Todd Frazier spoke with FanSided on behalf of OFF! and their new Squish the Bug campaign, which ties into a Little League World Series sponsorship. Before Todd was a Home Run Derby champion, he was a LLWS hero for Toms River in 1998, of course.
The Chicago White Sox, once a proud franchise, are now more commonly known as the MLB single-season loss record-holders (for another few months, at least). Instead of being able on their legacy, they've been inundated by leaked tales detailing how they're behind the times. The pile-on has officially begun. In the eyes of many, the 2020s White Sox locker room is marked by fights and faucets falling off the walls, as a room full of pre-Moneyball scouts picks apart their first-round pick's jawline instead of fixing his swing.
So. Was Todd Frazier around for when the real dysfunction started, or did he leave before things went downhill in Chicago? Were things really as bad as they seem in the funny pages?
"I think [I predated it] just by a little bit. There was always something," Frazier told FanSided's Sam Phalen. "It seemed like there was always a little bit of a problem or a situation."
2016 was the year of Frazier's arrival, and the only full season he spent in Chicago (he was dealt at the 2017 trade deadline to the Yankees). "It was a nice clubhouse, don't get me wrong, but could've been better amenities," he continued. "You got guys like Chris Sale, who was a leader. Jose Quintana. Adam Eaton, me and him, we butted heads a little bit, but at the end of the day, we respect each other's game. We had a really great team."
Former White Sox, Yankees, Mets, Reds star Todd Frazier opens up on behalf of OFF's Squish the Bug campaign
Frazier's club started 23-10, then began to sputter in a 6-17 stretch back in '16. That's when the line in the sand that every White Sox fan remembers occurred: the trade of a teenaged Fernando Tatis Jr. for James Shields, which may have been the beginning of the end (even though it was intended to halt the spiral).
"First and foremost, you think it's motivation, but you don't know what everybody's thinking" Frazier remembered. "But next thing you know, they're taking about me leaving. They're talking about moving this guy here, and you're like, 'Why are we not just playing baseball?' Put the best guys out there to win the game. Fans are getting restless, the Cubs are doing better than the White Sox, and that just fell apart."
Frazier's memories of the 2016 Sox, one of the weirdest individual team seasons in recent baseball history, truly resonate. If anything, it sounds like he and his proud teammates could've used some cathartic bug-squishing a little earlier.