Williams tempers comments suspended Chicago White Sox ace
Here's the feeling I got after a somewhat reluctant Kenny Williams, the Chicago White Sox's vice president, agreed to take a few questions before Tuesday night's game against the Cubs at U.S. Cellular Field.
Williams has a shiny, high-performance car in the garage, and he's still not sure if he's going to sell it, hang on to it for a while or keep it indefinitely.
Chris Sale, obviously, is the car, and the Sox's ace starting pitcher remains stuck in park until his suspension ends Thursday and he starts against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
In his earlier days as general manager, Williams would have had plenty to say about Sale's decision to destroy the 1976 throwback uniforms the White Sox were supposed to wear Saturday night.
That led to Sale's suspension, and he later blamed manager Robin Ventura for his behavior.
"Robin is the one who has to fight for us in that department," Sale told mlb.com. "If the players don't feel comfortable 100 percent about what we are doing to win the game, and we have an easy fix … it was as easy as hanging up another jersey and everyone was fine.
"For them to put business first over winning, that's when I lost it."
Williams, who had his own run-in with Sale during spring training, had every right to unload on the American League's best pitcher. He declined.
"You know me, and you know I'm never one to shy away from a direct question," Williams said when asked about Sale's latest tirade. "You've asked me a direct question, but I'm more interested in everyone moving on.
"Any further comment beyond what I just said is counterproductive to all of that. At one point in my career, you probably could've gotten me to comment in a very different way. I'm sure it would be more entertaining for all, except me."
Trashing Sale would have been entertaining all the way around, but it would have been akin to taking a sledgehammer and pounding dents into that nice car.
And, what if an interested trade partner for Sale - such as, say the Los Angeles Dodgers - decided to look elsewhere after catching wind of Williams' inflammatory comments?
Ditto for teams in the off-season, if the White Sox ultimately decide that's the best time to trade Sale.
For now, Sale remains with the Sox, and Williams is happy with the way general manager Rick Hahn and Ventura dealt with a most unusual situation.
Williams was not in town Saturday when Sale ignited the firestorm.
"I was made aware of this and was kind of walked through what was going on," Williams said. "Rick told me what his plan was and from that point on I was just getting updates.
"On the other side of all of this, the one thing I can say is the way that Rick and Robin, I think, handled the situation, it was a difficult situation, certainly a unique situation, but one in which I think they handled in an excellent fashion."
Like Williams, Ventura didn't lose his cool when asked about Sale's comments.
"Everything that happened in there, I'm just going to keep it in there," Ventura said. "I think we had to act. It was over the line."