Following a dissapointing season for the 2022 Chicago White Sox, they are looking for a new manager to take over now that Tony La Russa has announced that he is done.
Tony didn’t leave because of baseball-related reasons (although he probably should have) as he is going home to deal with health-related issues.
Now, there are rumors out there about who it will be. Rick Hahn laid out his qualifications when he spoke at Tony La Russa’s announcement presser.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today is becoming a common mouthpiece for Jerry Reinsdorf. Sometimes he is right and sometimes he is being used to push a narrative to influence business. These are the three candidates that he has named as frontrunners:
1. Ron Washington
Ron Washington is someone that the Chicago White Sox can consider for 2023.
Ron Washington currently serves as the third base coach for the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves. He was there with them in 2021 when they won the final game of the season.
Before that, he had two stints as a coach with the Oakland A’s. Sandwiched in between the two stints, however, was his only career managerial job with the Texas Rangers. They never won the World Series but they were back-to-back American League champions in 2010 and 2011.
Washington has been away from managing since 2014 which is a long time. However, he hasn’t been out of baseball as he has been a coach in every season since.
With the A’s and Braves, there has been a lot of success. It will be interesting to see if the White Sox actually goes through with a hire like this.
2. Bruce Bochy
Bruce Bochy coming back to the big leagues could really help the White Sox.
There are a lot of good candidates out there for the White Sox to consider. Few of them have the success on their resume that Bruce Bochy does. Over the last couple of decades, he has been amongst the best in every single way. He might be a decent fit for the team.
With Bochy, a negative is that there are a lot of similarities between him and La Russa. They are both older gentlemen that have been removed from the game for some time. The biggest difference is that Bochy was one of the best and most successful managers of the 2010s.
Bochy won the World Series as the leader of the San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014. It was a remarkable modern-day dynasty that owned the National League for a very long time. They were even a problem for a lot of the years that didn’t end with a ring.
The fact that Nightengale named him makes sense because he fits the previously mentioned mold that Rick Hahn laid out.
He has had success with a championship-caliber organization like the Giants. There is certainly something to take away from that. If the White Sox did make a move like this, it could either be like Tony La Russa all over again or he could find that magic again.
3. Mike Schildt
The Chicago White Sox might have success if they brought Mike Schildt in.
The Chicago White Sox didn’t have that much success with the last former St. Louis Cardinals manager that they hired. However, that is a winning organization that a lot of teams try to emulate year after year. That is why Mike Schildt would be a great option.
Bob Nightengale, as he has for all of these guys, named Schildt as one of the three frontrunners for the job. That is very interesting for the White Sox to think about. It might be a move that is worth making. He was very successful with the St. Louis Cardinals before he was shockingly fired.
Now, it is a great time for him to come back to the game as he has only been out for a couple of years. It isn’t like some of the other options that have been out of the manager’s seat for almost a decade. Schildt would be a great fit for this team.
One thing is for certain, they need someone that can change the attitude of the team. They didn’t play well or hard for most of 2022. All three of these guys feel like managers who can get this team where it needs to be in terms of compete level.
There are more issues than just the manager. They need to make big moves during the offseason in regard to player personnel if they want to get back to being on top of the AL Central Division. Hopefully, a good manager is hired to support the whole mission.