Kuzul

Former Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche—who retired after he was asked by the team’s front office to dial back the amount of time his son, Drake, spent in the clubhouse—spoke at length about that decision with Tim Keown of ESPN the Magazine.

And LaRoche doesn’t seem to regret his decision one bit:

I’m not saying this is the way everybody should raise their kid. I’m saying I was given the privilege to raise my kid this way by some awesome teams and managers and GMs. Can every parent do it? No. But can we spend more time with our kids? Sure. I feel like I’ve spent as much time with Drake as you can, and if he were to die tomorrow, I guarantee you I’d be looking back and saying I wish I spent more time with him.

A lot went into LaRoche’s decision to retire. There was a trip to Southeast Asia in Nov. 2015 with a nonprofit organisation called the Exodus Road, where LaRoche and his close friend Blaine Boyer infiltrated brothels to determine the age of the female workers and tried to identify their bosses. There was the fact Drake would be in high school next year, where his attendance will be mandatory and he’ll play on the baseball team.

Until this point, Drake had been allowed to do his schoolwork electronically and, along with his sister, would spend several hours a day at a Sylvan Learning Center completing his studies.

“I am choosing my son over you guys,” LaRoche said to his teammates when he finally came to the decision to retire. “I cannot tell you how much I hate that I’m even having to make this decision, and how much it crushes me to feel like I could be leaving you guys hanging.”

To his credit, LaRoche understood some of the potential issues with having a kid in a clubhouse, but he also didn’t think they were that big of a deal.

“You can say, ‘That’s no place for a kid to be,'” LaRoche said of the culture of the clubhouse, which can be raucous, to put it mildly. “The way I see it, he’s going to be around that regardless, unless you home-school and raise them in a bubble. I can’t think of a better place for him to be when he gets a taste of that than with me.”

He added, “There’s a chance we could have other guys see Drake and think, ‘I’ll bring my kid, too.’ Obviously we can’t turn this into a day care. I get it.”

But Drake, who accompanied his father to the ballpark since 2011 when he was just nine, was “the exception to the rule,” according to LaRoche.

A part of the first baseman wondered if his declining production—he hit .207 with 12 home runs and 44 RBI in 127 games with the White Sox last season—was a part of the reason executive vice president Ken Williams approached him and asked him to bring his son into the clubhouse less often.

But don’t expect LaRoche to lose any sleep over his career coming to an end on his terms.

“If I had blown out a couple of years ago, or got released, I think I would have gotten over it really quick,” he told Keown. “I love it. It’s a passion. But I think every one of us is put here for a bigger purpose.”   

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

One Detroit Tigers fan collected more foul balls on Monday than his team did runs, as Detroit lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-4.

That’s right, he caught five foul balls.

But he didn’t keep the souvenirs for himself. Instead, he gave them away to kids in the crowd at Comerica Park. Now that is true sportsmanship.

[MLB.com]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In winning the American League pennant in 2014 and the World Series in 2015, the Kansas City Royals had a system.

And on Opening Night of the 2016 season, they showed that the system still works.

The Royals began the new season on Sunday night the same way they ended the last season: by defeating the New York Mets. And though this one didn’t win them a shiny trophy, the 4-3 victory they earned was still good enough for the adoring masses packed into Kauffman Stadium.

And let the record show that there were no fisticuffs. That seemed like a distinct possibility when word started circulating that the Royals were planning on exacting revenge for a wayward Noah Syndergaard fastball in the Fall Classic. But in the end, a dish best served cold was never served at all.

The Royals simply played baseball instead, and came away with more or less the type of win that they’ve specialized in. It’s the kind of win where, when asked how it happened, the best response is, “Well, how long you got?”

Matt Harvey, one of baseball’s best power pitchers, struck out only two batters in the process of giving up eight of Kansas City’s nine hits in his five and two-thirds innings. That kept the pressure on the Mets defense all night, and the Royals further upped the ante by careening around the bases. Alcides Escobar stole a base, and aggressive baserunning plays by Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain led to runs.

