*Photo from the Chicago Tribune*
We've reached the beginning of a new era in the windy city. The Chicago White Sox have hired Kansas City Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol as their next manager, according to an announcement on Thursday by the team.
White Sox GM Rick Hahn said in a press conference that "Today is a pretty exciting day around here. You may see me smiling a little bit more than you have over the past year. You may see me gushing a little bit more than I have in the past year. That’s because it’s a little difficult for me to contain the excitement that many of us feel being able to present Pedro Grifol to you all as our new manager."
Previous manager Tony La Russa stepped away from the team at the end of August due to health concerns, and officially stepped down at the end of the season with those same health concerns. The soon to be 53 year old Grifol was one of 30 people on the original list of candidates.
Hahn said of his meetings with Grifol that "At the end of our first meeting, I said to him that I know you’ve been working toward becoming a big league manager for the last 20 years or so and I can’t imagine that not happening here in the not-too-distant future, whether it’s with us or somebody else. We were very fortunate it wound up being with us in the end."
Grifol's tenure with the Royals covered many different roles, serving as Arizona Fall League hitting coach in 2013, special assignment hitting coach in 2013 and 2014, catching coach from 2014-2017, quality control and catching coach from 2018-2019, and bench coach from 2020-2022 under Mike Matheny.
The hiring makes Grifol the 4th active Latino manager in major league baseball, joining Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox, Dave Martinez of the Washington Nationals, and Oliver Marmol of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Grifol said of his plan for the team that "We will communicate. We will be fundamentally sound, we will play with passion, pride for this uniform. This means something. We will respect the game, our fans, and earn their trust. We will be prepared to control the strike zone on both sides of the ball. We will work hard and play winning baseball every night. We will definitely hold each other accountable. I truly see great things happening here. I'm really excited to be a part of it."
The hiring of Grifol makes him the 8th active manager across the league to have never previously played major league baseball. Grifol brought aboard former Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo to serve as his bench coach.
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