Former MLB catcher Miguel Cairo was on the Chicago White Sox coaching staff for three seasons under Tony La Russa from 2020-2022.
Cairo joined the staff as the bench coach under La Russa. While he had limited coaching experience up to that point, Cairo also played for La Russa with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2001-2003. There was a history between the two, and as White Sox fans know, La Russa always takes care of his guys.
It's usually pretty hard to judge just how succesful a bench coach is, but Cairo's time in Chicago was an overall success.
Miguel Cairo's success with the White Sox
Cairo got his first managerial experience during the famous Field of Dreams Game back in 2021. La Russa was away at a family funeral, leaving Cairo to step up and lead the White Sox to victory.
Tim Anderson's walk-off home run in that game is one of the best White Sox moments of the last 15 years.
The White Sox made the playoffs in 2020 and 2021, but the 2022 season went sideways. As things were starting to fall apart, La Russa had to step away from the managerial role for medical reasons, leaving Cairo to be the interim manager for the month of September.
Chicago went 18-16 after Cairo took over. The players seemed to have a little extra energy once Cairo took over. At one point, the Sox were 76-71 and just 3.5 games back of first place with a few weeks to go.
The Sox finished 81-81 on the season and most of the coaching staff was replaced once Pedro Grifol was hired as the new manager that offseason.
After one season with the Mets organization in between jobs, Cairo got another gig as a bench coach with the Washington Nationals. Now, history is repeating itself.
Miguel Cairo named Nationals interim manager
Cairo was named interim manager of the Washington Nationals on July 7 after the firing of Dave Martinez.
Martinez won the World Series with Washington in 2019 in his second year as a manager, but the Nationals have not been over .500 since. Martinez has a 500-622 career record, ultimately leading to his firing.
Similarly to the 2022 White Sox, the Nationals have a lot of talent on their roster. James Wood is one of the best players in baseball. C.J. Abrams and MacKenzie Gore are both All-Star caliber players.
Washington also had young talents like Dylan Crews, Brady House, and Robert Hassell III that are still developing.
At 37-53, this season is probably too far gone for the Nationals to get back into contention. But maybe the managerial change to Cairo will help Washington crawl back towards .500 during the second half of 2025.
If they have that type of success, it will be another example of Cairo stepping in to a situation and improving the play of his team that could get him a full-time managerial job. If he can do it for the 2022 Chicago White Sox, he can do it for anybody.