White Sox begin 2023 season with new manager, fresh outlook: These guys want it

June 24, 2024

HOUSTON — New White Sox manager Pedro Grifol made a lot of fans feel understood when he described the 2022 White Sox during his introductory news conference. From his view in the opposing dugout, Grifol saw a team that could play with energy and have a good chance to win on any given night … or just as easily show up without that spark and be vulnerable against a rebuilding Royals squad.

While Grifol progressively won over the White Sox front office through the interview process, he flipped the idea of him building clubhouse buy-in for his heavily structured way of running camp.

“They didn’t buy into me, I bought into what they wanted, what they’re asking for,” Grifol said. “That’s the truth. I think those days are gone that the team takes on the personality of a manager.”

And in the process, Grifol said his description of a listless roster needs to be rethought.

“Perception is not reality,” Grifol said. “That’s what I said because that’s what I saw, right? After spending 50 days with these guys, these guys want it. These guys want to be good.”

Of course, the players had their own offseason to rediscover what kind of team they want to be going forward.

“I’m back in good energy, back in good spirits, back to enjoying the game, I’m back enjoying life,” Tim Anderson said. “(Grifol is) good. Communication. Positive. His energy has good vibes, and he allows players to be themselves, and being OK with it. It’s ‘go out and play your game the best way you know how,’ whatever it is. The biggest thing is he really let us have fun.”

If there’s an element of Grifol’s approach that Anderson and White Sox players have really bought, it’s eschewing long-term expectations. Grifol repeated a line from spring that he’s so locked into the games in front of him, he only knows that the team’s third series is in Pittsburgh because his wife told him of her own travel arrangements there. Players are oriented enough to the idea of a daily routine to also buy into a series-to-series mindset.

“That’s a much better mindset to have than like, ‘Our expectations are to have a deep playoff run.’ OK, well, how?” Lucas Giolito said. “What Pedro tells us is keep it in that good five-to-10 day window where our goals are just these five-to-10 days. ‘Have we met those goals? Yes. All right, cool. Here’s the new set.’ Or ‘Did we meet those goals? No. All right, why didn’t we meet those goals? Here’s all the reasons. All right, cool. Let’s learn from that.’”

So ahead of a four-game set against the defending champions — which is sure to overstate the White Sox’s ability (or lack thereof) to hang with the best of the best all season — setting long-term expectations falls to general manager Rick Hahn.

“Our expectations are extremely high and that doesn’t change based on whether we’re sitting here now coming off a year where we underachieved, or a year ago when everybody throughout baseball is picking us to run away with the division and potentially make some noise deep into October,” Hahn said. “We know what this team is capable of doing.”

What if this team falls short of expectations again, making it two straight years missing the playoffs with their two highest payrolls in franchise history? That, too, isn’t something the Sox are looking to spend too much time pondering, and declaring this a make-or-break season isn’t very in keeping with spring’s themes.

“Let’s start with this year,” Hahn said. “Two of the last three have measured up to roughly our expectations. One of them didn’t. Let’s see what happens this year before we assess what’s next. But again, we were committed to this core group for a while because we believed in them and we’re eager to get going with them once again with a fresh slate.”

The White Sox will wait until Opening Day to announce their official roster. But they confirmed what was already apparent from Gregory Santos thanking well-wishers on Instagram, Hanser Alberto hanging around past his would-be opt-out date, or Romy Gonzalez blasting batting practice home runs during Wednesday’s workout in Houston. Indicating Oscar Colás was their leading option for right field back in November was also a bit of a tell, but the final confirmation was still a special moment … a few days ago.

“(My mom) was crying and screaming; I got nervous because I thought something happened to her,” Colás said through an interpreter of his first call after being informed he made the team. “She’s going to fly in tomorrow.”

Colás is not expected to start the opener in a lefty-lefty matchup against Framber Valdez, and could miss out on similar left-on-left matchups in the early going. But knowing that he had to compete for the right-field job in spring, Colás impressed with how he handled things even after his hot offensive start cooled off.

