Culture war: White Sox make massive clubhouse changes, more likely coming
Dylan Cease had the obvious answer when asked about the toxic culture that spread like fungus through the White Sox's clubhouse this season.
"It really just comes down to doing what you can to win," Cease said after his start against the Yankees Monday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, a 5-1 win. "When you win, it solves a lot of problems. When you don't, everything is basically not good."
Coming into the season as a legitimate playoff contender, the Sox fell flat on their faces right out of the gate, opened with a 7-21 record and never recovered.
"You learn a lot about people's character during times of adversity," Hahn said. "And unfortunately, we got off to a wretched start and the way the room responded was not the way we had hoped. We realized we had some issues that needed to be addressed. We started that process over the last several weeks and it's an area we expect to continue to improve on."
Seven players were subtracted by the Aug. 1 trade deadline - starters Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito, relievers Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly, Reynaldo Lopez and Keynan Middleton and third baseman Jake Burger.
Middleton and Lynn took shots at the White Sox's culture after being moved. Hahn pushed back at the criticism, but realizes even more personality changes need to be made in the clubhouse.
"The kind of culture we want to create is one that not only has accountability but has people all pulling the same direction, people that are willing to understand we have players from different backgrounds, we have players with different needs, we have players with different strengths and some weaknesses and that we're all trying to pull in the same direction to get the best out of them all, in terms of winning ballgames," Hahn said. "Anyone who tries to thwart that effort, or makes it more about 'me' than the team, doesn't fit what we're trying to do. And those are the types of players we prioritize in the draft, that's what we preach during player development and that will continue to be a focus in player acquisition going forward."
Andrew Vaughn is being looked at as an emerging leader, something he's willing to do.
"I would do anything to help my team," the Sox's 25-year-old first baseman said.
After leading the White Sox over New York Monday night with a 2-run homer and standout defensive play, Vaughn had an interesting observation.
"I think finally we've got a good group, a group of guys to come together," he said. "We're all learning this, too, we're younger guys. Try to right the ship."
It remains to be seen if Hahn is back as GM next season. And if he goes, manager Pedro Grifol could also be out after only one season in the Sox's dugout.
For now, Grifol already has a vision about what the White Sox's culture should be.
"I've been talking about culture here since Day 1," Grifol said. "I brought it up three or four weeks ago, I said how important it was to the success of this organization, not just this year, but next year and beyond and sustained success. I think culture drives success. I didn't like the way our culture and the direction our culture was headed. So we had to make some adjustments.
"(Trade) deadline came, had a meeting with them in Cleveland (last) Saturday, we addressed a bunch of issues that I thought needed to be addressed, and we're moving forward. We're moving forward with a new-laid foundation on rock, not on muck, on rock, that is going to sustain any little problem that we may have moving forward. So culture is a big deal to me. I think it's the most important part of a winning franchise, and we're determined to build it and build it the right way."
It might be too little, too late, but at least the Sox are admitting they have an personality issue.
"We're a work in progress," Hahn said. "We had a problem, we've addressed a good portion of it and we've got to continue to do it."