Given that Grady Sizemore interned with the Diamondbacks for $15 an hour to explore the idea of coaching just last season, he's a rather unusual choice to replace Pedro Grifol and manage the rest of the miserable string for a historically putrid White Sox team a mere one year later.
As James has noted in two days of listening to the new manager discuss his duties, Sizemore seems equally aware that he's not the typical interim tag-wearer. He carries himself more like a player-manager, so much so that it's disappointing that he opts for a warm-up shirt instead of a jersey, and he's leaning heavily and audibly on co-bench coaches and Ethan Katz with regards to his decision-making.
The way Chris Getz described the decision to tab Sizemore, it's almost based on vibes:
“Grady is certainly one of the most respected people in our clubhouse,” Getz said of the 42-year-old who previously held the title of major league coach. “That showed very early on once we hired Grady, how players gravitated toward him, staff members gravitated toward him. He’s got a strong understanding of the game, how to play the game. He’s very authentic and honest with his communication ability. And so we felt that Grady would be the right fit for getting us to the end of September and building this environment that’s more more effective for our players.”
The way Josh Barfield saw it, Sizemore had more to gain from the temp job than anybody else.
“A lot of the really good managers, the first time through maybe it didn’t go so well and you talk them afterwards and it’s ‘Man, I learned so much,'” Barfield said. “I’m sure he’ll make some mistakes and he’ll learn and grow from it. But I think he’ll take everything he learns from this and whether it’s as a coach, as a manager, whether it’s something on the front office side, the experience he’ll take from this vantage point, sitting in that seat, I think he’ll learn so much.”
Combine the two sentiments, and my guess is that the White Sox saw Sizemore as the best option for combatting lame-duck energy. Bruce Levine reported that Sizemore is under contract through 2025, and Barfield gave such a wide range of possible next jobs that even if six weeks in the White Sox dugout ages Sizemore like eight years in the White House does to presidents, Getz and/or Barfield seem happy to give him something else to do.
Meanwhile, when you look at the coaches the White Sox chose to dismiss alongside Grifol (Charlie Montoyo, Mike Tosar, Eddie Rodriguez) and the coaches the Sox tabbed to replace them (Justin Jirschele, Doug Sisson, Mike Gellinger), there isn't a coach that a current White Sox player can count on outlasting.
The makeshift staff might return to the minor league or player development ranks from whence they came -- and I'd certainly hope so, because Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams didn't have much success in marrying new managers to holdover coaches -- but they could still very well be around Camelback Ranch, or Charlotte, or Guaranteed Rate Field, which means they're still people worth favorable impressions. They might not be a current White Sox player's Real Dad, but they're sort of Real Uncles or Real First Cousins Once Removed, and they typically warrant a base amount of respect.
The White Sox are 0-2 in the Sizemore Era because the (lack of) talent is still the (lack of) talent. At 28-91, they're on pace to go 38-124, which puts them on track to not only set the modern MLB record for losses in a season, but with room to spare.
By this measure, Sizemore's residency could be called a success if the Sox merely manage to avoid lowering this particular bar. Otherwise, they're so adrift from the standard measuring sticks -- especially since the trade deadline removed the players better teams felt comfortable rostering -- that it's hard to know whether Sizemore did any kind of job, good or bad.
What would constitute a productive stay when everybody just wants the season to end? I have three ideas.
No. 1: Providing a functioning environment for rookies
The risky part of turning over a dugout and a clubhouse to Sizemore is that rookie mistakes from the manager could compound rookie mistakes on the field, making accountability harder to achieve. If the Sox are going to make anything of the remaining schedule, it's going to be due to a handful of young players showing staying power. That could be inspirational ("...and a child shall lead them"). That could also be disastrous ("... is that child driving?").
It all comes down to putting players in a position to succeed, or at least minimizing the risk of obvious failure, and it looks like there are good-faith efforts in progress. The Sox have pretty much done this for Miguel Vargas, both in word and in deed. Sizemore said he wants to keep Vargas in a consistent spot in the field and in the lineup, and he's following a pretty reliable pattern in August by starting at third base twice in a row, then DHing a game. Vargas has batted sixth, and Brooks Baldwin has batted ninth the last two days, when Grifol was regularly putting both in the top two spots in the order.
It'll only get more complicated if Bryan Ramos returns or Edgar Quero climbs aboard, because not everybody will be able to play their preferred position and bat ninth, but the big picture goal remains the same: avoid clouding the evaluation of their own talent because they asked for improbable or impossible things.
No. 2: Getting Luis Robert Jr. back on track
If anybody should be able to relate to a preternaturally talented center fielder who hasn't been able to stay healthy as often as he'd like, it's Sizemore. Robert's average dropped below .200 after another hitless night on Saturday, and four more strikeouts means that he's K'd in 40 of 84 plate appearances since the All-Star break.
"I think he’s thinking too much up there and we’ve all been there," Sizemore said Saturday night. "We’ve all had those moments where we are not trusting ourselves."
Sizemore offered that Robert is succumbing to uncertainty and frustration, as the worst slump of his career coincided with persistent trade rumors. Hitting .123/.155/.210 over the second half is one strategy for solving half of that equation, but for the good of the present and future for both the individual and the team, Robert needs to pull out of this nosedive, or else a long season will be followed by a long winter.
No. 3: Making Garrett Crochet's finish have a little meaning
After dominating hitters, headlines and trade rumors, it's surprising how inconsequential Garrett Crochet starts feel. He merited Cy Young consideration for his first half, but now he doesn't even give the White Sox their best (or even second-best) chance to win due to the workload restriction that reduces his outings to four innings at most. Crochet has played a part in the limitations with inefficiency and ineffectiveness, but he also sounds like he's struggling to ignore the looming specter of the short leash.
"I don’t want to think about that," was the totality of Crochet's response to a question Friday night about his workload restrictions for the rest of the season.
Crochet's long-term health -- or at least rest-of-season health -- is paramount, but if he goes the rest of the season without flashing All-Star form even over his abbreviated outings, it could hamper the White Sox's quite likely offseason attempts to move him for an exciting return just the same. Crochet made his struggles sound a cutter-focused bullpen session away from abating on Friday, and the Sox could really use such a simple breakthrough. After failing to amaze the industry with the returns for Dylan Cease and Erick Fedde, they need all the leverage they can get.
There are no easy answers, because a team that hasn't cleared 30 wins by mid-August doesn't deserve them, but also because the problem involves vague, amorphous topics like engagement and morale. What the White Sox don't want is multiple Yoán Moncada situations, where the lack of details makes the completion of his rehab stint seem like it hinges on whether he can be bothered.
By installing Sizemore for the rest of the season, the White Sox are trying to throw an intangible solution at the intangible problems, because the tangible, trackable problems will take years to fix, and Sizemore only has weeks to make a dent in anything. It won't be his fault if the season finishes like it started, but if Sizemore's the only one who gains from the experience, it'll be another missed opportunity in a season full of them.
