Chicago White Sox taking deserved heat for LaRoche situation?
If first baseman Adam LaRoche was anything for the hopeful Chicago White Sox in 2016, he is no longer. The 12 year veteran filed his official retirement papers on Thursday and effectively walked away from a scheduled $13MM in 2016 earnings.
It’s not entirely unusual for professional athletes to abruptly walk away from their game of choice on their own accord. What is bizarre, are the circumstances whereby LaRoche will be ending his time in Major League Baseball.
Reports broke earlier in the week that White Sox team president Ken Williams approached LaRoche about the amount of time his son Drake, 14, was spending in and around the clubhouse and with the team. Both parties walked a fine line when the subject got addressed, but now it’s the White Sox who are experiencing most of the backlash — not LaRoche.
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If a ballpark is a baseball player’s office, then the clubhouse could be likened to a board room. On very rare occasions, business professionals and people that work in offices will bring a child into work. It’s absurd however to think that a child could be present almost on a daily basis in the office or the board room while true workplace matters are being attended to. In that light, Williams’ argument seems justified.
However, baseball players are not Wall Street bankers or Silicon Valley programmers. And Spring Training is more like an interview process than it is the duty that follows getting hired and actually showing up to the office in a constant state where ones performance is being monitored.
In the case of a veteran like the 36-year-old LaRoche, Spring Training isn’t even an audition to make the team. Few players with his tenure in MLB and the salary that comes with it would face being cut. When the White Sox signed LaRoche, they were expecting similar numbers to the ones he posted with Washington three years prior. The best of those three seasons came in 2012 when he hit .271 with 33 home runs and 100 RBI, finishing sixth in NL MVP voting in the process.
In 2015 with first base occupied by Jose Abreu, LaRoche played mostly at designated hitter for Chicago. His drab line of .207-12-44 didn’t do much to instill confidence in his bat last season, or moving forward. This spring, before terminating his own contract, LaRoche had logged only five at-bats with a solo home run to show for his efforts.
The glaring hole in the Chicago White Sox’s offense is now at designated hitter, but the media and Ken Williams’ words have brought about an even bigger disaster of the public relations variety. Some players on the Sox seriously considered a boycott of the organization in order to support Adam LaRoche and his son. It’s arguable who is in the right, but LaRoche is gaining support simply because he chose family over his profession.
As Ken Rosenthal had recounted even more recently, ace pitcher Chris Sale told Ken Williams to leave the clubhouse during a “passionate” discussion after LaRoche’s decision went public. It’s not yet clear if more people may lose or step away from their jobs once the dust settles. One thing is for sure though, the White Sox have some dirty laundry to get rid of before Opening Day.
None of this can be a good thing for an AL Central team hoping to take a big step forward in 2016 and compete with the likes of Kansas City. Fans will likely have different opinions than upper management within the organization. This is certainly one of the more absurd story lines to come out of Spring Training in recent years. Whether the Chicago White Sox can put it behind them this season and play a high caliber of baseball remains to be seen.