The Chicago White Sox have been one of the worst teams in the league this season. If they don’t win this series against the San Diego Padres (2/3), they will be a 100-loss team. This was supposed to be a big year for them and it has been the exact opposite.
A lot of people believe that Tony La Russa was a terrible hire for the White Sox. Of course, he was. The team started to slowly but surely fade away under his guidance as the manager. By the time he left, the damage had already been done.
Over the off-season, they decided to hire Pedro Grifol. Since that point in time, the White Sox were doomed. He has been significantly worse than Tony La Russa and that is saying something because TLR was awful. He needs to go the second the season is over.
There are many good options out there for potential replacements but nobody has the true right answer on who it should be. However, someone just became available that the White Sox should be calling right away.
The White Sox should be calling this newly available manager right now.
On Friday, news dropped that Gabe Kapler of the San Francisco Giants was fired. San Francisco was a good team in 2023 but they failed to make the playoffs. A large part of that is because they play in a very good division. Four of the five teams in the NL West are competitive.
In his time with the Giants, they have been a very respectable team despite aging out of elite status. This includes the 2021 season in which Kapler’s Giants won 107 games which led all of baseball. As a result, Kapler was the National League Manager of the Year.
Before his time with the Giants, he was the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in addition to being a former Major League player himself. As a manager, he is 456-411 which is not bad. The White Sox would love to be that much over .500 right now.
He also has worked with White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz in the past so it would be interesting to see how that all works out. Katz could be let go right now too but if Kapler came in, it would be worth considering another year with him.
It would be nice to see the White Sox hire someone with some experience. It would also be nice if the person they hired wasn’t 10 years removed from the gig of manager. Kapler would make a great fit for this team. Who knows, maybe he’d even help this team start winning some baseball games again. We all know their current guy isn’t doing that.