Chicago White Sox: Leadership group really helped Gavin Sheets

The Chicago White Sox has a very good culture that is building right now. They are a winning baseball team which certainly helps but having great people as players help even more. The leadership group has a lot to do with it and all of the veterans deserve a lot of credit for helping make everyone comfortable.

Gavin Sheets recently went on the Crosstown Crosstalk Podcast of the Barroom Network where he explained a few things that should make White Sox fans feel very good. When asked about playing for Tony La Russa, he made it very clear that he enjoyed playing for him. He also went on to explain things that Tony would do to help him.

That shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise as La Russa is one of the greatest baseball managers who ever lived. His career resume speaks for itself. It is really good to know that the young players are learning a lot from him as they progress forward in their MLB careers.

Sheets also talked about some of the veterans that really help the White Sox succeed. Of course, Jose Abreu’s name is always up there when talking about something like this. Sheets is aware that nobody is taking first base (Gavin’s natural position) away from him any time soon but he also mentioned that Abreu has an unbelievable work ethic.

That isn’t very surprising when you think about the effort that Jose displays in every game that he plays. He also hates missing games which shows how much helping his team means to him. Experiences and mentors like that are so important for rookies to see. According to Sheets in the interview, the work ethic displayed by Abreu is unbelievable.

There are a lot of Chicago White Sox players that displayed leadership in 2021.

When asked who was the most helpful in terms of advice, he answered with Yasmani Grandal. That is fantastic to hear if you are a Chicago White Sox fan. They invested a lot of money in Grandal and to hear that the investment is helping other players as well is really good.

Sheets went on to tell about how Grandal helped him with his swing late in the season and that became why he was so dominant in the postseason. Those are the types of stories that show how baseball has a lot happening behind the scenes that we don’t see. Grandal, according to Sheets, is so much more valuable than his glove and bat.

This White Sox team is loaded with great leaders. It is amazing to hear Gavin Sheets, a rookie, talk about how impactful they were. Now we know that they are doing things the right way so even future rookies will benefit from them. Guys like Sheets will be able to pass that on to younger players as well. It is a fun time to be in the White Sox clubhouse.