Ho hum. The Royals’ strikeout percentage over the last two seasons is the smallest in baseball by plenty. And in 2015, they swiped 104 bases (fifth) while finishing fourth in extra bases taken percentage. Driving other teams nuts with their style of offense is what they do.

“It’s all team-oriented offense,” first baseman Eric Hosmer recently told David Schoenfield of ESPN.com, “and that’s why we’re so successful and so successful against ace pitchers. I know we beat a tremendous amount of ace guys because our offense has truly bought into a game plan each and every day.”

While Kansas City’s offense specializes putting pressure on the opposing defense, their own defense is certainly none too shabby in its own right.

No team has saved more runs on defense over the last two years than the Royals’, and there was more of that excellent glovework on display Sunday night. Moustakas and Hosmer made nifty plays at the corners, and Salvador Perez and Omar Infante teamed up on a caught-stealing worthy of Statcast:

Edinson Volquez was the beneficiary of these plays, which had a hand in him logging six shutout innings. He wasn’t quite as sharp as those six scoreless innings and the two hits he allowed suggest, but he made enough good pitches to deserve a quality start.

And though quality starts are something the Royals didn’t get a lot of last season, that didn’t stop them from finishing with one of the league’s top 10 ERAs. So between Volquez’s performance and all the hitting, running and fielding the Royals were doing on Sunday night, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports was really just saying what everyone was thinking when he tweeted:

There was, however, one element of the Royals’ system that wasn’t quite there Sunday night.

The dominant relief pitching they’re used to enjoying hit a snag. Kelvin Herrera did fine in a scoreless seventh inning, but offseason signee/old friend Joakim Soria had to be bailed out by Luke Hochevar after giving up three runs on three hits and two walks in the eighth inning. And in the ninth inning, Wade Davis put runners on the corners before striking out David Wright and Yoenis Cespedes to end the game.

But don’t worry about Davis. He has the lowest ERA (0.97) and lowest OPS allowed (.429) of any reliever over the last two seasons. The excellent stuff that made that’s made that possible was on display Sunday night. And though it was lost on a tight strike zone, so was the command.

Soria is more of a question, as his stumble out of the gate wasn’t entirely unexpected after he out-pitched his peripherals in 2015. But if he remains a question, Hochevar could prove to be an unexpected answer. Now well removed from his 2014 Tommy John operation, he may get back to being the overpowering reliever he was in 2013.

So, the one blemish on Kansas City’s season-opening takedown of the Mets isn’t worth worrying about. After posting the AL’s lowest ERA across 2014 and 2015, the Royals bullpen should remain one of Major League Baseball’s most formidable strengths.

The Royals won’t have to come up with a new system as long as that’s the case. Nor should they be in any hurry to, for that matter. 

At a time when hitters are striking out like crazy and still trying to trot rather than run around the bases, and when teams are trying to fool the defense gods with shifts and trusting more innings to their relievers, the Royals are basically Major League Baseball’s answer to the Golden State Warriors. They’re not just really good. They’re ahead of the curve.

Of course, there is some doubt as to whether this system can be as successful in 2016 as it has been the last two years. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections have the Royals finishing last in the AL Central. And despite some reservations based on how drastically the Royals outplayed a similar projection in 2015, Sam Miller wrote that he’s “not totally convinced that PECOTA was exactly wrong last year, or is wrong this year.”

In time, such a stance could prove to be justified. But after the Royals’ latest triumph, everyone should be in I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it mode regarding their projections.

Their system hasn’t let them down yet. And one game into 2016, it’s still looking pretty good.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Free-agent pitcher Miguel Gonzalez reportedly agreed to a minor league deal with the Chicago White Sox on Sunday, per MLB.com’s Scott Merkin and the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Daryl Van Schouwen.

