The New York Yankees called on reliever Keynan Middleton in the fourth inning Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox.
It was the right-hander’s first time facing his former team a few days after saying in an interview with ESPN and the New York Daily News that the Sox clubhouse had “no rules,” which received pushback from general manager Rick Hahn and manager Pedro Grifol.
Some observed Middleton’s name was missing from Guaranteed Rate Field’s video board while he was on the mound Wednesday, creating social media buzz.
“The omission was not intentional but resulted because of duplicate players listed under one uniform number on MLB’s downloadable Yankees roster,” the Sox said Thursday morning in a statement. “This glitch has arisen from time to time this season when multiple players have worn the same number for a team, and we regret it occurred tonight.”
When you’ve had the type of recent stretch — and season — the Sox have had, everything gets noticed.
Just the last few days have featured a bevy of trades, a brawl with the Cleveland Guardians that led to suspensions for Tim Anderson (appealing) and Grifol, and Middleton’s comments.
On the field, the Sox earned consecutive series victories for the first time since early June by winning two of three at Cleveland and home against the Yankees.
At the start of the season, those figured to be important games for a team in contention. Instead, the Sox find themselves in fourth in the American League Central, buried well below the .500 mark and looking to the future.
The struggles led to the sell-off as the Aug. 1 trade deadline approached with the Sox sending six pitchers — including Middleton to the Yankees — and infielder Jake Burger away as parts of five deals.
“There has been a lot of adversity over the past week and the fact we’ve been able to take two out of three and stay focused on common goals of winning ballgames, it was a good series and it was a good day for us,” Sox reliever Aaron Bummer said after Wednesday’s 9-2 victory.
“(The past week has) been a whirlwind. We’ve been focused on one thing and that’s being able to build for the future, build for the next two months. The past week kind of getting out of Cleveland and this series, we are playing a little bit better ball and we can continue that and go out there and continue doing what we are capable of. Whatever the time left that we have, just go out there and play complete ballgames and that’s what today was.”
Lane Ramsey and Declan Cronin have been among the recently called-up relievers to get opportunities.
“Spring training is extremely deceiving, the lineups are deceiving, the most important thing is just having these guys right now,” Grifol said before Wednesday’s game. “For example, (Tuesday) night, Cronin had to go through 2, 3, 4 (in the lineup). That’s really important for his development. He looks like he can be a part of this thing moving forward. You can’t just completely disregard the fact that he is a rookie and he just got here and thrown to the wolves, but you’ve got to challenge him at some point.
“You’ve got to put him in some stress, clean up this inning, give us a couple innings one day and give us an out or two the next. That kind of stuff. There’s a development process to all this, but I’ll repeat this till the season’s over: We’re never going to compromise a major-league win for development. But I’m glad that they’re here getting this type of time where they’re developing, putting some of this experience in their library.”
Grifol said there have been conversations about opportunities for minor-league position players like catcher Korey Lee, who was acquired in a trade that sent reliever Kendall Graveman to the Houston Astros.
“Korey Lee came over and was on the DL, he hadn’t played that much,” Grifol said. “As of a couple days ago had only like seven at-bats. He had a couple hits (Tuesday) night (for Triple-A Charlotte), which was good to see.
“In time, when he’s ready we’ll talk about the possibilities. Until then, I’m focused on these guys here now and our minds will be focused on those guys down there. We are in discussions about that, but today is not the right time.”
Bummer said as the trade deadline got closer, players knew there were going to be changes.
“I think that the guys we got here, we are happy to go to war together,” he said. “We are going to go out there and roll with the punches and keep going and make the best of the opportunities we have.”
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