Baseball-Major League Baseball roundup

March 18 (The Sports Xchange) - Chicago White Sox pitching ace Chris Sale ripped team president Kenny Williams on Friday, saying the executive lied to the players about the situation that led to the retirement of designated hitter Adam LaRoche. LaRoche retired Tuesday after Williams requested the veteran not bring his 14-year-old son into the clubhouse on a daily basis. Drake LaRoche was a fixture around the team last season in his father's first season with the organization. Sale and his teammates are irate over how the situation was handled. "Lying, plain and simple. We got bold-faced lied to by someone we're supposed to be able to trust," Sale told reporters in reference to Williams. "You can't come tell the players it was the coaches, and tell the coaches it's the players and then come in and say something completely different. "If we're all here to win a championship, this kind of stuff doesn't happen. Like I said, we're not rebelling against the rules. It has nothing to do with the rules." LaRoche released a statement Friday in which he made it clear he had no regrets over the decision to retire. -- Tampa Bay Rays closer Brad Boxberger, who led the American League with 41 saves last season, will miss at least eight weeks after undergoing abdominal muscle surgery. Manager Kevin Cash made the announcement at spring training in Port Charlotte, Fla., after the right-hander had the operation in Philadelphia on Thursday to repair a torn abdominal abductor muscle. Cash said the team will have a better idea when Boxberger can return after the first four weeks of recovery. Cash said the Rays will not designate a closer while Boxberger is on the disabled list, distributing the role for now among Alex Colome, Xavier Cedeno, Danny Farquhar, Steve Geltz and Ryan Webb. -- The Seattle Mariners re-signed right-hander Justin De Fratus to a minor-league contract, just two days after releasing the reliever. DeFratus agreed to a minor-league deal with Seattle, the club announced. It comes with an invitation to spring training. This week's release of DeFratus was surprising because he was signed to a one-year, $750,000 deal in the offseason and believed to be one of the favorites to land a middle relief role. -- The Cleveland Indians signed free agent outfielder Marlon Byrd to a minor-league contract with a non-roster invitation to major league spring training camp. Byrd, 38, spent the 2015 season between the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants, hitting a combined .247 with 23 home runs and 73 RBIs in 135 games. He has hit at least 20 homers and 70 RBIs in each of the last three seasons. Byrd owns a career major league batting average of .275 with 154 home runs and 691 RBIs in 1,539 games since debuting with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2002. (Editing by Larry Fine) ))