Gonzalez started 26 games for the Baltimore Orioles last year, going 9-12 with a 4.91 ERA. The team released the 31-year-old right-hander last Wednesday, saving nearly $3.9 million in the process. The Baltimore Sun‘s Eduardo A. Encina reported Baltimore offered him a “competitive” deal similar to the White Sox’s offer, while the New York Yankees expressed interest in his services as well.

Historically, Gonzalez has outpitched his normalized metrics with a 4.70 FIP and a 4.45 xFIP over his career compared to a 3.82 ERA, per FanGraphs; his luck ran out in 2015. According to FanGraphs, his 0.5 WAR was second-lowest among Orioles pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched.

Although his 6.8 strikeouts per nine innings were a career high, so, too, were his 3.2 walks per nine innings. FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan questioned whether health might be a concern for Gonazlez going forward:

To me, this is about the third approach. For some quick background, Gonzalez has never been a power pitcher. In 2012, as a rookie, his fastball averaged 91. He stayed there, in 2013, in 2014, and in 2015. There wasn’t any sign of degradation, but: toward the end of last season, Gonzalez went on the DL with elbow and shoulder tendinitis. He returned to make one start on September 30, and the fastball averaged 89.

According to Brooks Baseball, Gonzalez’s velocity fell across the board from August to September last year. Most concerning was the fact his fastball and sinker each lost over two miles per hour. Both pitches hovered a little above 92 mph for most of the season. Over the final month of the regular season, his fastball clocked in at 90.23 mph, and his sinker averaged 90.14 mph.

In 19.1 spring training innings, Gonzalez posted a 9.78 ERA and gave up five home runs, which doesn’t inspire much confidence with regard to his 2016 outlook.

While there are questions over his long-term value, the White Sox were smart to take a flier on Gonzalez with the regular season right around the corner. The cost is relatively low, so Chicago won’t have a hard time offloading him if his issues on the mound continue.

Having Gonzalez also provides some security for the rotation with both John Danks and Mat Latos coming off poor 2015 campaigns. MLB.com’s Phil Rogers also posited his arrival could allow Carson Fulmer, the White Sox’s No. 1 draft pick from last year, to gain more experience in the minors until he’s fully ready to make the jump to the majors.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Kansas City Royals will begin the defense of their 2015 World Series title Sunday night against the team they beat to win the championship, the New York Mets.

The Royals are listed at 14-1 odds to win the World Series again this season at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark, while the Mets are 12-1.

Two other games on the schedule for Sunday include the St. Louis Cardinals visiting the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Tampa Bay Rays hosting the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Cardinals (18-1 to win the World Series) and Pirates (20-1) will both be trying to top the favored Chicago Cubs (5-1) this year, while the Blue Jays (10-1) are the leading American League team.

Kansas City will send Edinson Volquez (13-9, 3.55 ERA in 2015) to the mound after seeing his team defeat New York twice in his last two starts, including the World Series clincher in Game 5 that ended the franchise’s 30-year championship drought.

New York will counter with Matt Harvey (13-8, 2.71), who has been cleared to start after passing blood clots through his bladder. Harvey was scratched from his spring training start Tuesday to deal with the issue and threw a career-high 216 innings last season.

The Royals are 12-4 in their last 16 against National League opponents, including the World Series, while the Mets are 5-13 in their past 18 versus the AL.

St. Louis took 10 of the 19 meetings with Pittsburgh last year, according to the Odds Shark MLB Database, en route to winning its third consecutive NL Central title. The Cardinals, though, lost six of the 10 games played at PNC Park, where the Pirates went 53-28 last season.

Both finished ahead of Chicago in the division a year ago but find themselves battling public perception and the oddsmakers heading into the season.

St. Louis will give Adam Wainwright (2-1, 1.61) his first start since April 25 of last year in the opener while Pittsburgh rides with lefty Francisco Liriano (12-7, 3.38).

Toronto will kick off the season against a young Tampa Bay team that is 40-1 to win the World Series on the baseball betting futures. The Blue Jays were eliminated by Kansas City in the AL Championship Series last season and hope to take the next step this year.

