discussion about the events. While he may not have agreed with the club’s perspective on this, he understood where we were coming from and why.”

Did Sale go on a cutting frenzy because he’s upset that his name is being mentioned in trade rumors?

“You know, I got no sense of that from Chris, and I also don’t think that’s realistically behind it, I really don’t,” Hahn said. “I mean, he’s through this every year. Most professional players go through this at some point of their career, but, boy, Chris goes through it at least once if not twice a year, usually around the winter meetings and sometimes around the trade deadline.

“He’s professional when it comes to that stuff. I know it’s never easy for any player, it’s probably even harder on a player’s family, but I don’t think anything from yesterday pertains to trade rumors or anything like that.”

On Saturday, Sale’s teammates had no words of criticism, and that continued Sunday.

“I’ve seen a lot of crazy things happen in the game, but sometimes emotions get the best of us,” said starting pitcher James Shields, who was acquired in a June 4 trade from the San Diego Padres. “Sometimes, these things happen. We’ve just got to move forward as a group.

“I’ve known Chris for years. Now that I’ve gotten to be his teammates he’s one of the better teammates I’ve been around. He’s definitely a team player. He’s a winner. He wants to take the ball every five days and win ballgames.”

Since the end of the 2014 season, Sale has been in four known off-the-field incidents. He was directly involved in the LaRoche/spring-training controversy, swearing at Williams and calling the White Sox’s VP a liar.

This is the first time the Sox suspended hot-tempered Sale.

“We had perhaps the opportunity to discipline him back in spring and as an organization we decided to not do that,” Hahn said. “(Saturday) crossed a different line. We felt it was now appropriate to take disciplinary action.”