White Sox brass is pushing back on Keynan Middleton’s comments regarding the franchise’s “no rules” culture.
Ahead of Monday’s series opener against the Yankees, Chicago manager Pedro Grifol and GM Rick Hahn rejected the middle reliever’s post-trade comments ripping the team’s clubhouse atmosphere.
“I’ve been talking about culture here since day one and brought it up again about three or four weeks ago,” Grifol told reporters, according to the Associated Press. “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,” Hahn added. “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.”
Middleton, who was acquired from the White Sox at the Aug. 1 trade deadline for prospect Juan Carela, described the team, which is 46-68 heading into play Tuesday, as a mess from the get-go.
“We came in with no rules,” Middleton said of his former team. “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.”
But Middleton, according to Hahn, wasn’t immune from behavioral issues of his own.
“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 the clubhouse where he sought me out to apologize for his unprofessional behavior Pedro had called him out on,” Hahn said.
“At the time I figured that was a one-off.”
Middleton, who has thrown three scoreless innings over two appearances for the Yankees, stood by his criticisms after he learned of Grifol and Hahn’s comments on Monday.
“I said what I said and I stand on that,” Middleton said. “I honestly don’t want to comment on it anymore… Right now my sole focus is being a Yankee, my future being a Yankee moving forward and making the playoffs and all these things.”
Middleton joined the White Sox on a minor league deal before the 2023 season.
The 29-year-old posted a 3.96 ERA over 36 ⅓ innings with Chicago before being dealt to the Bronx.
The Yankees and White Sox will play the second game of their three-game series at 8:10 p.m. ET at Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday night.