On Monday, White Sox GM Rick Hahn spoke with reporters to address recent comments from former relief pitcher Keynan Middleton detailing the team’s problematic “no rules” culture, about which he spoke to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.
Hahn called the remarks from Middleton “ironic” and cited an incident before the trade deadline in which the reliever apologized to him for his unprofessional behavior.
“Quite frankly, it’s a little bit ironic that Keynan’s the one saying this because my last conversation with him face to face was a week ago in this clubhouse where he sought me out to apologize for his unprofessional behavior—unprofessional behavior that [manager] Pedro [Grifol] had called him out on and had an individual meeting with him about, and Keynan wanted to apologize for,” Hahn said, via NBC Sports Chicago.
Hahn denied the claims from Middleton about a rookie reliever sleeping in the bullpen during games and players not being punished for skipping practice.
The GM also indicated that the organization has been actively working to improve its culture over the last few weeks,
“No one in this organization for the last several weeks has run from the fact that we've had cultural issues and we need to improve the leadership in that room. We're going to continue to strive to get better in that area. But one thing we're not going to do is stand idly by while false reports are put out there about the character of the men that remain in that room,” said Hahn.
The White Sox dealt Middleton to the Yankees at the trade deadline. He was among the seven veteran players Chicago offloaded following a disappointing first half of the season.
