Major League Baseball's recent Winter Meetings will be remembered for not just player signings and trades, but for the actions of those who cover the sport. Unfortunately, the Chicago White Sox were not immune from the insanity as
The recent get-together in Nashville, Tennessee of team owners, general managers and player agents had the hot stove league cooking overtime with plenty of trade and free agent signing talk, led by the circus atmosphere surrounding where Los Angeles Angel slugger/pitcher Shohei Ohtani would next call home.
Amid the silliness that went with trying to track Ohtani's every move was MLB Network's Jon Morosi, who reported on his supposed flight to Toronto, thus leading people to believe he was going to meet with the Blue Jays. Turns out, Ohtani was not on the plane at all and Morosi was forced into admitting "my bad".
In addition, USA Today's Bob Nightengale made news of his own when reports surfaced about a heated exchange he had with Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer.
Nightengale reported the Cubs and Tampa Bay Tays had talks about a deal that would send Chris Morel from the Cubs to the Rays in exchange for Rays' pitcher Tyler Glasnow. Nightengale admitted to receiving erroneous information about Morel being a part of the deal and Hoyer called him out on it.
However, Nightengale said the conversation with Hoyer never got intense and that a Chicago reporter blew things out of proportion when he went on air with what happened. Nightengale said neither he nor Hoyer was contacted by the reporter for comment.
Then came a report about Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf having a meeting with Nashville, Tennessee mayor Freddie O'Connell.
Media outlets went into overdrive speculating on whether Reinsdorf was exploring the possibility of the White Sox calling Nashville home in a few years should the team not be able to get a deal done on a new lease at Guaranteed Rate Field. The current lease runs out in six years, and Reinsdorf has admitted the team has to decide on what will happen down the road.
No, the White Sox are not moving to Nashville
Certainly, a meeting such as this will raise a few eyebrows and invite a few questions. But could there have been a reason other than what was being speculated about? Should not the story include other plausible options instead of coming off as "click bait"?
The idea of expansion has been around for a while as there is a movement by owners to bump up the number of teams to 32. Nashville happens to be one of the more popular destinations for MLB to plant its flag.
Reinsdorf carries a good deal of sway within the league and it's very possible his meeting could have been to gauge what type of plan O'Connell has to bring a franchise to Music City and what needs to be done to make that happen.
But that option doesn't bring clicks and isn't what makes for great conversation on talk radio.
This isn't to say that the meeting didn't address a possible relocation on the part of the Southsiders. Nobody, except those in the room at the time, knows what exactly was said.
What it does do is make those who cover the sports-and news for that matter-look bad. Getting things right has taken a backseat to getting things out first or making sure the "likes" keep popping up on the website.
Nightengale decided to call out MLB media members-himself included-for not being more thorough in their reporting. Short cuts are being taken where more in-depth analysis needs to take place.
A site such as MLB Trade Rumors deals in speculation but at least is up front about it. Heck, it even has "rumors" is in the title of the website.
These types of instances don't lead to gaining the public trust. If anything, it makes people question those who are entrusted to ask the questions.