3 mistakes that cost the Chicago White Sox dearly in 2023
The Chicago White Sox were amongst the worst teams in the league this season. 2023 will always be remembered as one of the most horrific years in the history of the franchise. It was truly a disaster from start to finish.
Whenever there is a season this bad, and 61-101 is very bad, there are going to be a lot of people who deserve blame. There are also going to be quite a few decisions that are made that make things worse.
The White Sox had a few decisions made that cost them dearly this year. We are talking about bad trades, bad hiring, and other things as well. It is going to be a long time before they are good again.
These are the three decisions that stick out as the worst of 2023:
1. Jake Burger trade
The Chicago White Sox made a very bad decision to trade Jake Burger.
Jake Burger was a big part of the Chicago White Sox in 2023 and even before that. He was drafted and came back from some very hard injuries to come back from. His story was incredible and all fans loved him.
He was a nice kid with a good family, a marketable last name, a glowing personality, and the ability to hit baseballs to Pluto. The White Sox said no thank you and traded him for a prospect at the trade deadline.
The 2023 season was already cooked by that point but it is a trade that cost them to finish the year and it is going to continue costing them into future seasons. It was truly a bad decision no matter how you slice it.
2. Hiring Pedro Grifol
The White Sox really hurt themselves when they hired Pedro Grifol.
The Chicago White Sox made a terrible decision after the 2020 season when they hired Tony La Russa to be their manager. There were plenty of other more qualified people there that could have done the job much better.
After La Russa predictably didn't work out well at all, he was done after 2022 due to health reasons. The White Sox wouldn't have fired him despite the serious underperforming that they did that season.
Then, Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams decided to bring in Pedro Grifol off the Kansas City Royals bench coach staff. Wow, was that a mistake or what? He is absolutely the worst manager in all of Major League Baseball right now.
Grifol wasn't good at in-game management, handled the bullpen very poorly, and was in over his head every day. He even sounded like he had no clue about anything when he spoke to the media.
He is so clearly someone that they should fire and they won't do it. They like having a bad manager doing everything wrong. Hiring him was one of the worst decisions that they have ever made and now the fans are stuck with him.
3. Signing Andrew Benintendi
The White Sox signed Andrew Benintendi and it looks horrible right now.
The Chicago White Sox signed Andrew Benintendi over the off-season. He had a good career split between the Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals, and New York Yankees before joining the Chicago White Sox so it seemed like a decent signing.
The thing that made it bad was that they acted like it was this huge blockbuster deal. Benintendi’s 75 million dollar deal makes it the largest contract in White Sox history but that doesn’t mean much. All that proves is how cheap the White Sox were.
It got even worse when Benintendi put on a White Sox uniform. He had the worst year of his career by far and the White Sox suffered for it. Benintendi is proof that the batting average stat is useless because his average was fine but he was horrible.
He didn’t even play left field well which was supposed to be the one thing he’s always good at no matter how he’s swinging the bat. The White Sox could have kept Eloy Jimenez out there and it would have probably been better. Benintendi was truly bad.
Now, they are stuck with him for four more years too which makes it even worse. This is a mistake for the White Sox but the people responsible are gone. It still cost them in 2023 and will continue to cost them in 2024 and beyond unless Benintendi has a real bounce back (which never happens for White Sox players).
Next. The 15 worst contracts in Chicago White Sox history. dark