Reaction from around baseball to White Sox-Adam LaRoche situation

Buster OlneyMar 18, 2016, 09:30 AM ET

There is a whole lot of rubber-necking going on in the baseball industry as the collision between the White Sox and Adam LaRoche is cleaned up, with baseball executives and officials from other teams watching from afar -- with fascination and with their own questions and observations about what happened.

1. There is general surprise that the White Sox allowed a situation in which a player's son could be in the clubhouse every single day. "That's a lot," one American League official said. "The problem is the precedent. What do you say to the next player who asks for that? What happens if five players ask for that?"

AL executive: "You need limits and guidelines with that kind of stuff or else you could put other players in a tough situation when they're trying to get work done."

Asked another: "What kind of chaos do they have over there [with the White Sox]?"

2. LaRoche had a verbal agreement with GM Rick Hahn and manager Robin Ventura to have his son in the clubhouse daily. "What would've happened if [Ventura] had been fired after last season?" asked one evaluator. "Or both [Ventura and Hahn] had been fired? The next manager would've been obligated to have a policy to allow kids in the clubhouse all day, every day? Rules like that can change any time."

3. What is the state of the communication between Kenny Williams and two of the people who theoretically answer to him, Hahn and Ventura? Because if Hahn and Ventura made an agreement about LaRoche's son being in the clubhouse with Williams' knowledge, then Williams has to know that altering the agreement now runs the risk of angering the folks in the clubhouse. And if Hahn and Ventura made the agreement without an OK from Williams, then they did this without true authority.

4. The question of how much time a player's kid is in the clubhouse is not unusual, rival executives say, but typically, it is dealt with internally, quietly. But the White Sox can't do that in this case because the handshake agreement with LaRoche was changed and LaRoche has an all-or-nothing stance: Either his son has complete access to the clubhouse -- not some days, not half the days, but all days -- or he will retire. Which LaRoche is expected to confirm later Friday in meeting with reporters.

Anthony McCarron believes it shouldn't have come to this.

5. There was general amusement among some rival officials over the idea that the White Sox players would've actually boycotted in this instance, with one saying that this was probably more like the standard bench-clearing incident -- a lot of rhetoric flying around, but no one actually throwing punches.

6. A lot of evaluators believe this is, at its roots, a performance issue, and probably wouldn't have come up if LaRoche and the White Sox had done well in 2015. If LaRoche had been an MVP candidate last season, nobody would bother him now, one executive said: "That's just the way it goes."

But some folks with other teams say that LaRoche should understand this, given his time in the big leagues -- that if your OPS is a lot closer to .600 than 1.000, you probably should anticipate changes.

• The Rangers have rules about kids in the clubhouse, writes Evan Grant. From his story:

The Rangers have no issues with the kids in the clubhouse. According to several veterans with children who frequent the clubhouse, there are rules in place, particularly for the regular season. Among the most significant, the children must behave in a respectful manner and must leave the clubhouse about 90 minutes before a game so the players can focus exclusively on their preparation.

Manager Jeff Banister said the rules were made explicitly clear to players. Banister's own 13-year-old Jacob is often a visitor during the regular season.

"We have our own policy and team rules that all our players, coaches, staff and front office agree to," Banister said. "There are limitations and boundaries that we do go by."

• No one is wrong about Adam LaRoche, writes Jeff Sullivan. The decision by LaRoche fits his family values, writes Adam Kilgore.

• There is no end in sight to this saga, writes Paul Sullivan. The Cubs players are scratching their heads over the drama.

• Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic react to LaRoche announcing his retirement after the White Sox asked him to limit his son's visits with the team and explain why this situation cannot be criticized from either subject's viewpoint.

• Karl Ravech joined Mike & Mike to explain why the White Sox considered boycotting their Wednesday night game against the Brewers until manager Robin Ventura intervened with the situation surrounding LaRoche and his son's visits with the team.  

Video

1. The Rangers are clicking on offense and pitcher Yu Darvish is looking healthy and should be ready for a mid-May return to action. 

2. Mets pitcher Matt Harvey says he is feeling 100 percent and is excited to face the Royals on Opening Day. 

3. A historical look at the 1950s Cincinnati Reds Triple-A team based in pre-Castro Cuba. Owner Bobby Maduro and the Havana Sugar Kings were one step away from an MLB franchise until Castro's revolution changed Cuba and baseball history forever.

Notables

• On Thursday's podcast, Keith Law provides some scouting reports on the Dodgers' Kenta Maeda and others; Pedro Gomez on Yasiel Puig and his sleeper team; and Aaron Boone on the Adam LaRoche situation.

• This is not good: Eduardo Rodriguez of the Red Sox will start the year on the disabled list.

• Some more under-the-radar stories from camps around baseball:

Orioles: Outfielder Joey Rickard was selected as a Rule 5 pick from Tampa Bay during the winter, and the 24-year-old has gotten good results this spring, hitting close to .300. It remains to be seen how Rickard will fit into a logjam of outfield candidates recently complicated by the addition of Pedro Alvarez.

Red Sox: First baseman Sam Travis has had a tremendous spring, with 10 hits in 18 at-bats and only two strikeouts. Travis was Boston's second-round pick in 2014 and reached Double-A last year, and in his four stops in the minors, he has been a metronome of offense, with his OPS never less than .813 and never higher than .845. The staff loves his work ethic and attitude.

Phillies: Outfielder and Rule 5 pick Tyler Goeddel has hit and defended effectively. If he sticks, this would be the second consecutive season Philadelphia gleaned a good piece through the Rule 5 route. Last year, the Phillies snagged Odubel Herrera from the Rangers, and Herrera hit .297 and posted some of the best defensive metrics in the sport, tying Bryce Harper and Mookie Betts with 10 defensive runs saved.

Sometimes, baseball executives view players from wealthy families with some skepticism, but in Goeddel's case, the Phillies look at it as an affirmation of just how good his makeup is: He does all the right things even when he doesn't necessarily have to.

• The Indians worked out a deal with Marlon Byrd, the latest in their series of relatively low-cost signings of veteran players -- Mike Napoli, Juan Uribe, Will Venable, Rajai Davis.

Here's some more on the Indians' signing of Byrd. The staff wants to see more of Byrd, and Venable, before determining what course of action they will take. It’s not a lock that Byrd will be on the team at the outset of the season.