Atlanta Braves Could Entice White Sox to Take Swisher… But Not Yet
Chicago White Sox suddenly need a DH and Atlanta has one to give, but nerves are too raw right now
It is interesting that FanSided has an MLB sister site to us named SouthsideShowdown.com. For right now, there is indeed a huge showdown in progress. Those who are choosing up sides are still mostly going with either the Parent-child relationship or with the authority of the Front Office.
All of these people are still missing the real dispute going on.
In Case You Missed It
This week, White Sox 1B/DH and old friend Adam LaRoche got a message. The exact delivery method and content of this message is in dispute, but the upshot is that LaRoche’s interpretation was that a promise made to him last year was broken… a “fundamental disagreement between myself and [General Manager] Ken Williams” as he wrote via TwitLonger.
The agreement stems from a promise extracted by LaRoche as a condition of his signing a 2-year deal with the White Sox last season. LaRoche has routinely brought his son Drake (now 14) into the clubhouse with him. This is a practice he has engaged in for upwards of five seasons now, beginning with his time as a member of the Nationals. The White Sox apparently asked LaRoche to either ‘scale back’ Drake’s presence or to end it all together.
When that promise was broken by some means – again, facts are in dispute here – LaRoche took strong, principled action: he retired from baseball, effectively cancelling his own 2016 contract for $13 million. On Friday, that became official as he filed his retirement paperwork with the player’s association and MLB.
The rest of the team has been livid about this situation, but it’s only partially about Drake. There are strong accusations that owner Jerry Reisdorf and Ken Williams have outright lied to them about the situation. While this has obviously placed the management in an awkward situation, it is also evident that their handling of this was bad.
Why did they even go down this road? According to this report, some players were getting uncomfortable with a teenager in their clubhouse – the player’s traditional sanctuary area. Ken Williams then made a request of LaRoche… but after a few days nothing changed, so the message was delivered in stronger terms.
That effectively forced LaRoche’s hand… and nearly caused a game boycott from the team (or at least from those in full support of Adam and Drake).
Back to the Braves
So now… suddenly… the White Sox are in need of a designated hitter. They would probably prefer an actual hitter… and even LaRoche himself joked in his TwitLonger missive that his own bat wasn’t exactly performing as hoped.
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Brian Draus at SouthsideShowdown suggests Matt Davidson as an internal option for them. Though he has hit the lights out this Spring (.417, 4HR in 24AB with just 2 K), there are doubts about his bat at the major league level. He’s also a RHH and that unbalances their lineup in replacing the LHH LaRoche.
Nick Swisher would certainly fill the role of backup 1B/DH that the ChiSox need. Being a switch-hitter, that’s even a better option for them. But he’s gotten hot in the last week, suddenly up to batting .286. That should at least get some interest, though with the Braves still eating a considerable amount of cash in any possible deal.
But the biggest thing that the Sox might need right now is a ‘clubhouse guy’… because the idea of replacing Adam LaRoche can’t just fall on anyone. Not now. Swisher could be that guy.
Trouble is, while the vitriol is still in the air, it is very likely that the White Sox will be frozen in place – unable to even consider making a transaction to fill that void at this time. They will probably have to allow some semblance of healing to take place… and that could take a while: if players were indeed the spark for this inferno, then the clubhouse itself might need some sort of purging. That clearly hasn’t happened yet, so further fallout is certainly possible.
With 2 weeks remaining in the pre-season, that puts Atlanta in a precarious position. Even if they and the White Sox could come to an agreement over Swisher, it is possible that the Sox may be unable to execute an agreement in that time frame for the sake of their clubhouse.
That could, in turn, force the Braves into some roster decisions they might not prefer. Certainly, if they believe there is a salary-relief option for Swisher coming, they would keep him on the team until that could be done, which might mean cutting someone else in the meantime. If they simply release Swisher, then the White Sox could pick him up on the cheap (for the major league minimum) if they chose to do so later.
Yes: all of this speculates that Chicago would want Swisher, but keep in mind that it is a plausible scenario for all of the right reasons and he’d actually be cheaper than LaRoche, given that the Braves would eat a significant hunk of cash.
Next: How The Braves Once Did a Really Nice Thing for a Legend
Of course, it’s also a scenario of their own making that is tearing that team apart.