Tony La Russa 3.0 is the sequel you didn’t know you wanted.
Every trilogy wants an ending to tie up all of the unfastened ends, so the return of La Russa to the Chicago White Sox as adviser, advisor, resident sage or no matter title the group prefers was in all probability inevitable.
A gathering amongst Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, supervisor Pedro Grifol and La Russa came about Wednesday night time, as first reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.
It got here a day after Reinsdorf fired government vp Ken WIlliams and common supervisor Rick Hahn, who employed Grifol to interchange La Russa when he left for well being causes after the 2022 season.
“I’ve had these meetings before,” Grifol mentioned. “I said it a couple days ago. This is not my first meeting. I had a couple meetings in April, a couple meetings in May. This is an ongoing thing. We’re all in this thing together, top to bottom. So this is not because of what transpired. This is something that we do in ways that we’ve done all year to get us better. That’s what this is about — getting better.”
Grifol mentioned Reinsdorf was “setting it up just not to win one year but multiple years and try to sustain it.”
I requested Grifol if he spoke with Reinsdorf about subsequent yr.
“In regards to?” he requested.
The path of the group? His job standing? Anything?
“Oh, yeah, I talked to him (Wednesday) about it,” Grifol mentioned. “He’s a big-time competitor. He wants to win. He wants to set this thing up right. That’s what we’re in the process of doing.”
So any speak of a rebuild in 2024?
“It’s not a rebuild,” Grifol mentioned. “It’s definitely not a rebuild. When you have (Luis) Robert in center field and Eloy (Jimenez) and (Andrew) Vaughn, Timmy (Anderson), I don’t consider it a rebuild.”
Of course not. So did Reinsdorf give Grifol any assurance he was returning?
“I’m not going to get into that,” he mentioned. “I’ll let time play that out.”
We don’t know La Russa’s position within the assembly, however the mere reality he’s again brought on huge panic on the South Side.
When we final noticed La Russa, he left the Sox on physician’s orders with a month left within the debacle that was the 2022 season. His well being had been a priority in spring coaching, we later found, and with a group going nowhere it was crucial for La Russa to take care of his medical points.
La Russa was out of sight and out of thoughts as Grifol took over a clubhouse with a lot of the identical gamers from final season. But as a substitute of getting extra out of them, he bought much less, as evidenced by a 50-77 file heading into Thursday’s recreation in opposition to the Oakland A’s, which was performed in sweltering 91-degree warmth earlier than a couple of thousand followers at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Grifol’s voyage of the doomed ended with the firing of his two bosses. Normally a supervisor whose bosses are axed can also count on to be gone when the brand new boss arrives and picks his personal man.
If assistant common supervisor/participant improvement Chris Getz is that man, and former Kansas City Royals common supervisor Dayton Moore joins him, as Nightengale has reported, the Royals connection in all probability makes Grifol protected.
Neither Getz nor his new co-partner, assistant GM Jeremy Haber, have made themselves obtainable. Haber has high billing on the circulation chart, although Getz is aware of the farm system that he helped construct, for no matter that’s price. Williams’ son, assistant director/participant improvement Ken Williams Jr., is third within the minor-league operations circulation chart underneath director Kathy Potoski.
Getz and Haber walked hurriedly by means of the clubhouse Thursday, avoiding making eye contact with media members.
They don’t have any want to fret. The blame for the Sox’s downfall has been shared equally by Williams and Hahn, those chargeable for the personnel selections that led to the fast-forward collapse of a group one ESPN baseball knowledgeable predicted could be world champions in 2022.
Reinsdorf additionally spared Grifol, maybe with La Russa’s tacit acknowledgment that it was the gamers solely who have been at fault. Certainly La Russa takes no share of accountability, so who else may or not it’s?
The 78-year-old Hall of Famer, who immediately seems his age after ditching the dye and sporting a extra distinguished, silver-haired hairstyle, seems to be again within the thick of issues following therapy for most cancers.
It makes good sense for La Russa to wish to assist his outdated good friend in planning the path of the Sox within the post-KW/Hahn period. It was Reinsdorf, in any case, who rehired La Russa after Hahn fired Rick Renteria for causes nobody even remembers. What are mates for?
After the proper ending in St. Louis, profitable a world championship in 2011, La Russa 2.0 ended within the worst manner potential. He noticed the Sox’s playoff window begin to slam shut underneath his watch, then left the job for well being causes in September earlier than and left for good in October earlier than his contract ended.
La Russa absolutely didn’t wish to be remembered going out that manner. Now La Russa 3.0 has an opportunity to assist reshape the group’s future, as Sox followers shudder in disbelief. The “Fire Tony” banners that have been packed up and saved within the basement close to the stacks of bottled water have been taken out of the cardboard field and despatched out to dry cleansing.
La Russa’s return is perhaps unhealthy information for Sox followers, but it surely’s excellent news for baseball writers.
No matter what he did, what he mentioned or how he regarded within the dugout, La Russa was all the time probably the most attention-grabbing factor concerning the Sox in 2021 and ‘22. You couldn’t invent a personality like him — gruff, useless, opinionated and combative — and make it plausible within the 2020s.
Grifol and Miguel Cairo, September’s performing supervisor, have been the whole opposites of La Russa — good troopers following Hahn’s instructions. Perhaps Grifol will likely be following La Russa’s instructions on methods to handle the clubhouse tradition. That’s the circle of baseball life on the South Side.
La Russa 3.0, the ultimate chapter, figures to be epic.
What may probably go flawed?
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Source: www.bostonherald.com