Report: A.J. Pierzynski a candidate to manage White Sox in 2025

This is a long article from Bob Nightengale, so you'll have to scroll a little bit. But way down toward the bottom, this paragraph is enough to get the attention of any White Sox fan:

"Former All-Star catcher A.J. Pierzynski has quietly emerged as a serious candidate to manage the Chicago White Sox in 2025 if they dismiss manager Pedro Grifol after the season, as expected."

Oh boy.

You know somewhere in the offices at 35th and Shields, they are saying, "Let's hire one of the heroes of 2005 to manage the club and get the fans back on our side!" 

Indeed, Pierzynski is a beloved figure on the South Side. I have a No. 12 jersey hanging in my closet from back in the day, in fact.

The problem is, Sox fans have seen a movie like that before. Go back to Robin Ventura's managerial tenure from 2012 to 2016. Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf brings back a revered player, but doesn't give him much of a team to manage. The revered former player fails and weakens his legacy.

When Ventura's name comes up, we don't just describe him as the greatest third baseman in team history -- which he is. We also describe him as a bad manager. It's unfortunate that we have to add that footnote.

I'd prefer not to see something like that happen to Pierzynski.

I know what you're saying: Hiring former player Ozzie Guillen worked out OK for the Sox, right? That 2005 World Series banner will fly forever. True, but remember, Guillen was on the coaching staff of the 2003 Florida Marlins, also a world champion, right before the Sox hired him. 

Guillen was in the game, having success as a coach. Pierzynski has not been in the game since he retired as a player after the 2016 season. He's a broadcaster and a podcaster -- and a damn good one. He doesn't need to manage the Sox, and there's no indication he's ready for such a job.

With this ownership and this front office, can anyone succeed as Sox manager?

Just say tell them "no," A.J.

White Sox reportedly conducting 'series of internal interviews'

I've mostly stayed away from discussing the 2023 White Sox here because, let's be honest, it isn't sane to care about the day-to-day results anymore. The team is 48-75 entering Sunday's game against the Colorado Rockies.

But it's worth noting when Bob Nightengale reports something on the Sox. Of all the national baseball reporters, he seems to have the most direct line to owner Jerry Reinsdorf and senior vice president of baseball operations Ken Williams.

Here's his Sunday notebook. Most of this story is about baseball movies, but if you scroll down to the "Around the basepaths" section, the top item deals with the Sox. It reads:

"The Chicago White Sox are conducting a series of internal interviews to determine whether dramatic changes are needed inside the front office or the coaching staff. This has been one of the most disappointing and painful seasons in chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s tenure. 

"GM Rick Hahn has one year left on his contract while manager Pedro Grifol has two years remaining."

This is interesting on two fronts. First off, we rarely know contract lengths for non-players in the Sox organization. For whatever reason, somebody high up in the organization was OK with all of us finding out how many years Hahn and Grifol have left on their deals. 

What does that mean? We can only speculate.

Secondly, a "series of internal interviews"? What exactly does that mean? Are they all interviewing each other? How bizarre, but what do you expect from the Sox? 

This reminds me a little of asking politicians to vote for term limits. Good luck getting someone to say, "Yes, I deserve to lose my job." That doesn't happen often in the real world.

Here's the thing: The 2023 season started with Hahn outlining high expectations and talking about deep October runs. The Sox are light years away from that. As a matter of fact, they are now tied for the third-worst record in baseball -- they and the Rockies are both 48-75 entering Sunday's head-to-head matchup.

You don't need "internal interviews" to know dramatic changes are necessary for the Sox. You only need to know they fell way, way short of the bar they set for themselves.

Let's speculate some more about Robin Ventura's future

Robin Ventura

Before we go any further, let's put away our visceral fan anger about yesterday's rumor that Robin Ventura will return as White Sox manager next year if he wants.

As most of you know, I'm a journalist by trade, so I'm taking off my fan hat and putting on my journalist hat here. My journalist brain has three questions in response to this news: Who leaked this rumor? Why did they leak this rumor? And why did they leak it now?

Of course, I'm not a beat writer. I don't have the opportunity or the means to investigate, but as a blogger, I'm free to speculate, so speculate I will.

