News: The White Sox fired manager Pedro Grifol on Thursday. Here is the team’s announcement.
What’s missing from this announcement? Who will replace Grifol for the final 45 games of the White Sox’ 2024 season? Later that morning, they named an interim coach and fired some coaches:
It might be a relief for the coaches not to have to watch the Sox set all sorts of losing records.
All of this is just another chapter in the strange story of the recent White Sox, and you’ll forgive me for writing an article about the Cubs’ same-city rivals here, but with the Cubs heading to the South Side this weekend, the Grifol news, and the fact that the Sox appear to be headed for the worst season in MLB history, this seems to be happening at just the right time.
As for Grifol, he seemed overwhelmed with his hiring, and after the Sox took a hit against the Orioles on May 26, he made the following statement about his players:
Pedro Grifol said Garrett Crochet worked his ass off, but described the rest of the team as “damn flat.” He didn’t want to talk about what he said to the players in the locker room, but we’ve never seen the captain so angry about his team’s performance.
— Vinnie Duber (@VinnieDuber) 26 May 2024
Excuse the swear words posted in an article here, but that’s what he said to the media. What manager does something like that? Privately? Maybe, but not in public. And one of his players responded:
Korey Lee: “He will think one way, and of course we will think differently. He is entitled to his own opinion, and so are we. I think that is a valid reason. There is nothing to hide. He has opinions, and other people will have their opinions.”
— Vinnie Duber (@VinnieDuber) 26 May 2024
That game was the Sox’s fifth straight loss, dropping them to 15-39, which is pretty bad. They would lose nine more before winning again, and of course you know about the 21-game losing streak they ended the other day in Oakland.
Since that game, the Sox are 13-50. Do you think they let their manager down?
The White Sox’s problems began, I believe, when they took over a pretty good team from the pandemic season that finished 35-25 and won the AL Central under Rick Renteria, and fired Renteria in favor of Jerry Reinsdorf’s buddy Tony La Russa. At the time, it was said that this was some kind of favor from Reinsdorf to TLR, because TLR had been fired in 1986 by Ken Harrelson, whom Reinsdorf had inexplicably moved from the commentary booth to the general manager’s office (another clueless move by the Sox owner). Never mind that La Russa won multiple World Series as a manager, was a “Hall of Fame baseball person” (okay, I had to), and hadn’t worked in the field in a decade.
The Sox won the AL Central again in 2021 with a 93-win season, the most they had won since their World Series year in 2005, despite losing a division series to the Astros. With solid young players, they seemed on the verge of a dynasty.
But they probably won that division title despite La Russa, not because of him. They had a down 2022, TLR resigned in August, reportedly for “health reasons,” and Miguel Cairo finished the year as interim manager. He would have made a good choice for the full-time job, but the Sox chose Grifol, another man they brought in from the Royals after Chris Getz became director of player development and later assistant GM to Rick Hahn.
Grifol’s White Sox endured a disastrous April 2023, including a 10-game losing streak. When Reinsdorf finally fired Hahn and Kenny Williams in August, they were a distant fourth in their division, saved from relegation only by the woeful Royals, who lost 106 games last year. (And with a couple of good free-agent signings and Bobby Witt Jr., they’re now battling for a wild card.) The Sox’s young talent imploded, especially Tim Anderson, who is now out of baseball altogether just a few years after finishing seventh in AL MVP voting.
Of course, you know what happened to the White Sox this year. The results were all over social media and I don’t need to repeat them all here. However, one of my favorite numbers is this: The Cubs have won five games since August 1st. The Sox have won five games since… June 29th.
Getz seems lost as a baseball manager. He made some last-minute deals this year, but decided to hold on to Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr., perhaps his best trade pieces. Crochet’s agent made matters worse by saying Crochet would not move to the bullpen if traded and did not want to play in the postseason unless he got a contract extension.
I mean… who does something like that?
And with that in mind, Reinsdorf had the nerve to pump over a billion dollars into the city and state to help him build a new stadium. (Hint: No.)
The Sox enter tomorrow’s series opener against the Cubs on the South Side at 28-89 (.239). They would need to go 14-31 (.311) in their last 45 games to avoid breaking the modern record for losing percentages currently held by the 1962 Mets. I think that’s possible, but not with the way the Sox have played since late June. Since their last three-game winning streak, which ended on June 29, the Sox are 4-28. (During the same period, the Cubs are 18-15.) If they continue to play at a .239 percentage, they will go 39-123. If they finish 38-124 or worse, they would also tie the modern record for worst winning percentage, currently held by the 1916 Philadelphia A’s (36-117, .235). It seems to take years before they can keep up again.
This is truly an embarrassment to baseball and Reinsdorf should get out of the game and sell now while there are likely still deep-pocketed groups in Chicago who would gladly buy the team and keep it in Chicago, contrary to Reinsdorf’s veiled threats to move to Nashville. I have many friends who are Sox fans and I feel bad for them; their owners and management have screwed them over. Unsolicited advice to any deep-pocketed billionaire who ends up buying the White Sox: fire everyone on day one, and I mean EVERYONE. It seems like there is a disease in this organization from top to bottom that needs to be eradicated. It’s worse than late-era Wrigley ownership of the Cubs. These people just had no clue. The Sox management seems to be actively malign in many ways.
So that’s the context for the two Cubs/Sox games coming up this weekend. Often times a team plays better when a manager is fired like that, and the Cubs need to be prepared for that. The Cubs are the better team and should win both games, but they can’t take this team lightly.
