Tag / Pedro Grifol

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Position Players Pitching

In the mid-2010s, putting in a position player to pitch in an effort to save overworked bullpens became more popular than ever before in the history of Major League Baseball.  Starting in 2023, rules changes restricted position players from pitching unless their team is leading by ten or more runs in the 9th inning, their team is losing by eight or more runs at any time, or the game is in extra innings.  This weekend, i saw my tenth eighth position player pitch, so it seemed like a good time to review.

5/6/2017
With a depleted bullpen and down by five against the Yankees, Joe Maddon turned to catcher Miguel Montero to pitch the final inning.  Montero’s inning could generously be called effectively wild, as he walked two and sailed one pitch over Chris Carter’s head but managed to escape without giving up a run.  Maddon’s notion to avoid going back to his bullpen proved prescient, as the following night the two teams went 18 innings, with the Cubs losing by one.

7/6/2017
Exactly two months later, Maddon again turned to his bench rather than his bullpen as the Brewers held a nine-run lead heading into the 9th inning.  This time he turned to veteran outfielder Jon Jay, who gave up just one hit while retiring the Brewers on just 16 pitches.

6/22/2019
Wrigley Field was again the stage for our next installment of position players pitching, as catcher Victor Caratini took the mound for the 9th inning with the Cubs down 10-1 to the Mets.  He did his part, throwing a 1-2-3 inning and giving the Cubs a chance to mount a comeback in the bottom of the 9th.  The rally fell short, however, as the Cubs lost 10-2.

8/17/2021
We move to the South Side for our next occurrence, this time for an opponent.  With the White Sox leading the A’s 9-0, first baseman Mitch Moreland came out to face the White Sox in the bottom of the 8th.  Facing the bottom of the batting order, Moreland gave up a single to Danny Mendick en route to a scoreless outing.

9/16/2021
Nearly a month later, the shoe was on the other foot as the White Sox were losing 9-3 to the Angels at Guaranteed Rate Field.  With two outs in the top of the 9th, Rick Renteria picks Romy Gonzalez to nail down the final out.  With Shohei Ohtani on first base, Gonzalez strikes out Max Stassi on four pitches to end the inning.

7/9/2022
With pitching in his genes, Kody Clemens took the mound for the bottom of the 8th with his Tigers trailing the White Sox 8-0.  Clemens did what none of his fellow Tigers could accomplish that day, giving up no hits and retiring the side on only fourteen pitches.

4/3/2023
The Giants had a big 7-3 lead against the White Sox heading into the 9th inning when Jose Ruiz took the mound looking to hold the line.  Instead, he faced six batters, giving up five runs on two home runs while only getting a single out.  Down by nine, rookie manager Pedro Grifol brought in infielder Hanser Alberto to mop up.  He gave up two hits but wrapped up the inning without giving up a run.

5/1/2025
With the White Sox holding a surprising 8-0 lead over the Brewers, Jake Bauers, who started the game in left field, came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th.  He quickly put down the White Sox, getting a 1-2-3 inning on just ten pitches.

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The Will Venable Era Has Begun

The White Sox have hired Will Venable to be the 44th manager in franchise history, and the sixth since 2020.  Venable, who was the associate manager under Bruce Bochy for the Rangers these past two seasons, had previously been part of the coaching staffs for the Red Sox and Cubs and was a special assistant to Theo Epstein with the Cubs.  Prior to that, Venable spent nine years as an outfielder, mostly with the Padres.  When former manager Pedro Grifol was fired back in August, general manager Chris Getz said, “I think it’s important to bring in a new voice, a fresh voice, perhaps that’s been exposed to areas of this game that we don’t currently have in our organization.”  Venable does seem to check those boxes.

Venable takes over a team that set the modern major league record this season with 121 losses and is not expected to spend much money to improve the on-the-field product in 2025.  Given that the White Sox appear to be in a slow-moving, long term rebuild of the entire organization, Venable looks to be the manager for today and also for the future, when the team should be competitive once more.

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It’s Over

The White Sox showed some mercy this morning, relieving manager Pedro Grifol of his job and relieving the fanbase of continuing to have to watch him poorly do his job.  He finishes his managerial career with a record of 89-190, easily the worst in franchise history and the third worst in Major League Baseball history. He shepherded the team through two franchise-record losing streaks in this season alone, tying the American League record for the longest losing streak just this week.