My first thought was this leak is perhaps yet another sign of a rift in the Sox front office about the future direction of the team. Around the trade deadline, we heard talk that general manager Rick Hahn was looking to make significant changes, but that he was not allowed to do so by either owner Jerry Reinsdorf and/or senior vice president Ken Williams.

If the front office wasn't in lockstep on trade deadline moves, could it be possible they are not in lockstep on Ventura's future? For the sake of argument, let's say Reinsdorf and Williams want Ventura to stay (pure speculation, again, no basis in fact here), while Hahn does not. Under that scenario, maybe Hahn goes to the press and leaks that Ventura is likely to stay, in hopes of provoking a visceral anti-Ventura sentiment among the fan base.

As expected, the fan anger and backlash over the past 24 hours has been quite overwhelming, and that can be used as a powerful argument for a front office person who wants Ventura gone. You can say, "Hey, this is proof we need a change here. Everyone is fed up with the status quo. We're not selling any tickets for 2017 if Ventura stays. He's had his chances. It's time to move on."

Maybe I'm reaching, but it's a theory.

Here's another theory: The Sox are trying to create a soft landing for Ventura. They floated the "he can come back if he wants" thing, already knowing he isn't going to come back. Perhaps they want it to look like he's leaving on his own, as opposed to them kicking him to the curb, when in reality the decision has already been made.

That probably sounds a little stupid, and it's definitely passive-aggressive, but that fits the way this White Sox regime does business.

For his part, Ventura refused to answer questions on the topic Wednesday. He wouldn't say that he wants to return, which is different from what we've heard from him in the past. Hahn didn't take questions at all, which makes this even more weird.

It's really hard to figure out why someone in Sox brass would leak this to USA Today and create such a media storm with just five days left in the season. Couldn't it wait until Monday?

As far as USA Today reporter Bob Nightengale's part in this, I was shocked to see him criticize Sox fans so harshly in his column. I don't know if he's acting as a mouthpiece for Sox management, or if he's just out-of-town stupid (keep in mind, he covers all 30 teams, not just the Sox), but I emailed him today to remind him that Ventura has a .426 winning percentage against AL Central opponents over his five years at the helm.

We've chronicled Ventura's weaknesses over and over and over again on this blog. No, it is not all his fault, but some of it is, and he should be held accountable for those failures.

Ask yourself, can you see the Sox winning the World Series with Robin Ventura as their manager? Ever? My answer is a resounding no, and I challenge anybody who would answer yes to find a credible argument to support that position.

Report: 'Ship has sailed' on Ian Desmond-to-the-White Sox rumor

Ian Desmond

Today's blog was going to address the possibility of free-agent shortstop Ian Desmond signing with the White Sox, but according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, a team official has said "that ship has sailed."

I was a little surprised when I heard the Desmond rumors, anyway. The top position player prospect in the Sox's system is a shortstop -- Tim Anderson -- and it's possible we'll see him on the South Side of Chicago before 2016 is over. Tyler Saladino doesn't have much of a bat, but he's good with the glove, and we've received every indication the team is comfortable going with Saladino as a stopgap measure at shortstop until Anderson arrives.

We're less than a week away from pitchers and catchers reporting now, and Desmond still does not have a job. Perhaps the Sox wondered if the veteran would be desperate enough to sign a one-year deal. It wouldn't make sense for the team to offer a multiyear deal, knowing that Anderson is getting close. But what could it hurt to kick the tires on a one-year deal with Desmond? That's probably where this rumor came from. The Sox asked Desmond if he'd be interested in a one-year deal, and he told them no. And with that, the "ship sailed." That would be my speculation here.

Also, Desmond rejected a qualifying offer from his most recent club -- the Washington Nationals -- and accordingly, the Sox would have to forfeit the No. 28 pick in the draft in order to sign him. Sox GM Rick Hahn spoke about the value of that pick at SoxFest. I don't think he would part with it lightly, and I think Desmond would have to be willing to come real cheap for Hahn to make the deal.

Even though Desmond is a better player than Saladino, without question, the circumstances surrounding the situation seem to point toward there being no match between Desmond and the Sox.