Holding with the latest slew of tales about embarrassing baseball franchises, the White Sox debacle has gotten progressively worse since Tim Anderson bought rocked by José Ramírez. Spectacular feat! Sadly for Anderson, the brand new story nonetheless revolves round him on the shedding finish of a bodily altercation, although no less than public opinion has typically been kinder to him.
This report notably got here after reduction pitcher Keynan Middleton, who was traded to the Yankees on the deadline, stated that the White Sox had a “no guidelines” tradition, a message seconded by the additionally lately traded Lance Lynn. In keeping with Middleton, the shortage of guidelines led to rookies sleeping within the bullpen throughout video games, and gamers lacking conferences and fielding practices with out consequence.
“It is onerous to police individuals when there aren’t any guidelines,” Middleton stated. “If guys are doing issues that you simply assume are mistaken, who’s it mistaken to? You or them? It is anybody’s judgment at that time.”
In that context, it is most likely not shocking that Grandal was reportedly capable of go away the group early earlier than the All-Star break and undergo no penalties for it. It is also not shocking that Anderson would take situation—for all of Anderson’s flaws and struggles this season, you possibly can by no means say that he lacks the need to win. However contemplating that simply over a yr in the past, Grandal had gotten in Josh Donaldson’s face in assist of Anderson, it’s shocking that the clubhouse atmosphere has deteriorated so quickly, seemingly worse beneath Pedro Grifol’s tenure than Tony La Russa’s.
However whereas Grifol is doubtlessly incapable of fixing the group’s points, Middleton mentions that the clubhouse had comparable points final yr, when La Russa was nonetheless supervisor. Contemplating La Russa’s model, it is onerous to think about him making any actual adjustments from how he ran the group in 2021. And the very last thing that somebody would’ve pointed to as an issue with the 2021 Chicago White Sox can be a tradition situation.
The only rationalization for why issues immediately really feel so unhealthy on this group is that profitable covers up loads, together with a rot that has been round because the Drake LaRoche period of White Sox baseball. It is not onerous to think about how a tradition with reportedly no guidelines can be notably vibes- or player-contingent; that everybody would purchase in as long as the group was profitable, however instantly collapse as quickly because the membership began shedding, or leaders began to go away.
Middleton factors to the “huge canine” like Lynn and Kendall Graveman lacking spring coaching due to the World Baseball Basic as one motive why the White Sox hadn’t discovered their identification (Graveman was additionally lately traded). Veteran presence José Abreu, who’s hitting poorly this season however was nonetheless the center of the group in years prior, is now with the Houston Astros. That is a little bit of a damning sentence inside itself; it is at all times dire when the descriptor “veteran presence” in a participant scouting report begins to really feel like an integral asset slightly than a euphemistic cover-up for deteriorating efficiency.
Let’s not get too confused, although. No quantity of veteran presence will repair the White Sox’s core points. Even when Grandal and Anderson make up, or the White Sox return to their profitable methods, the issue will solely be postponed for an additional day. To repair the problems appears a Herculean activity for Grifol, who had by no means been a big-league supervisor earlier than taking this job and is now presiding over a group in transition. From the fan perspective, the trail ahead is as temperate as you’ll anticipate: burn all of it down. Contemplating that the attendance downturns are already taken care of, public humiliation is the next-best incentive. The White Sox are already horrible this yr—it does not precisely harm for them to go about it in essentially the most embarrassing trend doable.