Personally, I was ready to turn the page on Grifol back on April 8th, when the White Sox found themselves in Cleveland the same day that path of totality of a solar eclipse would pass over Progressive Field.  “I’ll see videos of it, see what it looks like,” Grifol had said, “but there’s baseball. I probably shouldn’t say that, [but] family and baseball. People don’t believe it, but I live it. That’s all that matters.”  That lack of intellectual curiosity, to have any interests outside of your job and your family, makes you, in my opinion, a poor leader.  To look past a team building exercise that was handed to him on a silver platter was, to me, inexcusable and helps explain the two weeks-long losing streaks the team suffered.  When the baseball went south, he had nothing else to work with to try and pull the team out of their skids.

Bench coach Charlie Montoyo, third base coach Eddie Rodriguez, and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar have also been relieved of their duties.  Grady Sizemore, who was on the staff with the ambiguous title of “major league coach” will be the interim manager for the remainder of 2024 and will be handing over the lineup card prior to tomorrow night’s game against the Cubs.  Doug Sisson will join the staff as bench coach, Triple A manager Justin Jirschele takes over as third base coach, and Mike Gellinger will finish out the year as the assistant hitting coach.

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How Do You Lose 20 Games In A Row?

The White Sox fell 13-7 to the Twins this afternoon, pushing their franchise-record losing streak to 20 games.  They now own the longest losing streak of the Wild Card era and are one of only twelve teams, dating back to 1889, to lose 20 or more games in a row.  They are now just one game away from tying the American League record, set by the 1988 Orioles, and three from the modern record, owned by the 1961 Phillies. Their franchise record falls to just two games over .500.

The White Sox head to Oakland for the final time and will look once again to snap their losing streak tomorrow night against the A’s.  It has now been 25 days since the White Sox last won a game and Pedro Grifol, who is 88-188 in his managerial career, is somehow still employed.

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Stretching To 19

The White Sox extended their franchise-record losing streak to 19 games last night, losing to the Twins 6-2.  They are now tied for the 12th-longest losing streak in MLB history and have tied the 2005 Royals and the 2021 Orioles for the longest losing streak in the Wild Card era.  They are two games away from tying the American League record, set by the 1988 Orioles, and four from the modern record, owned by the 1961 Phillies.

The White Sox will look to snap their losing streak this afternoon by sending Chris Flexen to the mound.  They have lost Flexen’s previous 15 appearances, last winning a game he pitched on May 8th.  It has been 24 days since the White Sox last won a game and Pedro Grifol is still employed.

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18 And Life

April 10, 2023 was the last time the White Sox won a game at Target Field, going 0 for their last 9 against the Twins on the road.  So, as the White Sox returned to Minnesota last night, it seemed an inopportune place for them to try and break their 17-game losing streak.  They have now lost ten in a row and Target Field and have extended their franchise-worst losing streak to 18 games.

A loss tonight would tie the White Sox with the 2005 Royals and the 2021 Orioles for the longest losing streak of the Wild Card era and would leave them just five behind the 1961 Phillies for the longest losing streak since 1900.  Their season record is now 27-88.  Only nine teams in MLB history have had a worse stretch of baseball, none of which occurred during a single season.

And, in case you were wondering, Pedro Grifol is still employed.

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What Went Wrong Again

That fateful Saturday night in Cleveland in early August certainly wasn’t where the 2023 White Sox season went off the rails.  That happened in April, when a ten-game losing streak left them fourteen games under .500 and nine games back before the first month of the season came to an end.  Or at the trading deadline, when seven players, nearly 27% of the active roster, got sent away to other teams who still had dreams of making the playoffs.  But that Saturday night, when Tim Anderson dropped his glove like a hockey player to square up with Jose Ramirez, broke open the floodgates of showing the organizational rot that has destroyed the contention window for the latest rebuild and sent the White Sox scrambling.

