The New York Yankees made questionable moves during the recently concluded trade deadline. Ditching obvious outfield candidates, the club signed a couple of bullpen pieces. During the final minutes of the deadline, Brian Cashman traded Keynan Middleton from Chicago White Sox in exchange for minor-league pitching prospect Juan Carela.
Along with Middleton, the Yankees also traded RHP Spencer Howard from Texas Rangers in exchange for cash considerations. However, he was immediately optioned to Triple-A. Meanwhile, Middleton has declared an all-out war against his former team, White Sox. He called out the team’s problematic culture and revealed how coming to New York will prove to be a career-changing moment for him.
Keynan Middleton Calls Out White Sox’ Unruly Culture, Claims Rookies Slept In Bullpen During Games
The New York Yankees’ newly acquired pitcher, Keynan Middleton, has made headlines by candidly sharing his perspective on his former team, the Chicago White Sox. Middleton did not hold back in expressing his opinion and made some startling revelations. While speaking to Chicago Sun-Times, Keynan said that there exist no rules in White Sox’s clubhouse. It is difficult to police someone without set rules and regulations. The pitcher further claimed that everybody does their own thing. Moreover, it’s difficult to call out acts of indiscipline without any active policies. Middleton further claimed that many rookies apparently slept in the bullpen during live games. Not only that, many members of the White Sox missed team meetings and pitcher fielding practices. Yet, none faced any consequences.
According to Keynan Middleton, the situation in the White Sox camp began spiraling down when Tony La Russa took over as manager in 2022. Moreover, with Pedro Grifol’s entry in 2023, things didn’t improve much either. Many players chose to stay quiet and didn’t speak up when needed the most. All things collectively led to a troublesome environment in the White Sox clubhouse, which became unbearable for Middleton. However, when the pitcher found out he was being traded to New York Yankees, he immediately shaved his face and was ready to play by the rules. He said he wants to win games for the Yanks. Moreover, he knows the consequences of not being at his absolute best. Middleton pitched three innings so far into the season, out of which two were scoreless.
White Sox Reacts To Yankees Keynan Middleton’s Unprofessionalism Claims
Meanwhile, Chicago White Sox has come forward to reject Keynan Middleton’s “no rules” claims. White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said that not once in his tenure he has seen a reliever sleeping in the bullpen during a live game. Instead, Rick put the blame back on the Yankees pitcher. He said that the last time he met the pitcher, he refused to apologize for his unprofessional behavior, for which the skipper had called him out.
Reacting to it, Keynan Middleton said that he said everything he had to. Apart from this, he won’t say a single word about the matter. Now that Keynan is a Yankee, his sole focus is helping the Yankees to get to playoffs. Also, it is reported that the reliever would not return back to Chicago post the conclusion of the 2023 MLB season.