Oscar Colás was subbed out after his last at-bat and immediately went to sit down next to hitting coach José Castro. pic.twitter.com/ZHq1wzKfhi

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) March 22, 2023

“We had a game the other afternoon in Surprise against Texas and Oscar had his couple of ABs and then he spent the balance of the game sitting next to (hitting coach) José Castro on the bench sort of picking his mind and talking through each at-bat,” Hahn said. “He took the opportunity to improve over the course of the last few weeks and won the job easily. It was fun to watch. I’m looking forward to how he approaches the start of the season. There’s going to be adjustments, there’s going to be struggles from time to time, but perhaps the biggest takeaway from camp for Oscar is how poised he is to tackle those challenges.”

“He’s going to play,” Grifol assured. “A lot.”

In confirming the bench picture, Hahn openly announced the White Sox are “cutting ties” with Leury García in favor of Alberto and Gonzalez, which will likely end with García clearing waivers and the Sox eating the $11 million remaining on his contract.

“The message from (team chairman) Jerry Reinsdorf was clear that we need to go with the best 26 to put us in the best position to win this year,” Hahn said. “Even if in the end, as was the case with Leury, it wound up with us having to eat some sunk cost on the contract there. ”

To some extent, this did not need to be explained in great depth. Leury Legend was well-liked and respected for his willingness to sacrifice his body and man every position he was asked to. But he’s also a 32-year-old utilityman coming off an awful offensive season marred by back problems. A bounce-back campaign wasn’t incredibly likely, and the Sox roster is no longer short on versatility. On the other hand, a year ago they thought he was important enough and projected well enough late into his career to make a three-year commitment.

But going into vivid detail about what changed might be a kick out the door the Sox don’t feel García’s dedicated tenure deserves.

“I think Leury García’s going to help a team at some point this year win,” Hahn said. “He just didn’t quite fit with the top group and what Pedro wanted to do on a day-in, day-out basis, in terms of late-game substitutions or mixing and matching some. We do play, we have 13 games in the first 14 days scheduled, a lot of those in cold weather environments. Early on you are going to see Pedro giving some starts to Romy or Alberto or (Gavin) Sheets and obviously Seby (Zavala) along the way too. In the end, the thought was let’s go with the strongest guys who can fill in when needed, and this is, we all agree, the right thing to do. Those conversations are taking place thanks to the latitude Jerry has provided us. It’s about winning ballgames, not about contracts.”

Hahn and the White Sox announced a 1,000-square-foot expansion of the team’s home clubhouse that will be on display when they return to Chicago on Monday. The addition of a children’s playroom and space for players’ families shouldn’t go overlooked when discussing the comfort of the humans who compose the roster. It’s always good to expand the weight room and create more meeting space, and Hahn said the total renovation was a seven-figure investment. But amid a spring where the Sox have been hinting at the impact of their new sports performance department under Geoff Head, the installation of a biomechanics lab in Chicago to keep pace with the information they have at their lab in Arizona sticks out.

“The sports performance element was a real big part of it,” Hahn said. “We had the lab down in Camelback Ranch that is used from a primarily developmental standpoint. I think in Chicago we are still going to be able to use touchpoints on some of the biomechanical data to help improve guys mechanically or help them maintain what they are doing in Chicago with what they were doing in the offseason. But there is a real biomechanical element to it. There will be an office in there for our guys to be part of the conversations with the players and staff about usage and where guys are at physically. This will give us a chance to continue to measure where guys are at compared to their baselines but to do so not only accurately but fairly efficiently as well. There’s going to be a real impact on sports performance.”

There’s an understandable hesitance from Hahn to talk about this as a magic bullet. For one, the current training and conditioning staffs getting their first real cracks at a normal offseason and spring of preparation are still enormous factors in the team’s health outcomes. At some point this season, the Sox are going to run into a soft-tissue injury or three. And it’s not like biomechanics is an unexplored area of research for the White Sox, let alone all of baseball, and it’s neither going to eradicate injuries nor slumps anytime soon.

But it’s a certainly necessary advancement for the Sox, and something the new manager and coaching staff buy into. For a team that’s had its last two seasons largely defined by injuries and the diminishing returns of playing hurt, it’s a logical response.

“We showed that last year,” Hahn said. “It’s essential.”

(Top photo of Pedro Grifol: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

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