Marcus Stroman (4-0, 1.67) gets the call for Toronto here off a disappointing postseason in which he went 1-0 with a 4.19 ERA coming off a torn ACL he suffered during spring training. The Rays will go with ace Chris Archer (12-13, 3.23), who had a career-best 252 strikeouts last year.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

According to Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, starting pitcher Daniel Norris has “nondisplaced fractures in [his] spinous process,” per MLB.com’s Jason Beck.

Continue for updates.

Norris Unavailable for Opening Day Roster

Thursday, March 24

Many expected the 22-year-old left-hander to compete for a spot in the Tigers’ rotation this spring. Instead, he has a 9.95 ERA in 6.1 innings, and he missed what would’ve been his fourth start while dealing with lower-back stiffness.

Even if Norris were back to 100 percent by the time the Tigers open the 2016 season on April 5 against the Miami Marlins, Ausmus already eliminated any hope he’d be on the major league squad, per MLive.com’s Chris Iott: “No, he won’t be [ready] at this point. From a pitch-count perspective he probably wouldn’t be ready by Opening Day.”

Iott added Norris saw a specialist about his back Thursday.

The former second-round pick moved to the Tigers in the David Price trade. He made eight starts for Detroit in 2015, going 2-1 with a 3.68 ERA. Norris began the year as one of the more highly touted prospects in the game, ranking 17th on FanGraphs and 34th on Baseball Prospectus.

As long as this back injury doesn’t turn into a lingering issue, it shouldn’t have a significant impact on Norris’ development, even though he won’t be in the majors to start the year.

His absence would all but guarantee Shane Greene is the Tigers’ No. 5 starter coming out of spring training.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There’s an old—and erroneous—cliche about the Chinese symbol for “crisis” being the same as the one for “opportunity.”

In the case of Chris Sale, the Chicago White Sox and any prospect-rich contenders seeking an ace via trade, it might end up being true.

First, the crisis: As you’ve no doubt heard, there’s dissent brewing in White Sox land. It started when the team, and specifically executive vice president Ken Williams, informed veteran Adam LaRoche that his 14-year-old son was not allowed to spend extensive time in the clubhouse. It boiled over when LaRoche responded by abruptly retiring.

That, in turn, led to players threatening to boycott a Cactus League contest, per Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. And, according to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan, there were “F-bombs aplenty” during a meeting between Williams and LaRoche’s ruffled teammates.

Sale, in particular, hasn’t minced words. 

“This is a bigger issue than being told his son can’t be around. It’s a much deeper issue,” Sale said, per Mike Tulumello of the Associated Press. “We got bold-faced lied to by someone we’re supposed to be able to trust.”

That was a direct reference to Williams, and Sale wasn’t finished. 

“He came to the players and said it was the coaches. He went to the coaches and said it was the players. Then he came in here and said it was the owner,” the left-hander continued. “If we are all here to win a championship, this kind of stuff doesn’t happen.”

There’s disgruntled, and then there’s that. We’re still a couple of weeks from Opening Day, and already Sale sounds like a man with one foot out the door.

He hasn’t demanded a trade, and there’s no guarantee Chicago would make it happen if he did. But if this wound keeps festering and the bad vibes escalate, Sale could force Williams and the White Sox’s hand.

If it is, buckle up. Because a Chris Sale trade market would be a vertigo-inducing roller coaster.

Which brings us to the opportunity. Sale turns 27 on March 30. He’s made four consecutive All-Star teams and finished in the top 10 in American League Cy Young balloting every season since 2012. Last season, he paced the Junior Circuit with a career-high 274 strikeouts.

And, most essentially, he’s locked into an exceedingly team-friendly deal that pays him $9 million and change in 2016, $12 million in 2017 and a pair of no-brainer team options for $12.5 and $13.5 million in 2018 and 2019.

Compare that to the $30 million-plus annually the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks just tossed at David Price and Zack Greinke, respectively, and we’re talking relative chump change.

Speaking of the Red Sox, they’re one of a handful of clubs with the pieces to make a play for Sale. 

