3 good changes Miguel Cairo has made to the White Sox lineup

Miguel Cairo

The White Sox are 13-6 since Miguel Cairo took over as acting manager on Aug. 30. Tony La Russa remains sidelined while dealing with a heart problem, and while I wish La Russa all the best with his health, there's no getting around the fact that the Sox have played much better baseball under Cairo's direction.

That said, the Sox remain in dire straits in the AL Central Division race. Their hot streak has coincided with a hot streak by the Cleveland Guardians, who have won 12 of their past 15 games.

The Guardians (80-67) come to Chicago for a three-game series that starts Tuesday night, and they own a four-game division lead over the Sox (76-71) with 15 games left in the season. 

Yes, it feels like a must-sweep for the Sox, especially since the Guardians own a 9-7 edge in the season series, and they will secure the division tiebreaker with just one more win over Chicago.

That means any Sox loss to Cleveland, in effect, is like losing two games in the standings.

As Sox fans, the only comfort we can take is that team is playing as well as it's played all season right now, and focusing on some positives, here are three things Cairo has done with the batting order that have really helped:

1. He made Eloy Jimenez the full-time DH. Jimenez remains a prodigious offensive talent, and he's a destructive force in the middle of the lineup when he's healthy. The problem is he's rarely healthy, and many of his injuries have occurred during his misadventures in left field.

What's the answer to this problem? Get Jimenez the hell out of left field, where he's a hazard to himself and everyone out there. Yes, birds too. Cairo has done just that. Jimenez has started 18 games at DH and zero games in the outfield since Cairo took over the team.

In those games, Jimenez is batting .348 with seven home runs and 21 RBIs. That is excellent production. Jimenez's job is to hit, and he's getting it done right now.

There's always the chance Jimenez will hurt one of his balky hamstrings when running the bases, but keeping him out of the outfield maximizes his chances of staying in the lineup. When he's in the lineup, he hits.

2. Yasmani Grandal does not DH anymore. Putting Jimenez in the lineup as the DH means that Grandal cannot DH anymore. ... Praise Jesus!

We've heard Sox GM Rick Hahn talk a lot this year about expecting players to "play to the back of the baseball card" over a 162-game schedule. Well, anyone who is watching Grandal's at-bats knows that he's not going to finish anywhere near his career norms this season.

He's batting .202/.305/.274 with only five homers and 26 RBIs. Inexplicably, La Russa started him as the DH 24 times this season, even though those offensive statistics are terrible.

Sure, Grandal was a dangerous hitter the second half of 2021 -- he hit 23 home runs last season, which is terrific production for a catcher. However, injuries have taken their toll on Grandal in his age-33 season. His swing has been all upper body all season. His legs aren't helping him, and his power is gone. In other words, his bat is a minus, and if he's not catching, he's not helping.

As a matter of fact, Grandal's defense has suffered this season, too. He's a -1.2 WAR player, and Seby Zavala, an average defensive catcher, is arguably a better option behind the plate at this point. But kudos to Cairo for not trying to force-fit Grandal's struggling bat into the lineup at the expense of the team.

3. Leury Garcia is stapled to the bench. It truly boggles the mind that La Russa found a way to pencil Garcia into the starting lineup 71 times in the first 128 games of the season.

Under Cairo, Garcia has started only five times in 19 games, and he's started only once since Sept. 4. In other words, Garcia has been picking splinters out of his ass ever since Yoan Moncada came off the injured list.

You might say, "But Garcia had to play because of all the injuries!" To which I reply, "You know damn well that Garcia would be playing second base right now if La Russa were managing the team."

Cairo has wisely alternated between Josh Harrison and Romy Gonzalez at second base -- both of those two players have simply outperformed Garcia, who is batting .211/.234/.268 for the season and is a -1.0 WAR player. Garcia's OPS+ is 42, which means he is performing 58% below league average.

Garcia is another one who simply isn't going to perform to "the back of his baseball card" this year. He's rightfully taken a seat as the Sox fight to stay relevant in the AL Central.