Major League Baseball

White Sox's Tony La Russa in the wrong on Yermin Mercedes and unwritten rules

Updated May. 19, 2021 7:37 p.m. ET

By Ben Verlander
FOX Sports MLB Analyst

The Chicago White Sox have been one of the best teams in baseball so far this season, and their toughest battle to date happened this week.

It didn't come from the team on the other side of the field, however. It came from within their locker room.

On Monday in Minnesota, the White Sox were dominant, leading the Twins by double-digit runs heading into the ninth inning.

With Twins position player Willians Astudillo on the mound, Yermin Mercedes stepped to the plate with two outs and was served up a meatball on a 3-0 count. Mercedes swung and demolished the pitch, sending it over the center-field wall.

As he was rounding the bases, the Twins announcers discussed their thoughts. "I don’t like it," color commentator Roy Smalley said. "Up 15-4, I don’t like it."

The discussion referred to Mercedes' choice to swing – on a 3-0 count, up by a lot, with a position player on the mound.

Smalley's comment hit social media and caused quite a stir.

Let me start by saying there has always been a weird thing in baseball when it comes to swinging on 3-0 counts. Often, batters are told to take the next pitch because they are so far ahead.

But then we have one of the unwritten rules of baseball. It’s hard to explain because, well, it isn't written, but in a nutshell: "When a game is out of hand, you don’t swing on a 3-0 count, especially against a position player."

Many of the unwritten rules of baseball are outdated, and they're being broken more and more. But every once in a while, when that happens, somebody complains.

In this instance, the complainer was Roy Smalley. His comments took the baseball world by storm, with a majority of people strongly disagreeing with him.

The next day, when asked about the situation, White Sox manager Tony La Russa added fuel to the fire by saying of Mercedes, "He made a mistake. There’ll be a consequence that he has to endure here within our family. But it won’t happen again."

This sparked even more outrage, as the White Sox's manager, himself a very old-school guy, was speaking out against what his own player did.

The team’s shortstop, Tim Anderson, took to Instagram to tell Mercedes: "The game wasn’t over! Keep doing you big daddy."

Mercedes responded, "Yes sir. Let’s do it baby."

On Tuesday, White Sox starting pitcher Lance Lynn, who also played for La Russa years ago with the St. Louis Cardinals, decided to add his thoughts on the matter.

"There are no rules when a position player is pitching," he said. "The more I play the game, the more those [unwritten] rules have gone away."

La Russa's response?

"Lance has a locker. I have an office … I don’t agree."

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The drama didn't end there.

On Wednesday, La Russa doubled down on his views before by stating his rule of thumb: "Do you think you need more runs to win? You keep pushing. If you think you have enough, respect the game and opposition. Sportsmanship."

But this isn’t high school baseball. Every run matters. At the end of the day, players are nothing more than numbers on a piece of paper to owners, and as a player, when you have a chance to make those numbers better, you should do it.

If another team is out of the game and decides to bring in a position player to pitch, that's a perfect opportunity for a hitter to pad his stats. When Astudillo is out there throwing 47 mph meatballs, a player shouldn’t have to take the pitch.

This is a kid’s game played by grown men. It’s a business. To tell someone not to do his job in the name of "sportsmanship" is ridiculous.

Not to mention, a game is never over until the 27th out. Plenty of times a team has scored double-digit runs in one inning.

Then there’s the part about La Russa saying he gave the take sign, which, first off, is ridiculous if it's true.

The real problem, though, is that La Russa went public with it. I couldn't tell you how many signs are missed over the course of a baseball season, but it's a lot. For a manager to come out the way he did, almost using that as justification for how he feels, is a shame.

Missed signs and miscommunications happen. They should be kept in the locker room. At the end of the day, a huge part of Tony La Russa’s job is to protect his team and his players. Going public about a player missing a sign is doing the opposite.

That is trying to put the blame on someone else when you know you are getting blasted in the media.

This brings us to the biggest concern here: There is a clubhouse divided on the south side of Chicago.

Now, the White Sox are one of the best teams in baseball, with tons of talent everywhere you look. Their pitchers lead the American League in ERA (3.34) and have the third-most wins (25) and fifth-most strikeouts (389). On offense, the Sox have the AL's second-best batting average (.262) and are second in RBIs (206) and third in hits (354).

At 26-16, this team has the best record in all of baseball.

What's more, they play with energy and passion. They're exciting and fun to watch. They break a lot of the unwritten rules of baseball.

Their manager is the opposite of that. Tony La Russa is old-school. He believes in all of those unwritten rules.

He's also a future Hall of Famer. Having begun his managerial career in 1979, the 76-year-old has won three World Series and been named manager of the year four times. The Cardinals, whom he managed from 1996 to 2011 and with whom he won two titles, have already retired his number.

Even so, coming into this season, there was some thinking that the La Russa hire was an odd choice for a team full of players who don’t abide by the old-school way of doing things.

Now some are calling for the manager to be fired, even with his team sitting pretty atop the AL Central.

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I can’t stress this enough: In this situation, La Russa needs to change his tune.

He won’t, but he needs to.

This game is players' livelihoods. Mercedes is paid to do what he did Monday: hit home runs. The more home runs he hits, the better off he will be when it comes time for a new contract. The homer he hit Monday goes down in the stat book just like any other.

When it comes time to talk about his next contract, nobody is going to say, "Well, that one was hit off a position player, so it doesn’t count."

They all count. Get yours when you can.

The Chicago White Sox are a great baseball team, too talented to be ripped apart by tension in the locker room over some outdated rule.

But some things need to change.

La Russa is wrong here. Baseball isn’t the same as it was when he began coaching.

Then again, one thing is still the same: Protect your players at all costs. Don’t air out your team’s dirty laundry for the world to see.

La Russa isn’t following that rule, and it could come back to haunt him and his team if they don’t figure it out soon.

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the "Flippin' Bats" podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter @Verly32.