The Chicago White Sox have a manager in place but could they ever go to Terry Francona if things went south for their current manager?
The Chicago White Sox have a manager that has a lot to prove in Rick Renteria. He has never had a roster that he can realistically win a lot of baseball games with so he deserves a chance with this White Sox roster that looks like it might be good enough to take a big step. He does, however, have a bit of pressure on him as the roster gets better.
Well, “The Last Dance” made us remember a key MLB manager was once a member of the White Sox organization. When Michael Jordan retired (the first time) and decided he was going to play baseball, his manager was Terry Francona with the Birmingham Barons. Tito had a lot of nice things to say about Michael throughout his MiLB career. It was a good story but the main focus here is Francona.
He already knows what it is like to be in the White Sox organization so coming back might be something he would be interested in doing. The year before Michael played for the Barons, Francona was the Southern League’s manager of the year in addition to winning the Southern League Championship.
He was a manager of the year at the Major League level in both 2013 and 2016. He is a two time World Series-winning manager as well with the Boston Red Sox in both 2004 and 2007. He brings all sorts of experience to the table and it would be something that the White Sox could really use to help get their franchise to the next level. The fact that he used to be a part of the organization just makes the connection even stronger.
He is currently the manager of the division rival Cleveland Indians. Well, they are going backward in terms of their organization right now as they look to retool from those teams that were so good a few years ago. He took Cleveland all the way to the World Series in 2016 but we don’t need to rehash how that ended up finishing.
If Cleveland wanted to move on from him as they retool, that might line up perfectly in the timeline of the White Sox. There are no rumors or anything like that, this is simply pointing out that he would be a great fit for the White Sox organization once again. It would be a great place for him to win as it is where he started to take off his coaching career.