A list of rumored next White Sox managers while Pedro Grifol remains employed

If you're waiting for Pedro Grifol to qualify for Baseball-Reference.com's leaderboard for least successful managers in MLB history, he still has 42 games to go until he gets to the cutoff of 315. The White Sox still/only have 51 games remaining this season, so that'd require holding off until late September. Based on the way it's going, they could be 27-126 by then.

If you merely wanted Grifol to be the least successful manager in White Sox history regardless of games played in order to properly reflect the feeling of watching his teams, the 17-game skid already did the trick. He had a .344 winning percentage after Michael Kopech closed out his most recent win with an immaculate inning. Now?

1. Pedro Grifol, .322 (88-185)
2. Ed Walsh, .333 (1-2)Lew Moss, .333 (12-24)

The White Sox would have to win five consecutive games for Grifol to fall behind/ahead of Walsh and Moss as soon as possible. They haven't done that all season, so why start now?

It's worth keeping close tabs on the count right now, because on Foul Territory, Erik Kratz asked ESPN's Jesse Rogers if Grifol was going to make it to Monday, and Rogers said "I don't think so."

The thing that most stood out to me over the past few days -- besides Chris Getz's steely resolve against offering anything resembling a short-term endorsement -- was Grifol's more reflective tone. He said on Thursday he regretted bashing his team after Kyle Bradish's near no-hitter in May, which is the rare occasion where Grifol has specified what he could have or should have done better. Granted, it was in response to denying another allegation of team-scolding, but usually all of his self-criticism is general to the point of meaningless, or a roundabout way of ripping a rookie.

Perhaps that signals the end is indeed near, but everybody keeping tabs on the White Sox started sussing out replacements since the White Sox started the season 3-22, if not before. So, we may as well take the opportunity to round up all of the potential replacements that have been floated by somebody who might have an inkling.

In the interim: Charlie Montoyo

The White Sox's current bench coach, Montoyo managed the Blue Jays for 3½ seasons, finishing exactly .500 at 236-236. He finished third and fourth in Manager of the Year voting in 2020 and 2021, but was fired just past the halfway point of the 2022 season as the Blue Jays struggled to get off the launchpad.

He's kept the lowest of profiles since the White Sox brought him to Chicago on an arranged marriage with Grifol, so much so that Luis Robert Jr. still might not know his name. He's the sensible candidate to let him manage out the string, but unlike Rick Renteria, who joined the White Sox in Robin Ventura's last year and succeeded him in preparation of a rebuild, there doesn't seem to be any reason to let Montoyo lead the way after this year's obligations wind down. He didn't really embrace the media-facing responsibilities when he was in Toronto, and the next White Sox manager is going to have to do a lot of talking the next couple years.

Skip Schumaker

After winning National League Manager of the Year in his debut season managing the Marlins last year, all indications are that he won't last past a second season in Miami. He voided his club option for 2025 over the winter after the Marlins let go of Kim Ng, and given that the Marlins face-planted out of the gate and are currently the third-worst team in baseball at 40-68, minds aren't likely to change.

In fact, Schumaker's Miami future is certain enough that Bob Nightengale already speculated about his next move back in June. It involves the White Sox due to a key connection:

While Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol’s future is uncertain past this season, one name that is floating around internally as a potential replacement in 2025 is Skip Schumaker, manager of the Miami Marlins.

Schumaker, the reigning NL manager of the year, played seven years in St. Louis for Tony La Russa, who will be an integral part of the decision-making process.

Sergio Santos

Santos was the darling of the potential internal candidates during the first half of the season, when he led the Birmingham Barons to a first-half divisional title, securing their first Southern League playoff berth since 2013. That makes it three postseasons in three years as a minor-league manager for Santos, who brings a lot of enthusiasm and leverages a unique background as a failed shortstop-turned-successful high-leverage reliever.

I'm interested in seeing whether any bloom falls off the rose in the second half, just because Birmingham's lineup and rotation were scattered to the winds after clinching. They're 11-19 in the second half, and they've scored the fewest runs of any Southern League team, averaging just 3.1 per game. That's not Santos' fault, but if the Barons end up below .500 on the season, it might lead some people to wonder what the hype is all about. Then again, perhaps the second half is better training for managing the White Sox's MLB roster than the first.

Terry Francona

Considering that Jerry Reinsdorf hired Tony La Russa after the 2020 season to rectify a decades-old mistake, you can't count out a pursuit of Francona, who cut his teeth as a minor league manager in the White Sox farm system and was a free agent when the White Sox hired Ventura after the 2011 season.

He stepped down with the Guardians after the 2022 season due to health reasons, but Bruce Levine floated him as a potential replacement, saying that Francona might be looking for another opportunity since he's had the time to rest and recuperate. I'm inclined to think the stress of managing the White Sox would send him back to the hospital by the end of spring training.

A.J. Pierzynski

Nightengale is hedging his bets for the next White Sox manager this time around. While he reported that Schumaker was a possibility in June, he also surfaced Pierzynski's name right before the trade deadline:

Former All-Star catcher A.J. Pierzynski has quietly emerged as a serious candidate to manage the Chicago White Sox in 2025 if they dismiss manager Pedro Grifol after the season, as expected.

Pierzynski is one of the archetypes the White Sox have hired, and because Pierzynski has a YouTube show and an active social media presence, he's already responded with a denial. I'm not saying he's lying in the clip below, but if Pierzynski were somehow to become the next manager, you'd probably watch it and say, "We probably should've known something was up."

Chris Getz didn't want to entertain it one way or another, which makes sense beyond standard professional obligations since Pierzynski has been bluntly critical and skeptical of the decision to promote Getz to GM. The potential for a very awkward (non-)working relationship is not enough to rule it out, because Jerry Reinsdorf isn't a stranger to tolerating managers who want to get their GM fired. Speaking of which...

Can't count 'em out: Ozzie Guillén, Tony La Russa

Guillén was never going to merit serious consideration for a return to managing the White Sox under Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn because, again, he tried to get Williams fired the last time around. Perhaps things are different under Getz, but Reinsdorf said back in 2017 that Guillen "just can't come back here" due to burned bridges. It's possible those bridges were limited to the Williams administration, or maybe Reinsdorf just didn't care for Guillén taking his loyalty for granted.

Guillen did receive at least a courtesy interview the last time the job was open, though he quibbled with how courteous of a gesture it truly was. But hell, Guillen might be celebrating 20 years managing the White Sox if the sibling rivalry between him and Williams could've been contained.

La Russa is probably at peace with staying out of the dugout after a bout with cancer cut short his comeback with the White Sox, but if he has an outsized role in any search committee, you can't rule out TLR pulling a Dick Cheney or Mike Richards and deciding that, actually, he's the right man for the job.

What the hell: Multiple Leylands

In the same segment in which he mentioned Francona, Bruce Levine also said that Kannapolis manager Patrick Leyland is well regarded within the White Sox system. He's the son of Jim Leyland, who coached third base for the White Sox under La Russa in the 1980s, although after watching Grifol fail to enforce standards on veteran players, you'd think they'd want to avoid hiring a manager who never made it to the majors himself.

I'm more of the mind that Jim Leyland is the likelier candidate in the family. Sure, he was just inducted to the Hall of Fame, but the White Sox have already made Cooperstown update one manager's plaque, so what's another?