INQUISITR.COM / Sports

Chris Sale Fires On White Sox Exec In Wake Of The Adam LaRoche Retirement

By Ernest Shepard
Published on: 15:42 PST, Mar 18, 2016

One of baseball’s best players is angry with his team.

Add Chicago White Sox pitcher Chris Sale to the list of people chiming in on the ongoing saga between Adam LaRoche and the team. It is the retirement story that seemingly will not go away any time soon. The end result is an unwarranted black eye given to the White Sox. Given the tenor of the situation, there will be more hurt feelings and bad blood to follow in one of the most bizarre sports stories in quite some time. What is going on with the White Sox is guaranteed to have some lasting implications.

In the odd order of occurrences, it was about a week ago when Chicago White Sox Vice President Kenny Williams had approached Adam LaRoche about the prospects of not having his son, Drake, around the clubhouse too often. It was suggested that LaRoche had the approval from the White Sox to have his son accompany him. During last season’s spring training, it was clear that LaRoche’s reasonable request meant that his son would be with the Chicago White Sox all of the time.

So accommodating were the White Sox that they gave Drake LaRoche, who has baseball aspirations of his own, a team jersey and a separate locker. It is interesting how quickly the good vibes went away after VP Kenny Williams told LaRoche that he needed to “dial it back” some.

Instead of coming up with a feasible compromise, Adam LaRoche decided that it was time to hang it up. He leaves with $13 million on the table. What he also leaves is an angry White Sox locker room. Some of the players were so upset about LaRoche being told that his son had to come around less that they threatened to boycott Thursday’s spring training game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Chris Sale is the first current player on the Chicago White Sox roster to openly speak out against Adam LaRoche’s abrupt exit. His frustrations were hurled in the direction of Williams.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Chris Sale believes that he and his White Sox teammates were lied to. It is also his assertion that the wrong person handled the Adam LaRoche situation. That responsibility should have gone to White Sox manager Robin Ventura.

“I think if the right person had handled (the situation), it would have been completely different. This isn’t us rebelling against rules. This is us rebelling against BS. … When it comes to what happens in the clubhouse, the right person has to handle that, and that’s Robin.”

While Chris Sale is right that it should have been Robin Ventura who had the final say-so on LaRoche having his son around, the onus is on the elder LaRoche to know when enough is enough.

It does not matter if LaRoche’s son is a great young man or a pest, business is business. And a baseball team with three consecutive underwhelming seasons under its belt, business had to come back to the Chicago White Sox. That business is about winning baseball games.

As the vice president of the Chicago White Sox, if Kenny Williams wants to get back to business, it is his power as the right-hand man of owner Jerry Reinsdorf to come down and say the young man has to not be around too often. Not everyone has to be on board with that decision. The White Sox still have to go about the business of winning games, whether Drake LaRoche is around or not.

Adam LaRoche issued a statement (courtesy of Yahoo Sports) about his reasons to retire after days of silence.

“White Sox VP Ken Williams recently advised me to significantly scale back the time that my son spent in the clubhouse. Later, I was told not to bring him to the ballpark at all. Obviously, I expressed my displeasure toward this decision to alter the agreement we had reached before I signed with the White Sox. Upon doing so, I had to make a decision.”

As Chris Sale and the rest of his teammates, along with others, begin to throw their support in LaRoche’s favor, there is a question that has not been asked.

Disregard the struggles Adam LaRoche had at the plate last season (he batted.207 and only hit 12 home runs). Forget about the reported back spasms that he was dealing with. How badly did Adam LaRoche want to play baseball this season?

This is a legitimate question given LaRoche’s haste in filing his retirement paperwork. If he were, let’s say, 33 years old and not 36, would he have retired so suddenly?

In no way did Adam LaRoche abandon the Chicago White Sox. His choice to put his family first is an admirable one. It was him being a Major League Baseball player that puts LaRoche in the position to choose. And it was the Chicago White Sox who gave him what was likely going to be his last big money contract. In his contract there is no provision allowing him to have his son around all the time. Adam LaRoche being able to bring his son around at all is a courtesy that not all baseball teams allow. LaRoche being asked to scale back from having his son there all of the time should not have forced his hand to retire. That leads many to believe that there is more to this story.

What also leads to that belief is a usually quiet Chris Sale being loud about what took place. It was Chris Sale who went after Kenny Williams in the wake of Adam LaRoche’s retirement.

[Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images]

Share this article: Chris Sale Fires On White Sox Exec In Wake Of The Adam LaRoche Retirement
mlb Sports Chris Sale Chicago White Sox
More from Inquisitr