You may remember that Rick Renteria's career as White Sox manager started with an awkward parade of Ford Mustang convertibles during a cold and rainy afternoon that postponed Opening Day before the first pitch.
As the White Sox embark on replacing Renteria, timing isn't their friend here, either.
Last year's coaching market featured Joe Maddon and Joe Girardi, each of whom won World Series in high-pressure jobs, and each of whom has a different way of going about doing the job. Maddon liked to take the pressure off his players with all sorts of rhetoric and stunts that appeared corny on the outside, but worked well enough in practice. Girardi appeared far more uptight, but he found ways to integrate young players with highly compensated veterans, and sometimes over them, in a job where everything he did was second-guessed. Had the White Sox decided to dump Renteria for either Joe, it would've been hard to fault them for their aspirations.
This time around, the most proven managers -- at least with recent experience, Tony La Russa -- are A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora, both of whom lost their jobs due to their involvement/dereliction of duties in the Houston Astros cheating scandal. Unlike Maddon and Girardi, treating Hinch or Cora as the answer is only going to open themselves up to more questions.
The Athletic's Andy McCullough, Brittany Ghiroli and Marc Carig teamed up to talk to 20 sources about the return of Hinch and Cora. Predictably, the sentiments are mixed.
While Hinch avoided getting tagged with the most culpability in the Houston banging scheme, his extreme sanctimony in response to accusations during the 2019 postseason stands out.
Hinch positioned himself as a pillar of sanity while brushfires broke out around his organization. Yet some in the industry remember how Hinch handled an incident with the Yankees during last year’s playoffs. There were rumors about the Astros communicating stolen signs through whistling. Asked about the allegations, Hinch said he laughed. “In reality,” he said, “it’s a joke.” One executive conveyed his disgust with the “arrogance” expressed by the manager.
“It just had like a (tone of), ‘Fuck you guys, we’re just better than you. We’re so good we don’t need to exchange signals or signs. Because we’re just better than you,’” the executive said. “And then, oh, lo and behold, sorry, we were actually fucking cheating for a good portion of the time.”
The sources also express some doubts about their effectiveness in their next role. Hinch and Cora both managed highly talented teams with aggressive front offices. Will they look like ordinary managers with ordinary teams? Or, if the White Sox make strides in plate discipline during the 2021 season, are they going to be accused of wearing buzzers thanks to a scandal in which they were on the receiving end?
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Those sympathetic to the exiled managers say that they served more time than the players who perpetuated and benefited from the cheating, the front office employees who had a direct hand in supplying the data, and the owner who theoretically should have to answer to all large-scale organizational issues.
In between, there's the idea that Hinch and Cora should be able to return to the game in some capacity after their time in the penalty box, but could the league maybe show some restraint and hold off on restoring them as the face of a team immediately after their suspensions lapse?
The answer to that last one is "probably not," because both managers represent a chance at a legitimately held competitive advantage, even if there's reason to doubt what they achieved in Houston and Boston. If either manager picks up where they left off with no evidence of cheating, the furor over their previous transgressions will inevitably diminish. Decisions occasionally require cold blood in a zero-sum game.
On the other hand, a managerial hire doesn't guarantee success in and of itself. Look at 2020, when Renteria made the postseason while Maddon and Girardi stayed home. Few seemed to blame Maddon or Girardi for organizational issues that preceded them, and it'll probably take a couple more disappointing seasons for their reputations to take a hit. If the White Sox fail with Hinch at the helm, however, the line to spit on their graves will wrap around the block. Will Sox fans learn from Astros fans that complaining about such circumstances isn't becoming? Human nature says that's unlikely.
Hinch is a surefire upgrade over Renteria on paper, but it's impossible to understand which ramifications would win out if it becomes reality. The Sox would either be brave, or completely lacking in backbone. It'd be the smartest thing they could do, unless they invited a disaster of their own creation. Unless they hire Hinch with the stipulation that he has to accept Danny Farquhar as his pitching coach, middle ground is going to be difficult to immediately establish.
(Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire)
