The Chicago White Sox are a team that has underachieved and clearly not performed up to their lofty expectations. They have had a rough go of it to start the season, including a 10-game losing streak that was just most recently snapped.
They play lackluster baseball and don’t appear to be that motivated to play. They make mistakes and just don’t seem to have that “it” factor.
I have always said that a team reflects the attitude and teachings of their coach/manager. In the White Sox case, they have a new manager in Pedro Grifol who has no top-level management experience at the Major League level.
He has been coaching catchers, for the most part, over the course of his recent career and hasn’t experienced what it takes to be an effective manager in Major League Baseball.
The Chicago White Sox need a lot from Pedro Grifol in 2023 for sure.
The White Sox needed someone that could deal with the different personality types on the roster. Guys like Luis Robert, Jr., who needs a little extra motivation, may not fit well with Grifol’s style. Right now, that style appears to be somewhat lackadaisical.
Although he did show some fire in the series against the Tampa Bay Rays recently, getting ejected twice after arguing with the umpire, he hasn’t shown the fire necessary to manage a baseball team in the Major Leagues consistently. He doesn’t seem to understand the finer points of managing in the big leagues.
Is Grifol on the hot seat right now? You better believe he is. In addition to him, Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams might just be as well. Everyone should be on the hot seat right now after the ten-game losing streak.
Things need to change and hopefully, Grifol can right the ship and get it headed in the right direction. But with his lack of experience, it’s possible that he might not know just how to get things back on course.
The White Sox might be a permanent resident in the basement of the AL Central this season thanks to his lack of experience.
No one wants that. Something must change to help get this club back to winning (which incidentally they are starting to do again right now). Maybe a change in leadership is what’s necessary.
Not all of this is Grifol’s fault. We mentioned Hahn and Williams as being potential culprits in all of this but the fall guy for this will likely be Grifol.
The White Sox were poised to have a strong season this year, their core group of guys minus Jose Abreu and a few others were back and healthy.
They looked like they had everything well put together heading into the season but it all just unraveled. They look sluggish, not very motivated, and confused.
Even the basics seem difficult for the White Sox. A team gets those basics taught to them and reinforced by the managerial staff. It appears as if Grifol isn’t even doing the basics right. If he can’t do the basics, how do we expect this team to win consistently? We can’t.
They will be stuck in that AL Central basement we talked about earlier.
Grifol needs to turn things around and turn them around quickly or his hot seat is going to turn into an ejector seat and he will no longer be the White Sox manager.