Da Windy City
Fansided

Chicago White Sox: How long will Rick Renteria be manager?

By Todd Thorstenson

DENVER, CO - JULY 08: Manager Rick Renteria of the Chicago White Sox leaves walks back to the dugout after changing pitchers in the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on July 8, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - JULY 08: Manager Rick Renteria of the Chicago White Sox leaves walks back to the dugout after changing pitchers in the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on July 8, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

As the Chicago White Sox continue to painfully make their way through year two of their rebuild, manager Rick Renteria remains confident in his guys. The question is, will he even be around when the team is ready to contend?

By beating the crosstown rival Chicago Cubs in the final game of the series last weekend, the Chicago White Sox finally reached the 10-win mark. It only took them until the middle of May to reach double digits in wins and they were the last team in the league to do so.

There’s no doubt that is has been a brutal start to the season for the White Sox and their fans, but manager Rick Renteria has urged fans to be patient. He believes in the plan that Rick Hahn has put into action and is optimistic about the future of the club.

The White Sox were not expected to contend this season, but nobody expected them to be 10-28 at this point in the season.

Losing Avisail Garcia and Yoan Moncada to injuries hasn’t helped the cause, but that doesn’t excuse the mental errors and lack of fundamentals that the team has displayed throughout the first six weeks of the season. Defensively they haven’t been awful in terms of committing errors (.981 FPCT), which is 15th in the league. But there have been multiple times where they have missed a cutoff man or made the wrong decision on where to throw the ball.

And with a young pitching staff trying to find its way, giving the other team extra outs has proven to be highly detrimental.

Speaking of pitching, it hasn’t been good.

Entering Wednesday, the Chicago White Sox are 29th in the league in ERA (5.41) and quality starts (12). Outside of Reynaldo Lopez, who had his first tough outing last night, and a few starts from James Shields the starting pitching has been terrible.

Lucas Giolito hasn’t regained the form he displayed at the end of 2017 while Carson Fulmer has been highly inconsistent. The good news, if there is any, is that neither one of them is even 25 years old yet and there is still time for them to prove themselves.

On top of all of this, the team has gotten nothing out of veteran Miguel Gonzalez (0-3, 12.41 ERA) thus far and Carlos Rodon has yet to make an appearance. Although it does look as if Rodon is on target to take the mound by June.

More from Chicago Sports

The bullpen hasn’t been impressive either. The White Sox pen currently sits at 29th in the league in ERA over the final three innings with a 6.48 ERA. Veterans Nate Jones and Joakim Soria were supposed to close out games, but have only converted five of nine save attempts.

When you combine the pitching woes with a lineup that has failed to get on base (.307 OBP, 24th in league) and score runs (147, 29th in league) there aren’t going to be many wins.

It’s not that his team doesn’t show effort because everyone knows that “Ricky’s boys don’t quit,” but it would make Chicago White Sox fans feel much better if their team was competitive. And right now, it is often not.

It’s one thing to lose games, but it’s another thing to lose games because of mistakes that shouldn’t happen at the major league level. This ultimately falls on the manager.

The White Sox came into this season expecting to go through growing pains, but Renteria still needs to show that his team is making progress. And that’s what the remainder of this season will be about.

It’s no secret that he was brought in by Hahn to help mold the young talent in the organization, much like he did with the Cubs in 2014. But the question that remains is, will Renteria still be around when this team is ready to contend? Or is he just a bridge to the next manager?

Either way, right now his biggest challenge is keeping this team together amid all of the losing.

Even though this team is rebuilding there needs to be some success on the field in order to establish a winning culture going forward. And while most around the organization insist that the clubhouse is in great shape, winning a few games wouldn’t hurt.

Renteria was shown the door after going 73-89 with the Cubs in 2014, which was his only other stint as a manager. But that Cubs team was arguably further along in their rebuild than this White Sox team that is on pace to win 42 games.

The 2018 version of the White Sox is more comparable to the 2012 Cubs team that bottomed out at 61 wins. It took that team three more years to contend and reach the postseason.

In other words, Renteria has a much bigger challenge ahead of him with this White Sox team.

Next: Chicago Bulls: 5 offseason questions that loom large

Most have pointed to 2020 as the season when the White Sox will be in a position to contend, but there will have to be a lot of improvement between now and then for that to happen.

And if Renteria can’t get them on that path, then he may not be around much longer.

Home/Chicago White Sox