It is pretty well known by now that Pedro Grifol was one of the worst managers in Chicago White Sox history. After two miserable seasons under Grifol, the White Sox moved on and hired Will Venable for 2025.
Grifol’s coaching staff did not hold players accountable. Grifol’s coaching staff did not command the respect of the players on the field or in the clubhouse, and it showed in their day-to-day performances.
But even knowing this about Grifol and knowing about the culture issues that have existed within the White Sox organization over the last few seasons, some of the stories will always be shocking.
Former White Sox outfielder Clint Frazier, who played in 33 games for the team in 2023, recently appeared on Foul Territory and shared a jaw-dropping White Sox story.
According to Frazier, one White Sox player threatened Pedro Grifol in the middle of a game and received no consequences. He says it was like “prisoners running the asylum” in the White Sox dugout every day.
Frazier's shockin White Sox story
“Challenging the people that were in charge was all I saw. Like prisoners running the asylum,” said Frazier when asked about the culture when he was with the White Sox. “A player did not hustle down the line. In his eyes, he didn’t know where the ball went. In the manager’s eyes, he’s not going to have that. So [Grifol] went over to this certain individual and was like ‘why aren’t you hustling? I’m going to take you out of the game.’”
“This was like the first couple days I was there,” Frazier continued, “This guy looked back at [Pedro] and was basically like ‘if you take me out of this game, we’re going to have a serious problem.’”... “This guy did not come out of the game. And I was like holy…this guy just threatened the manager and he stayed in the game and he was in the lineup every day moving forward!”
Many White Sox fans are speculating on who the veteran player could be that Frazier is talking about in his story.
Clearly, it’s a veteran who was an everyday starter for the White Sox in 2023. Most fans believe this sounds like something Yasmani Grandal would do. Others have suspicions that it could be Tim Anderson.
I think this is more likely to be Grandal, but it doesn’t really matter who the interaction was between. It’s the fact that the interaction happened at all that should raise red flags for White Sox fans.
The White Sox have a long way to go
Knowing that things like this were going on during Chicago’s 61-101 2023 season, it’s even more embarrassing that the organization brought Grifol back for 2024 and proceeded to have the most losses in the history of Major League Baseball .
Stories like this are why players across Major League Baseball lack respect for the White Sox as an organization. It’s why nobody wants to play on the South Side of Chicago right now and why the White Sox have an uphill battle in front of them to change the league-wide perception of what it means to be a White Sox player.
Chris Getz and Will Venable are doing that one step at a time. The youth movement has helped and the White Sox seem to have decent leadership in place at the moment, but it’s beyond frustrating to know that Jerry Reinsdorf was content with Pedro Grifol remaining the manager of his team when he had zero command of the roster and dugout in 2023.
It’s classic White Sox in the worst way possible. If Clint Frazier was able to see a problem after being with the team for only a few days, why are the people running the organization not seeing the same issues?