3 potential Tony La Russa replacements not named Miguel Cairo

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The Chicago White Sox have improved a lot over the last week or so. Tony La Russa left with a health condition and Miguel Cairo has taken over.

Everyone wishes Tony La Russa well and hopes that he gets back to full strength. With that, he just hasn’t been a good fit as the manager this year.

The lineups, bullpen management, and strategy decisions have been poor all season long and they have lost lots of games as a result. You are now seeing what this team can look like with a manager doing the job right.

If Tony doesn’t return for the third year of his contract and they don’t go with Miguel Cairo as the new full-time guy, these are three fresh options to consider:

1. Ron Washington

Seeing Ron Washington replace Tony La Russa would be good for this team.

Ron Washington is currently 70 years old and is the acting third base coach for the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves. It might be time for him to come out of that role and become a manager again as he was with the Texas Rangers from 2007-2014.

With those Rangers, Washington had a lot of success including two American League Pennants. That is someone who might be able to help this team get over the edge. He has some recent experience coaching deep into the playoffs on the Braves staff and that can help.

If he wanted to consider filling in for Tony La Russa for a year or two, he might really be able to help this team. As a former Major League player that became a successful coach and manager, he could get this team where they need to go.

(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /

2. Bruce Bochy

Bruce Bochy is someone that would be perfect as a Tony La Russa replacement.

The Chicago White Sox needs a new manager badly. They need someone who would come in and command respect for a variety of reasons. Bruce Bochy has won the same number of World Series championships as Tony La Russa but they all came since 2010 (2010, 2012, 2014).

Bochy managed the San Diego Padres from 1995 to 2006 and then the San Francisco Giants from 2007 to 2019. It has been a really nice run for him as a manager in this league that would be nicely capped off by a stint with the Chicago White Sox.

He is someone who has proven that he can take a bunch of really talented players and win more than one championship with them. All of those championship Giants teams had some interesting personalities on the roster and Bochy got the most out of them.

They won when all odds were against them many times. They even made things hard on teams better than them in the postseason when they were heavy underdogs.

A manager like that is someone that the White Sox needs going into 2023. The players on this team might really enjoy playing for him and they would know that they would be put in a position to succeed for that season.

3. Brad Ausmus

The Chicago White Sox should go younger for a Tony La Russa replacement.

Sometimes age brings wisdom. However, every now and again it is nice to think of something fresh in terms of an idea. The previous two named in this article are guys that always come up in managerial conversation whenever someone is looking.

It would be nice to have either of those guys too because they have a lot of experience and come from outside of the organization. The White Sox should strongly consider someone that is from outside of the White Sox family to bring in and Brad Ausmus is the perfect candidate. He, unlike the other two, never really come up as a possibility.

He brings experience as he was a manager with the Detroit Tigers from 2014-2017 and the Los Angeles Angels in 2019. He hasn’t managed since but he currently acts as a coach for the 2022 Oakland A’s. There is no doubt that he wants to get back into the manager’s seat.

Ausmus has enough experience as a player and a manager to be a great young candidate for this White Sox team. The A’s aren’t very good in 2022 because they sold all of their parts in an attempt to rebuild so Ausmus would have to be looking to come to a team ready to win now. It is something for both sides to consider.

We don’t know for sure if the White Sox will move on from Tony La Russa or Miguel Cairo but these three candidates are all great for different reasons. Hopefully, whoever manages this team next helps them win the World Series.

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