The Chicago White Sox appear to have sunk to a new low.
The team has engaged in a back-and-forth with ex-reliever Keynan Middleton, whom Chicago traded to the Yankees on Aug. 1.
He promptly blasted the culture around his former team, touching off a war of words with his former franchise.
That makes what happened on the White Sox scoreboard at Guaranteed Rate Field on Wednesday all the more suspect.
Video posted by a fan during the 9-2 Yankees loss shows the scoreboard operators not displaying Middleton’s name in spots which would normally have the name of the pitcher on the mound.
Barstool Sports called the move “petty.”
Was it intentional? Was it a mistake? Who knows.
What we do know is there’s no love lost between Middleton and his former club.
Middleton was asked Sunday about returning to Chicago on Monday for a three-game series on the South Side.
“Showing up was dark in Chicago this year,” Middleton said about the fourth-place White Sox. “It wasn’t very much fun most of the time. Just to be here in a different environment, different atmosphere, don’t have to worry about the BS.”
And that’s when things started to get interesting.
In a conversation Sunday with ESPN, Middleton opened up about the problems on the White Sox.
“I don’t know how you police the culture if there are no rules or guidelines to follow because everyone is doing their own thing,” he said. “Like, how do you say anything about it because there are no rules?
“You have rookies sleeping in the bullpen during the game. You have guys missing meetings. You have guys missing PFPs (pitcher fielding practices), and there are no consequences for any of this stuff.
“They say s— rolls downhill. I feel like some guys don’t want to speak up when they should have. It’s hard to police people when there are no rules.”
Middleton doubled down on his opinion Monday.
“I said what I said and I stand on that,” Middleton said. “I believe there’s a right way to go about business and do that. But I honestly don’t want to comment anymore on it. I said what I said and I really truly feel that in my heart. But right now, my sole focus is being a Yankee and my future being a Yankee moving forward and making the playoffs.”
Cue White Sox management, who decided to fight back.
“I’ve been talking about culture here since day one and brought it up again about three or four weeks ago,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said, per ESPN. “I feel like we’re not even close to where we need to be, but we’re heading in the right direction.”
“I was surprised to see the report this morning,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. “At no point during the course of the year had there been a reliever sleeping in the bullpen during that game. That’s just wrong.”
As for what happened on the field, Middleton came out of the bullpen Wednesday, replacing the struggling Luis Severino, and yielding one run in two innings of work.
Middleton has made three appearances since being acquired by the Yankees, posting a 1.80 ERA.