2022 was an absolute disaster for the Chicago White Sox in many ways. They didn't play well for the majority of the season and still managed to go 81-81 and come in second place.
There are a lot of reasons for that but a lot of the blame has to go to two factors. The first factor is injury. There are a lot of really good players that spent time on the Injured List which will obviously make the team worse.
There was also a problem with the manager. Tony La Russa was one of the greatest managers of all time but his second stint with the White Sox did not go well at all.
There were a lot of issues with his ability to manage at that point including his health. Now, the team has moved on to Pedro Grifol who has taken over as the manager. He comes from the Kansas City Royals where he was most recently serving as the bench coach.
The Chicago White Sox need everyone to be at their best in 2023.
When he was first hired and all the way through the off-season, he said all of the right things and so has general manager Rick Hahn. With that in mind, talk is cheap after a year like 2022. Everyone wanted to see how it went on the field first before jumping to any conclusions.
Through spring training and the first five games of the season, he has already been an upgrade over La Russa in a few ways and there are still some things for him to work on. These are the two ways that he has been better than TLR and one way he has been the same: