Pedro Grifol fired

Other coaches also gone in off-day bloodbath; Grady Sizemore named interim manager

On Thursday, after suffering a 28-89 start to the season following a 61-101 2023 season, Pedro Grifol was finally put out of his misery as Chicago White Sox manager:

On the positive side, Pedro — a manager ill-prepared for the task ahead almost from the jump, as he took a .500 team in 2022 down by 20 losses in 2023 and authored the sixth-worst season in White Sox history — has been dismissed. But as we’ve said over much of the past decade on the South Side, there is still a problem here: Ill-equipped and unprepared general manager Chris Getz is the one who will be picking Grifol’s replacement.

The bloodbath this morning also claimed the jobs of bench coach (and presumed interim manager had Pedro been fired at more of an appropriate time, say, July 2023) Charlie Montoyo, third base coach Eddie Rodríguez, and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar.

Getz (and more likely, assistant GM Josh Barfield) combed down the list of White Sox coaches who could/would take over this sinking ship, and came up with an interesting name from Cleveland past ... an no, it’s not the oft-rumored candidate of several past White Sox openings, Terry Francona:

The headline here seems it would/could be Justin Jirschele getting moved up from Charlotte Knights manager to major league third base coach. As a longtime up-and-comer in the system and at least mildly-rumored as a manager candidate for the White Sox themselves, this seems to put him in the spotlight as a candidate for 2025; Getz/Barfield and players will get to observe him on the field and in the clubhouse. Jirschele also fulfills a key characteristic of the next White Sox manager in that he will come cheap, and be willing to suffer the ass end of yet another rebuild, as the club’s reasonable hope for 2025 will be to claw back to the “respectability” of a 100-loss season.

No word yet on the future of the one remaining manager who is deserving of the axe: Getz himself.