The White Sox have fired manager Pedro Grifol with 45 games left in his second season. An interim manager will be named as there are still those games to play, but the team said in a release that they will "begin a search for a new manager immediately with a replacement expected to be announced after the conclusion of the 2024 season."
The long-awaited move ends unquestionably the worst managerial tenure (89-190) in franchise history, shortly after Grifol's team tied the American League record with 21 consecutive losses, further sending them on a pace for an MLB single-season record for defeats.
“As we all recognize, our team’s performance this season has been disappointing on many levels,” said Chris Getz in a statement. “Despite the on-field struggles and lack of success, we appreciate the effort and professionalism Pedro and the staff brought to the ballpark every day. These two seasons have been very challenging. Unfortunately, the results were not there, and a change is necessary as we look to our future and the development of a new energy around the team.”
"Grateful to Jerry, Rick and Kenny for the opportunity," Grifol sent by text after being reached by phone on Thursday. "I have healthy and a loving family. I have a spiritual foundation that gives me incredible strength. This won’t break me. As a matter of fact it only motivates me. The next thing I do in my life, I will do it for the love and passion for this game, and for the sole purpose of serving others."
Like most criticisms of Grifol, the simplest thing is to fall back to the numbers. A former hitting coach with the Royals, Grifol entered the position preaching fundamental play and sound swing decisions, and has overseen arguably the worst defense in the league in each of his two seasons, and the 2024 team scores the fewest runs per game of any MLB team over the last 40 years.
Even the most recent storyline questioning how much blame Grifol directed toward his players in a post-All-Star break team meeting where he preached a mission of avoiding the all-time record for losses, is best underscored by the fact that the White Sox lost the first 17 games of the second half.
Ironically, last season veterans criticized Grifol’s management for being too lenient and permissive after being dealt away at the trade deadline. But this year Grifol’s greatest faux pas, which even he seemed regretful of recently, is viewed to be publicly bashing the team’s effort during a late May no-hit bid by Orioles starter Kyle Bradish. The throughline is that with either approach, the Sox lost under Grifol. They lost to a surprising degree, even to those across the industry who did not believe he’s ever been handed a strong roster in this organization. Grifol probably espoused analytical concepts and language more than any White Sox manager in history, but the most common way it was experienced was him citing sample size for why he stuck by struggling veterans Tim Anderson and Andrew Benintendi for months through underperformance prodded along by nagging injury.
The first question might be why this didn’t happen sooner, since between a 3-22 start and an earlier franchise-record losing streak, there were multiple earlier low points where most other organizations would have felt compelled to make a change, if only as acknowledgement that their standards as a team had been breached.
Even more so, the current White Sox front office did not lead the hiring of Grifol, and their frustration with the clubhouse environment under his leadership was evident prior to Chris Getz’s repeated avoidance of giving his manager a vote of confidence, or even assuring that the Sox would hold off on making a coaching change before the end of the season. But even in a season where winning was too unlikely for a coaching staff to take heat for losing more than they won, the lack of performance and player improvement is galling for a club looking to introduce more prospects to the roster over the final two months.
After a trade deadline where neither the White Sox nor any other MLB team pulled in a Baseball America top-100 prospect in sell-off trades, and most of their advanced top positional prospects in the organization are struggling, the path back to respectability for the club seems long and uncertain for reasons that stretch well beyond Grifol. The ownership-driven reluctance against making in-season coaching moves is seen in slowness to make adjustments elsewhere in the organization.
Grifol’s utterly fruitless managerial tenure is merely the most prominent symptom of a troubled organization, and one of the simplest to address. But his failure to deliver results, the empty stadiums it inspires, and the ugly brand of baseball it associates with the White Sox, could be plainly seen everyday. Blame for that is supposed to go toward the manager. It’s pretty much the job.
“I'm the first one to take blame for anything that happens on this team,” Grifol said last week. “I'm the manager, right?”
