3 ways it can still get worse for the Chicago White Sox
By Todd Welter
Pedro Grifol remaining the manager in 2024 will be a nasty disgrace.
Grifol might be one of the worst managers during Reinsdorf’s tenure as owner. That is saying something as he once employed Terry Bevington as the Sox skipper.
Grifol was hired by Hahn in the offseason to clean up the mess La Russa left behind. He somehow has managed to make it worse.
The team does not play fundamental baseball and they do not play hard every night. These are things Pedro promised to have the team do.
Instead, the clubhouse became a dysfunctional mess and Grifol’s excuse was he overestimated players leadership skills.
Explaining what the #WhiteSox are doing in NFL terms:
— Jacob Infante (@jacobinfante24) August 23, 2023
If the #Bears fired Phil Emery but kept Marc Trestman. And you promote the director of college scouting despite crappy drafting in the early 2010s. And you bring in a former GM who built a crappy team like the Browns.
The guy charged with leading the clubhouse literally blamed the people he was supposed to be leading as being directionless. Wonder how that happened?
Eloy Jimenez revealed that the team still has not discussed its leadership problem.
The crew goes OFF after certain postgame comments from Eloy Jimenez
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) August 23, 2023
Ozzie: The reason they fired Rick & Kenny is because of THEM
Pods: There has been no standard set whatsoever. This team has not been held accountable this entire year. They don't play hard. They don't run hard. pic.twitter.com/ivQXdDowLq
Grifol should have been fired along with Kenny and Rick. I bet the reason he was not fired is because Reinsdorf did not want to pay Pedro the two remaining years on his contract to do nothing.
Grifol is like the White Sox version of Jim Boylen. That was another bad coach Reinsdorf employed with the other team he owns, the Chicago Bulls.
It has gotten so bad that Jerry had to (allegedly) bring back La Russa as a consultant. That is right, Tony is reportedly back with the team and armed with influence.
There are rumors that La Russa is the man behind the Chris Getz, Dayton Moore, and Pedro Grifol power trio.
That would be the third reason things could get worse but you just knew Reinsdorf would call Tony for help. That is the part of being a fan of something that someone else owns.
Keeping Pedro as the manager in 2024, especially on La Russa’s recommendation, would put the new power broker at a disadvantage. Whoever Reinsdorf hires (please do not be Getz) should be allowed to tap their own manager.
Forcing a bad manager on the new person is, well, a bad decision (like promoting Getz).
Keep in mind the Royals could have promoted Grifol to be their manager and did not. They fired Moore and let Getz go work for the Chicago White Sox. It might be a better idea to copy what the Royals did in terms of letting these guys work for other organizations.