To call this a disappointing season for the Chicago White Sox would be a massive understatement. On the field, the White Sox have the fourth-worst record in baseball at 45-68, which led to them trading away Jake Burger, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Lance Lynn, and several others at last week's trade deadline.
One of those traded players, reliever Keynan Middleton, ripped the White Sox over the weekend, saying the team lacks discipline. "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," he added. Lynn later backed up Middleton, saying he wasn't wrong. Manager Pedro Grifol said Monday he is "determined" to improve the team's culture and build a "new foundation on rock, not on muck," per the Daily Herald.
"I think it's important to note that for the past month, you've heard fairly directly from both Grifol and me and others that we realized we have -- had -- a bit of a cultural problem in this clubhouse," GM Rich Hahn added Monday. "That we didn't have a group that was all pointed in the same direction, that was necessarily supporting each other, or going about their business the way that we had wanted this team to go about it. It was something that we were upfront about the last several weeks. Something that we feel we've been in the process of addressing both at the trade deadline as well as since, and is something that we expect will continue to improve in the coming weeks."
Middleton called out the White Sox for their lack of discipline one day after shortstop Tim Anderson got into a fight -- a full-fledged fight with punches thrown -- with Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez. Anderson got the worst of it, and, to rub salt in the wound, his suspension was twice as long as Ramírez's (six games to three) because he threw down first. The White Sox say Anderson has passed a concussion test and will speak to reporters when "the time is right," per the Chicago Tribune.
"You did see a team on Saturday and Sunday rally around each other," Hahn said about the brawl. "You saw individual examples of leadership from Andrew Vaughn in particular on the field (when he carried Anderson away from the brawl). From Michael Kopech playing peacemaker in that melee. And a team that faced adversity as a unity and came away with two victories that was hopefully something to build upon."
Also on Monday, 670 The Score reported Anderson and Yasmani Grandal had an altercation in the clubhouse prior to the All-Star break. Grandal wanted to leave early because he wasn't in the lineup for the final game of the first half, Anderson didn't like it and told him to leave if he didn't want to be there, and Grandal reportedly slapped him in the head. Grandal denied to the report Monday, saying it is "not real."
The telltale sign of a culture problem is having to answer questions about your clubhouse culture. Once the dirty laundry starts getting aired and management has address these things in no uncertain terms, then yes, there's a culture issue. Are Grifol and Hahn the right people to fix it? I'm not sure. This is happening under their watch, right?
Either way, it's becoming clear the White Sox are not simply a talented team having a down season. There are deeper problems behind closed doors preventing this team from reaching its potential.
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