It's really a shame the Chicago White Sox and Adam LaRoche are occupying space on the Internet with one of the silliest controversies in perhaps the history of sports.
White Sox team president Kenny Williams asked LaRoche to "dial down" the amount of time the first baseman's son was spending in the clubhouse, which, by the way, was every single day. LaRoche, in a seemingly bizarre turn of events, took that request so personally, that he retired and left $13 million on the table for the 2016 season.
Here are three questions regarding the entire scenario, which address how the team and LaRoche could have handled the situation much better.
Why didn't the White Sox make this request much earlier in the offseason?
In my opinion, this is not an unreasonable request at all from Williams. From reading what beat writers say about some baseball locker rooms and clubhouses, some are certainly NOT suitable for 14-year-old kids.
However, LaRoche has had his son by his side in the clubhouse and on the field at this frequency for six years now - five with the Nationals and one with the White Sox. Williams and chairman Jerry Reinsdorf really had to wait until two and a half weeks before Opening Day to request this of LaRoche?
Now, call LaRoche's reaction whatever you will, but this is an abrupt and seemingly bizarre request to broach at this point in spring training. Maybe it would have been better to address the subject the day the 2015 season ended, which happened to be the worst campaign of LaRoche's 12-year MLB career. Then maybe he could've connected the dots.
Is LaRoche seriously going to abandon his team and leave behind $13 million because Williams wanted his son to spend less time in the clubhouse?
Let's be clear here: Williams did NOT say LaRoche's son, Drake, was banned from the clubhouse. He asked that it be less frequent because the team needs to be "focused" and get "on the same page in regards to preparing for the season."
It's feasible for one to believe that having a family member around constantly might cause a lapse in focus.
Who can blame Williams for his rationale? The White Sox had another abhorrent season last year and LaRoche was a significant part of that. He earned $12 million and was one of the worst hitters in all of Major League Baseball. The 36-year-old batted .207.293/.340 with 41 runs scored, 12 home runs and 44 RBI in 127 games on top of registering a -1.1 dWAR.
The last time he hit 12 home runs and batted in less than 45 runs in a full season? His rookie year in 2004 when he played in 110 games. The last time he batted .207 and put up a .634 OPS? Never.
To retire on a whim and not work to improve on a year where you hindered the success of the team's all-around productivity is a bit ridiculous.
But at the end of the day, LaRoche is entitled to do whatever he wants.
Why didn't the White Sox just hire LaRoche's son to work in the clubhouse?
Williams posed a very interesting question: "Tell me where in America can you bring your kid to work every day and manage it?"
He's got a point. However, if everyone was aware of how much LaRoche valued the presence of Drake, then why didn't the White Sox just hire the kid to work for the team? As we mentioned earlier, no good could have resulted from broaching this subject at this point in time.
Outfielder Adam Eaton said Drake did a great job of cleaning everyone's cleats, helping out with drills and picking up baseballs during practice. The whole White Sox team was upset about the whole ordeal that they nearly boycotted their spring training game on Wednesday. As a result, it's fairly clear Drake wasn't a distraction to anyone and he was in fact a big part of the ball club.
The kid doesn't live a traditionally-schooled life (for some odd reason, but that's LaRoche's choice), as the former White Sox first baseman believes Drake is "going to learn a lot more useful information in the clubhouse than he will in the classroom, as far as life lessons."
Agree or disagree, either way this kid isn't going to school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., so the White Sox could've done themselves a favor and just hired him and had him conduct other duties that wouldn't have had him running around the clubhouse all day. I remember as a 14-year-old I was waking up at 5:30 a.m. to go caddie, so Drake is perhaps old enough to handle real responsibilities beyond shagging balls and scrubbing cleats.
However you want to look at this, it's evident that both sides could have handled this better. Now all this is going to do is put the White Sox in a bad light and cause a distraction as the team prepares for the 2016 season.
But the saga isn't over. LaRoche can reportedly file a grievance against the White Sox for their request.
God help us all.
