White Sox Name Former MLB All-Star Interim Manager

Photo by MLB.com

CHICAGO, IL: The White Sox announced on Thursday morning that manager Pedro Grifol, bench coach Charlie Montoyo, third base coach Eddie Rodriguez, and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar had all been fired.

Grady Sizemore, a former big league outfielder, joined the team this past winter and will serve as interim manager until the end of the season. The White Sox declared that they will not make a choice until after the season and that they will start looking for a full-time managerial replacement right away.

For the balance of the season, Sizemore's bench coach will be minor league field coordinator Doug Sisson. Sisson was the Royals' first base coach from 2011 to 2012. As third base coach, Justin Jirschele, who has been overseeing the White Sox's Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte, will take over. Tosar will be replaced as assistant hitting coach by Mike Gellinger, a hitting instructor for the Sox's Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League.

While Grifol did offer a fresh viewpoint, it's safe to say that things didn't go according to plan at all. The Sox went into the 2023 season intending to contend for the AL Central championship following a 93-win campaign in 2021 and a .500 result in 2022.

Rather, by the middle of the season, the team's performance had become so bad that general manager Rick Hahn and executive vice president Ken Williams were both let out, marking the first significant change in baseball management on Chicago's South Side in over twenty years.

After being promoted to general manager, assistant general manager Chris Getz started dismantling a top-heavy squad that was full of injured and/or underperforming veterans.

Right-hander Keynan Middleton publicly criticized the White Sox's clubhouse culture even during the previous season, complaining that there were "no rules" and "no consequences" despite the fact that he had seen "rookies sleeping in the bullpen during games" and that other players had skipped fielding drills and team meetings.

When veteran righty Lance Lynn was questioned about Middleton's remarks that day, he said that Middleton was "not wrong" in his criticisms of the way things were run and that he had been with the Sox even longer.

Grifol is 89-190 in his two seasons with the White Sox. Before the trade deadline, Jon Greenberg of The Athletic noted that Grifol was on track to end the season with the third-worst winning % ever among managers who have guided at least 315 games (Baseball Reference considers a manager who has led at least 315 games to be "qualified" to be in the all-time record books).

While Grifol's winning percentage of .319 will not get him over the 315-game threshold, it is the third lowest of any qualified captain. This season, the Sox have seen a losing streak extend to 14 games on two separate occasions. With their current 28-89 record, they are on course to surpass the modern record set by the 1962 Mets, which stood at 120 losses in a single season.

The hope is, Grady Sizemore will come in and provide a fresh and new perspective to one of the worst teams in baseball history. Sizemore was always regarded as a baseball genius and has the track record to prove it.