Firing Pedro Grifol Won’t Fix The White Sox, Firing Reinsdorf Might

The problem isn’t the manger, it’s ownership.

The Chicago White Sox announced this afternoon that manager Pedro Grifol had been relieved of his duties. Grifol didn’t survive his second season managing the club, and will exit with an 89-190 record. Sure, that’s a shockingly bad result, but Grifol isn’t exactly managing a team of All-Stars. What does his firing accomplish?

There’s only one way to make sense of this move. Grifol is being made the fall guy for an organization and ownership apparatus that is more incompetent than they are cheap. The 2024 Chicago White Sox might be the worst baseball team of all time, and that is far from being Grifol’s fault. That blame falls at the feet of ownership.

It is impossible to understand what is going on in Jerry Reinsdorf’s head. He is mismanaging the Chicago Bulls into a pathetic shell of their former greatness. He is doing the same with the White Sox, but with a far more depressing result.

In two short seasons, the White Sox payroll has decreased by $70 million, dropping them from 7th in the league to 15th. It could fall even lower next year. Andrew Benintendi, owner of the biggest contract on the team, is posting a -1.9 WAR for this season. There are only four players with contracts valued over $10 million. Ironically, Pedro Grifol himself “insisted ‘Reinsdorf is 100% committed to winning‘” earlier this season. Does this sound like an owner committed to winning?

Furthermore, the timing of his dismissal is hilarious. Why wait until now to fire him? Was 89 losses too much to bare? It’s not like the White Sox fell off a cliff, or that they were ever in contention for anything other than dead last this season. Reinsdorf will not face the fact that he is the incompetent party here. Regardless, when a team is 28-89, somebody’s head has to roll. Jerry Reinsdorf would never sacrifice himself or his image like that, and so the White Sox shall remain mediocre.

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