What with rumors starting to fly about the White Sox actually entertaining offers for ace Chris Sale, it was not necessarily a shock to learn that he’d been scratched from his start tonight. After all, when discussions reach a certain point this time of year, players are not infrequently scratched (especially pitchers), juuuuust in case something gets done.
But, while not necessarily a shock, it was still really exciting. Aces like Sale don’t get traded every day. And if something was going down, it was going to be fun – whatever team was involved.[adinserter block=”1″]
Then some word started to spread that he’d been scratched with flu-like symptoms, and only conspiracy theorists believed a trade was still going down … except Jon Morosi threw some extremely intriguing smoke out there when he tweeted this:
Chris Sale, scratched by #WhiteSox today, is not believed to be ill, according to two sources.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 23, 2016
Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy something’s happening!
… except it got really weird:
Official: Chris Sale has been scratched from tonight’s scheduled start.
STATEMENT: pic.twitter.com/wOB8JTsjzu
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) July 23, 2016
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That’s just, well, weird. It’s weird that something non-physical happened in the clubhouse that got Sale sent home just before his start, and it’s weird that the White Sox decided to put it out there (though, in their defense, maybe that’s better than letting rumors build up out of their control).
So what happened? We’ll probably find out eventually, and it’s worth remembering that this is the clubhouse from which Adam LaRoche retired because there was a massive, public dispute about how much his son could join him at team activities. Not necessarily related to tonight’s whatever-thing-happened, but Sale was upset about the LaRoche incident.
Now, we’ll wait to see if this impacts trade talks the Sox were having with teams about Sale (and/or if there’s a relationship between those talks and whatever happened that got him sent home).
As I said: this is just weird.
UPDATE: And more and more, you wonder if there is some relationship to trade talks, underlying whatever set things off:
The Chris Sale incident with #whitesox was with front/office staff, source says. No problems with any teammates.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 23, 2016
The Sale incident began with something "silly" that mushroomed into a bigger argument, says a source. #Whitesox
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 23, 2016
UPDATE 2: Oh. My. G. You did not predict this, and we do not deserve a story so insanely, deliciously, ridiculous:
Not a joke: Source says Sale blowup was because he didn't want to wear throwbacks, so he cut the jerseys up so no one could wear them.
— Tommy Stokke (@StokkeTommy) July 23, 2016
Source: "A little larger than that but essentially true." https://t.co/LBYkZRECvx
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 24, 2016