3 reasons the Chicago White Sox won't go to the 2024 playoffs
The Chicago White Sox won't be a playoff team in 2024 for a variety of reasons.
The Chicago White Sox and Major League Baseball are set to get underway. Two games were played overseas as the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers split a two-game set but now it is time to get going on home soil.
The White Sox are not expected to be a very good baseball team this year. They have been rapidly declining since 2021 when they were one of the best teams in MLB. Everything that they have become is their fault and it is disheartening to see.
When it comes to winning, White Sox fans don’t have a lot to look forward to. With the roster that they have, they would be lucky to avoid last place in the AL Central Division.
The playoffs are almost a 0 perfect chance for this team. They have no shot. These are the three biggest reasons for that sad fact:
Pedro Grifol is not the manager the White Sox need right now
The Chicago White Sox have been at a manager disadvantage for a long time. Whether it was Robin Ventura, Rick Renteria, Tony La Russa, or Pedro Grifol, the team hasn’t had good leadership in a long time.
Grifol isn’t good at in-game strategy, bullpen management, or even giving a quote. He talks to the media as if the people listening don’t know anything about baseball and it makes the situation even worse.
He seems to be a very nice man but he isn’t the guy for the job. As long as he is there, they are behind the other teams in the league. Unless he was that handcuffed by bad leadership from players in 2023, it will be more of the same in 2024. Grifol won’t be leading the Sox to the playoffs anytime soon.
The pitching staff of the White Sox is nowhere near good enough
Garrett Crochet is going to be the Opening Day starter for the Chicago White Sox in 2024. That is insane because it shows how pathetic the pitching depth is on this team.
Make no mistake about it, Crochet was incredible during spring training. He deserves praise for it too. However, they are bad enough to have him start the first game of the season and that is a problem.
Crochet hasn’t started a game since college. The last team he went four or more innings against was the Florida Gators. He isn’t set up for success now in 2024.
Michael Kopech wasn’t even good enough to stay in the rotation. Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dylan Cease are all gone. Other teams in the league are going to take advantage of this putrid staff and the White Sox will be terrible because of it.
You don’t make the playoffs with bad pitching and the White Sox pitchers are overall worse than bad. By the end of the year, the numbers aren’t going to be pretty.
The Chicago White Sox play in a division where every team is better than them
The Chicago White Sox play in the AL Central Division. This is often seen as the worst division in baseball and it is for good reason. The Minnesota Twins won it with ease in 2023 and it is usually between them and the Cleveland Guardians.
At this point, the White Sox are even worse than the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals who both look poised to take big steps this year. Last place is a very likely spot for this squad.
When the rest of the division cares about winning at the top more than the White Sox, the postseason chances aren’t going to be very high at all. You can’t overcome being the 5th best team in your division.
When the teams in your division beat you up that badly, the playoffs are hardly realistic. Other divisions will pump out multiple playoff teams via the Wild Card too which makes the AL as a whole even more competitive. The White Sox will be eliminated (for all intents and purposes) by the start of June.
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