What is Rick Hahn thinking? Earlier this week I talked about the dysfunction in the Chicago White Sox clubhouse. Sox skipper Pedro Grifol didn’t speak before the media following the game on August 5 in which Tim Anderson and Jose Ramirez traded blows. He wasn’t immediately available for comment after Keynan Middleton shared some unfavorable words about the organization.
Finally, this past Monday, he appeared alongside General Manager Rick Hahn to discuss the whole litany of issues facing the team. While Grifol focused his comments primarily on the future of the Chicago White Sox, Hahn said he felt “a responsibility to respond,” to Middleton’s comments.
Here’s what he said:
Frankly, the rule of a clubhouse is what goes on in a clubhouse is supposed to say there. I’m a big believer in that tenet. However, when an individual casts aspersions and puts his name on it, I feel a responsibility to respond.”
Rick Hahn via MLB
Rick Hahn Shifts the Blame to Middleton
First of all, the General Manager isn’t part of the clubhouse. Whatever bond of secrecy the players share does not extend to Hahn himself. Therefore, it is not his responsibility to comment on the betrayal of that rule. The players handle that. Except that none of them publicly commented. In fact, the only people who did speak up were the players who were traded at the deadline, and they agreed with Middleton.
Rick Hahn then went on to call Middleton the unprofessional party. As a result of some unknown transgression, Middleton apparent “sought [Hahn] out to apologize for his unprofessional behavior, unprofessional behavior that Pedro had called him out on . . . [he] wanted to apologize for it.”
From an outside perspective, I would paraphrase this as: ‘You shouldn’t listen to Keynan. Not only is he breaking the bro code, but he actually admitted he’s the real unprofessional.” This is interesting in a few ways.
First, Hahn is talking about the sanctity of in-house policing, but publicly declaring that Middleton had to have a meeting with Pedro Grifol because of his behavior. Second, Middleton is a 29 year old ball player. Making mistakes is part of the gig. His job is to learn from those mistakes. In fact, it sounds like he did. As former Twins 3B Trevor Plouffe pointed out on the Baseball Today podcast, actively pursuing Grifol and Hahn to own up to his behavior is extraordinarily professional.
Also, the Chicago White Sox have been objectively bad the past two seasons. Rick Hahn chose to omit his role in the organization’s deficiencies and shift the blame entirely to a player. “No one . . . has run from the fact that we’ve had cultural issues,” Said Hahn. That doesn’t seem true at all.
The Latest on Hahn, Middleton and the Chicago White Sox
Is this old news? Perhaps, but the problem hasn’t quite subsided. During August 9ths game between the White Sox and Yankees (in which Middleton happened to pitch), the White Sox scoreboard operators omitted Keynan Middleton’s name altogether during his appearance.
To be fair, this could reasonably be chalked up to a duplicate jersey number appearing in the same game. When that happens, sometimes a system will only prioritize one of the players with that number in the system. Nevertheless, the timing is odd.
What’s more, though, Middleton’s wife, Stephanie, took to X that same day to suggest that White Sox affiliated employees were caught “kicking his kids out of the daycare . . .”
Whether or not this is entirely accurate is unconfirmed, nor are we aware of the actual circumstances surrounding the event. It seems safe to say, though, that the Southside organization is not taking any action toward staying out of trouble.
What’s Rick Hahn’s next move? He hasn’t gone back on any of his previous comments. What do you think? Will he? Should he? Let us know by following The Forkball on X.
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