The Chicago White Sox have lost seven straight and 11 of their past 12 games to trend back into being historically bad this season.
Since the White Sox are not eligible for the MLB Draft Lottery next season, there is no reward for being historically bad. Something needs to be done to at least get back to being fun bad.
Not playing the bulk of the AL East in 13 consecutive games will help. The schedule is still brutal as the Sox are not even halfway through this tough 39-game stretch of schedule.
If the White Sox want to avoid being historically awful, or at least get back to being watchable, they need to make these nine changes...
1) Fire Pedro Grifol.
Grifol is like the pro wrestler who desperately wants to get over as a babyface (the term used for the hero) that the crowd rejects and is finally embracing being a heel (the villain).
He got into a conflict with his players over his viewpoint on how the team played last Sunday. Grifol seems to have sworn a blood oath to owner Jerry Reinsdorf in some lame attempt to save his job.
"Nobody wants to win more than Jerry Reinsdorf does," Pedro Grifol tells our @CST_soxvan. Ahem: https://t.co/NnSlGNROAV
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) May 29, 2024
Complimenting the owner everyone hates is part of a heel turn if I ever seen one.
Here is the thing, 76-142 is not something that even loyalty can wash over. Grifol has been a disaster as the manager.
His lineups range from head-scratching to a little league coach could do better. Every time Pedro speaks publicly, he makes the organization look foolish. Although, it is pretty easy to make the White Sox look bad. However, Grifol finds ways to open up his mouth and make the organization look even worse.
When you're the manager of a wildly bad last-place team owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, everything you say or do will be used against you.
— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) May 29, 2024
That's the situation Pedro Grifol is in right now. My column:https://t.co/NQuUpHjHCH
He keeps talking about how everyone needs to earn the right to stay in the big leagues and yet he keeps batting Andrew Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi regularly and at the top of the order.
It almost seems like he is trying to get himself fired.
The Sox must end this clown show. They have a qualified manager on the bench already in Charlie Montoyo. Put the interim label on him and see if he can get the Sox to play better baseball. If he does, great! Give him the job full-time. If he fails, go in a different direction.
At least it allows the Sox to completely clean out the leadership that let the team decline into being historically awful.