my memory always goes watching the Chisox in that Field of Dreams game, so no surprise.
I would like to personally thank the White Sox organization for making the Red Sox seem functional. Suddenly Cora looks like an applicant for sainthood. We can now say, Hey, could be worse! We could be The Other Sox!
How many sports franchise owners view their teams as vanity projects? How many of them equate making a lot of money with leadership? One only has to look at Daniel Snyder to see this phenomenon in spades. Oligarchs seem to think they know everything about everything just because they have a lot of money. Does Rick Hahn keep his job because he’s loyal to Reinsdorf?
hmm I’m pretty sure you missed the point.
this article is clearly about defunding the police and why it’s dumb.
larussa is such a toxic drunk that the entire team is still hungover
The ChiSox need to cut Tim Anderson off the team. He’s not a very good SS; he’s a distraction and he’s untradeable.
The rebuild was very good but It was clear that it was never a cohesive team. The owner needs to keep his hands off and let the baseball people do their jobs.
The rebuild wasn’t that great. They acquired some good players but never had a team that fit. They never stressed the importance of fundamentals. Org needs to be cleaned out.