The clubhouse problems with the White Sox were kind of an open secret.  Dallas Keuchel made mention of it when he was released last year, but those complaints were waved off as the grumblings of a player who no longer had what it took to pitch at the major league level.  When Jose Abreu was interviewed prior to the season-opening series against his former team, he also spoke vaguely of feeling like he had finally joined a family.  Then, the day following the fight, an interview with former White Sox pitcher Kenyan Middleton, traded the week before, was posted on ESPN.com, claiming there were no rules, players were allowed to skip meetings and practice sessions with no repercussions, and rookies were found sleeping in the bullpen during games.  The next morning, Jesse Rogers, who wrote the ESPN article, appeared on the Score and went even further, saying Yoan Moncada is thought of as lazy and has no interest in being part of the team, Eloy Jimenez is happy-go-lucky but also considered to be extremely lazy, and Yasmani Grandal doesn’t work with the pitching staff and has lost their trust.  Later in the day, a story broke, from a Score producer, of an altercation between Tim Anderson and Grandal after Grandal wanted out of the last game prior to the All-Star Break to get an early start to his vacation.

When new manager Pedro Grifol was hired back in November, he said that, given what he had seen from the White Sox in years past, he would ensure that they came out every night with “high energy” and would be “prepared to win a baseball game.”  That didn’t turn out to be the case, as the White Sox were just as lackadaisical in their approach and their play as they were in 2022.  He was also quoted as saying “You can’t win a pennant in April and May, but you sure can lose one… you really have to be careful how easy you take it…”  This was rather prophetic, as the White Sox certainly managed to lose any chance they had at winning a pennant in April and May.  They spent exactly one day over .500, and that was following an opening day victory.  A ten-game losing streak from April 19-29 doomed them, and they’ve never been able to recover.

For once, the losing has forced change upon the organization.  A good part of the pitching staff was sold off at the trade deadline.  Executive Vice President Kenny Williams and General Manager Rick Hahn were relieved of their duties and replaced by Chris Getz.  More changes. I’m sure, will come this offseason.  Will this lead to a turn-around in 2024?  Probably not, as this year’s free agent class looks to be awfully weak, and the team has many holes to fill.  They also don’t have much in the way of trade capital, so it will be interesting to see how Getz is able to remake the team into one capable of contending.

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The White Sox Get Their Man

The hot stove warmed up a bit this past Friday as word broke that the White Sox had signed former Red Sox/Royal/Yankee outfielder Andrew Benintendi to a five-year, $75 million contract.  Slotting into left field, Benintendi strengthens the outfield defense, where the White Sox have been playing first basemen out of position for most of the past two seasons, and adds a much needed lefty bat to the lineup.

The addition of Benintendi likely spells the end of Eloy Jimenez as an everyday outfielder and pushes the slugger into the DH role he was destined to inhabit.  He should also add some balance to a lineup that has struggled against right handed pitching over much of the past two seasons.

Benintendi has been a long target of the White Sox.  They were linked to him in the 2015 draft, where the Red Sox selected him one pick before the White Sox selected Carson Fulmer.  He was also rumored to be a target in the Chris Sale trade, which eventually netted fellow Red Sox prospect Yoan Moncada.  Not to mention that Benintendi spent the most of the past two seasons with the Royals, alongside new White Sox manager Pedro Grifol and coaches Mike Tosar and Eddie Rodríguez.

Benintendi’s $75 million contract now becomes the largest deal in franchise history, surpassing Yasmani Grandal’s $73 million deal inked prior to the 2020 season.  At this rate, the White Sox will crack the nine-figure contract mark in 2048.

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The Pedro Grifol Era Has Reportedly Started

The White Sox have reportedly selected Pedro Grifol to be their next manager.  Grifol has spent the last ten seasons on the Royals staff and has been the bench coach under Mike Matheny for the past three years.  Given the emphasis general manager Rick Hahn placed on searching for candidates from winning organizations, a hire from the Royals, who finished their sixth straight losing season in 2022, is a little out of left field, but Grifol, a former catcher, appears to have a sparking reputation, thought to be well-prepared with analytics and a strong clubhouse presence.

Along with Grifol, the team is expected to revamp their coaching staff, with only pitching coach Ethan Katz and bullpen coach Curt Hasler remaining from former manager Tony LaRussa’s staff.  Former Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo is expected to join the staff as bench coach.  There should be more details released about the coaching staff once the World Series is over and the White Sox are able to officially announce the hire.