There are always two sides to every story, so perhaps it was too good to be true that many believed the entire Chicago White Sox team was on Adam LaRoche's side during this whole dispute with team president Kenny Williams about the first baseman's son, Drake, being around so much.
LaRoche's teammates Chris Sale and Adam Eaton publicly came to the recently retired slugger's defense after it was reported Williams had asked LaRoche to "dial down" his son's presence in the clubhouse, even though the two sides had an agreement regarding the issue before LaRoche signed with the team before the 2015 season.
But now here's the other side to the story: some White Sox players and personnel were not thrilled about Drake's constant presence in the clubhouse and with the team.
"Several players and staff members privately complained to White Sox management recently about the constant presence of LaRoche's 14-year-old son, Drake, in the clubhouse," writes Bob Nightingale of USA Today Sports. "Drake LaRoche, multiple people say, was with the team about 120 games during the 2015 season."
The "multiple baseball officials" spoke on condition of anonymity because White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has not permitted anyone in the organization to comment specifically on the matter.
Well, really, how surprising is this? If you're a skeptic about this whole situation, it's probably not at all a shock.
Why would Williams ask LaRoche just over two weeks before Opening Day to scale back the presence of his son, who has been by his side for the past six MLB seasons? People could have been complaining about it this spring as the White Sox are heading into a crucial 2016 season after six straight years of missing the postseason. It's not like Williams himself had a problem with it because he's part of the front office and his clubhouse appearances are probably few and far between.
Many might believe it has to do with LaRoche's horrific 2015 campaign, in which he registered multiple career-lows after batting .207 with a .634 OPS and just 12 home runs while taking home $12 million. But if that was truly the concern, it's hard to believe Williams waited until now to broach the subject of LaRoche's son considering such a conversation would only have negative implications at this juncture in the offseason.
Then again, check out this piece documenting Williams' tenuous relationship with past White Sox players and personnel. Williams was said to have issues with Frank Thomas as well as manager Ozzie Guilen, although the latter really isn't a surprise.
Whatever the case, there seems to have been a ton of overreaction from nearly all sides involved in this dispute. Williams asking LaRoche this in the middle of spring training serves no purpose other than to cause an enormous distraction; LaRoche retiring is an extreme way to put one's foot down, especially since he owes the White Sox for his putrid performance last year; and the White Sox players really took it to the next level by nearly staging a boycott of Wednesday's spring training game.
It's hard to believe that everyone is seemingly acting like a child here when the only one that should be is the 14-year-old Drake.