Matt Dolloff of CBS Boston floated a speculative swap that would include the Red Sox’s top pitching prospect, Anderson Espinoza, along with touted young catcher Blake Swihart, left-hander Henry Owens and right-hander Pat Light.

Boston fans’ eyes are no doubt widening with sticker shock, but that’s the type of haul it’d take to net Sale. 

In fact, with other clubs assuredly circling, that gaudy package might merely be a starting point.

Surely the Los Angeles Dodgers—who lost Greinke to Arizona, have question marks all over their rotation after Clayton Kershaw and boast MLB‘s No. 2 farm system, per ESPN’s Keith Law—would kick the tires.

Likewise, expect the White Sox’s North Side neighbors, the Chicago Cubs, to come sniffing around, along with the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros—and, you know what? It’d probably be easier to list the contenders that wouldn’t attempt to swing a deal.

If this happens—and, to reiterate, we’re squarely in Hypotheticalville—it’d likely be at the trade deadline, when buyers’ needs are more acute and sellers have optimum leverage. 

That also gives Chicago half a season to smooth over the LaRoche controversy and to claw back into the postseason picture after a disappointing 86-loss effort in 2015.

If the White Sox are contending in July and Sale and Williams have buried the hatchet, they can stay the course. If, on the other hand, Chicago is sinking in the standings and Sale remains a vocal malcontent? Move him for a king’s ransom and hit the franchise reboot button.

There’s a crisis bubbling in White Sox camp, that much we know. Will it lead to a trade-market feeding frenzy and, ultimately, a golden opportunity for someone?

Unfortunately, there’s no Chinese character to answer that.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf released a statement Sunday in what looks to be the end of the ongoing Adam and Drake LaRoche saga.

Reinsdorf said he met with Adam LaRoche and other White Sox personnel and added that employees of the team will be refraining from speaking publicly on the matter again, per Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune:

LaRoche retired from Major League Baseball earlier in the week, and Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal first reported the 36-year-old was walking away after team president Ken Williams told him he could no longer bring his son, Drake, into the team’s clubhouse.

In a statement to Rosenthal, Williams offered his side, saying he merely wanted Drake LaRoche to spend less time around the team and instead instructed the former Silver Slugger to “dial it back.”

White Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale spoke to what he and some of his teammates saw as a lack of proper communication between management and the players, per Fox Sports:

According to LaRoche, Drake’s involvement was a condition of his signing with the White Sox in the first place, which is why Williams’ comments became a problem:

With all of this in mind, we move toward the current situation which arose after [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. Do I choose my teammates and my career? Or do I choose my family? The decision was easy, but in no way was it a reflection of how I feel about my teammates, manager, general manager or [Reinsdorf].

On Saturday, Sale, for his part, had already moved on.

“We are here to play baseball, and collectively as a group we are doing that,” he said, per Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago. “Hopefully when day one comes, we will be as good anyone. From yesterday forward, we are showing up to play baseball. I don’t think there is anything else to talk about. We have a job to do and moving forward, that’s what we are here for.”

Looking ahead to Opening Day, Chicago is hoping to end its playoff drought, which has stretched to seven years.

While many expect the Kansas City Royals to once again be the class of the American League Central, the White Sox should be a serious contender for the top spot. In Sale, they have one of the game’s best pitchers, and Jose Abreu, one of MLB‘s best sluggers, anchors the starting lineup.

Once the regular season begins and the White Sox are playing in meaningful games, Adam and Drake LaRoche will likely become less and less of a distraction for the team.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Chicago White Sox Executive Vice President Kenny Williams reportedly received complaints from staff members and other players before asking Adam LaRoche to scale back the amount of time his 14-year-old son spent in the clubhouse.  

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported the situation, which led the 36-year-old slugger to retire, came after other people in the organization privately raised concerns about LaRoche’s son, Drake, spending so much time around the team. It’s noted he attended around 120 games last season.

