White Sox hire Royals' Grifol as new manager

The Chicago White Sox person hired Kansas City Royals seat manager Pedro Grifol to regenerate Hall of Famer Tony La Russa arsenic their manager, it was made authoritative Thursday.

The 52-year-old Grifol volition effort to assistance a squad coming disconnected a disappointing season. The White Sox finished 2nd successful the AL Central astatine 81-81 and missed the playoffs aft moving distant with the part successful 2021. La Russa missed the last 34 games due to the fact that of wellness problems and announced helium would not return, ending a disappointing two-year tally with the franchise that gave him his archetypal occupation arsenic a large league skipper.

"Pedro is simply a bilingual, modern shot thinker who brings two-plus decades of acquisition successful a assortment of roles," White Sox wide manager Rick Hahn said successful a statement. "He is an fantabulous communicator and an experienced crippled planner who brings a precocious vigor and detail-oriented attack to leadership. He is committed to gathering an inclusive and cohesive clubhouse, and we could not beryllium happier to person Pedro starring our club."

OFFICIAL: Pedro Grifol, a subordinate of 2 American League pennant winning and a World Series title unit with the Kansas City Royals, has been named the 42nd antithetic manager successful White Sox history. pic.twitter.com/lntIVfxF9F

Grifol spent the past 10 seasons successful a assortment of coaching roles with Kansas City nether erstwhile managers Ned Yost and Mike Matheny. He was portion of teams that captured back-to-back pennants and won the World Series successful 2015.

Grifol spent the past 3 seasons arsenic the Royals' seat coach. He interviewed for the managing occupation aft Matheny was fired arsenic portion of a wide shake-up wrong the enactment aft a 65-97 decorativeness -- Kansas City's sixth consecutive losing season. The Royals hired Tampa Bay Rays seat manager Matt Quatraro arsenic manager connected Sunday night.

Grifol antecedently spent 13 seasons coaching, scouting and managing successful the Seattle Mariners system. He was besides a insignificant league catcher who played 9 seasons successful the Minnesota Twins and New York Mets organizations.

The erstwhile 4 managers hired by the White Sox were either moving for them oregon had ties to the franchise, including erstwhile players Ozzie Guillen and Robin Ventura. Rick Renteria, La Russa's predecessor, spent the 2016 play arsenic Ventura's seat manager earlier getting promoted.

The White Sox began the play with title aspirations aft making the playoffs the erstwhile 2 years. But they were plagued by injuries and inconsistent play.

All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson and sluggers Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert missed important clip due to the fact that of injuries. Catcher Yasmani Grandal and 3rd baseman Yoan Moncada besides had wellness issues, and they underperformed erstwhile they were connected the field.

There were embarrassing breakdowns, too, specified arsenic erstwhile the White Sox ran themselves into the archetypal 8-5 triple play successful large league past during a nonaccomplishment to Minnesota connected July 4.

The squad showed immoderate spark aft La Russa stepped distant from the squad connected Aug. 30. The White Sox won 10 of their archetypal 14 games nether seat manager Miguel Cairo, but they mislaid 8 consecutive successful September, dashing their playoff hopes.

The White Sox finished the play with much errors (101) than each but 2 teams. Their lineup was dense connected right-handed hitters, and respective of their players were amended suited to archetypal basal and designated hitter roles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.