Chris Sale screamed at Kenny Williams during Adam LaRoche meeting
It’s only spring training, but the drama surrounding the Chicago White Sox is already in midseason form. Ace Chris Sale reportedly went off on team president Kenny Williams during a meeting in which Williams discussed the team’s stance regarding Adam LaRoche and his son.
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The meeting involved a fair amount of profanity, according to Yahoo’s Jeff Passan, and caused the players to consider boycotting Wednesday’s spring game.
Sale was one of the more animated players during the meeting. The star pitcher was reportedly angry at Williams because he doesn’t feel Williams spends enough time in the clubhouse to enforce clubhouse rules.
That stance appeared to reach a boiling point when Sale then told Williams to stay away from the clubhouse.
Throughout the saga, some have wondered why Williams, and not general manager Rick Hahn or manager Robin Ventura, has taken charge in the fight against LaRoche. There have been reports that some players complained to Williams about LaRoche’s son being in the locker room too much.
If that’s the case, Williams would be in a better position than both Ventura and Hahn to handle the brunt of the player’s ire. He’s holds a higher position within the organization than both men, and it’s probably in the player’s best interests that they don’t actively hate their manager or GM. It’s not ideal if they hate Williams, but he may be less involved with the club than Hahn and Ventura.
If players did complain privately to Williams, it’s pretty clear Sale wasn’t among them. If Williams truly is taking the brunt of the complaints to prevent strife within the clubhouse, that could create an uncomfortable situation among the players.
Those who complained to Williams probably felt awful when his talk with LaRoche led to the LaRoche’s retirement, and now they had to sit around and listen to their best player berate a team official.
It’s one thing for a divide to exist between Williams and the players, but it’s much worse if the locker room begins to split over this situation. On top of all of this, the White Sox added a number of players during the offseason. So on top of making all those new personalities work together, they now have to deal with a potentially toxic situation dividing players who were just getting used to their new teammates.
[Passan: The White Sox and Adam LaRoche are both right in a situation that is very wrong]
That whole thing makes for an incredibly hazardous situation. It’s never a good thing when a team’s best player screams at a respected official, and that’s bound to have consequences in the locker room.
If the front office can’t figure out a way to mend this rift before the regular season, the White Sox are going to go into the season with a huge chip on their shoulder … directed at their own organization.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