Nobody had any personal issues with Drake, who was at times called the team’s 26th man, but his nearly daily appearances with the club apparently became an issue behind the scenes, according to Nightengale.

The entire ordeal has become a major headache for the White Sox. Chris Bahr of Fox Sports passed along comments Williams made to the outlet’s Ken Rosenthal about trying to get LaRoche to follow a more standard approach when it came to bringing his son to work:

I don’t think he should be here 100 percent of the time – and he has been here 100 percent, every day, in the clubhouse. I said that I don’t even think he should be here 50 percent of the time. Figure it out, somewhere in between.

We all think his kid is a great young man. I just felt it should not be every day, that’s all. You tell me, where in this country can you bring your child to work every day?

LaRoche provided his side of the story Friday with a statement posted on social media. He confirmed his departure from the team came as a result of the disagreement with Williams. But he stated the request eventually reached a stage where he was asked that Drake not come to the clubhouse at all:

With all of this in mind, we move toward the current situation which arose after 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. Do I choose my teammates and my career? Or do I choose my family? The decision was easy, but in no way was it a reflection of how I feel about my teammates, manager, general manager or the club’s owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Starting pitcher Chris Sale took a strong stance Friday, stating: “Somebody walked out of those doors the other day and it was the wrong guy. We got bald-faced lied to by someone that we trust. This isn’t us rebelling against rules; this is us rebelling against B.S.,” per ESPN.com.

Ultimately, what happened behind closed doors that led White Sox management to take the issue up with LaRoche still isn’t entirely clear. If there were a large number of players and staff who didn’t approve of the arrangement, it likely felt pressure to push for the change.

One thing’s for sure: It’s now become a full-blown crisis. Not only did Chicago lose a potent power threat from its lineup, but it’s clear from Sale’s comments that not everybody is on the same page, which could polarize the club.

Rectifying those problems before Opening Day next month is a must.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Former Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche confirmed Friday a disagreement with the team’s executive vice president, Kenny Williams, concerning the amount of time his 14-year-old son spent in the clubhouse led to his retirement decision.

LaRoche released a statement on his official Twitter account to provide his side of the story. He said he’s always been up-front with teams about the presence of his son Drake and that was the case before he signed with Chicago last year. Something changed heading into this season:

With all of this in mind, we move toward the current situation which arose after [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. Do I choose my teammates and my career? Or do I choose my family? The decision was easy, but in no way was it a reflection of how I feel about my teammates, manager, general manager or the club’s owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

He added: “The White Sox organization is full of people with strong values and solid character. My decision to walk away was simply the result of a fundamental disagreement between myself and Ken Williams.”

Chris Bahr of Fox Sports previously passed along comments Williams made to the outlet’s Ken Rosenthal about the situation. He made no mention of completely barring Drake from the clubhouse but rather stated he wanted the slugger to scale back the visits:

I don’t think he should be here 100 percent of the time – and he has been here 100 percent, every day, in the clubhouse. I said that I don’t even think he should be here 50 percent of the time. Figure it out, somewhere in between.

We all think his kid is a great young man. I just felt it should not be every day, that’s all. You tell me, where in this country can you bring your child to work every day?

Williams’ decision hasn’t been popular among the other White Sox players. Earlier Friday, Bob Nightengale of USA Today noted starting pitcher Chris Sale stated they have requested a meeting with chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to discuss the matter.

“We got bold-faced lied to by someone we were supposed to trust,” Sale said. “This isn’t us rebelling against the rules. This is us rebelling against B.S., plain and simple.”

The team’s ace continued: “Somebody walked out of those doors the other day and it was the wrong guy. Plain and simple.”

Clearly the entire situation is spiraling out of control for the White Sox with just a couple of weeks until Opening Day. Not only have they lost a potentially productive member of the starting lineup, but the other players are obviously upset, as well.

Finding a solution everybody can be happy with before the season gets underway is now the top priority. What the front office might have felt was a simple request is now threatening to damage the outlook for Chicago’s entire season as the players demand answers.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com