White Sox announce 2024 coaching staff; Pedro Grifol sadly still manager

There was a brief moment on Monday where White Sox fans could dream of having a competent field manager.

The New York Mets hired Carlos Mendoza to be their manager. The Cleveland Guardians hired Stephen Vogt. And Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted that Craig Counsell would manage *some team* in 2024, and while it would not be the Mets or Guardians, it would be a team with an existing manager.

Oh.

For about 15 minutes, Twitter lit up with Sox fans hoping that Pedro Grifol would be launched, and that Counsell would come to the South Side.

During that time, I tweeted the following:

Replacing Grifol with Counsell would be the sort of move that would make me reconsider buying a ticket plan. But I don’t see it happening. My first thought here was, “Bye bye, Grampa Rossy.” Either the Cubs or Yankees will do this.

Sure enough, moments later we learned the Cubs had launched David Ross and made Counsell the highest-paid manager in baseball -- five years, $40 million. 

I'm not sure any manager is worth that kind of money, but it's still a good move and a clear upgrade for the Cubs. After three straight years of either being out of the race or a faux contender at best, I expect the contention window to reopen on the North Side in 2024. 

Meanwhile, the Sox will continue their perpetual rebuilding with the following coaching staff:

• Manager: Grifol
• Bench: Charlie Montoyo
  
• Pitching: Ethan Katz
  
• Assistant pitching: Matt Wise
• Hitting: Marcus Thames
• Assistant hitting: Mike Tosar
• First base coach: Jason Bourgeois
• Third base coach: Eddie Rodríguez
• Catching: Drew Butera
• Major League coach: Grady Sizemore

If you've got any idea what a "Major League coach" does, please tell me. The most interesting name on the list, to me, is Thames, who becomes the third hitting coach the Sox have had in three seasons.

Fans have pointed out that Thames was the hitting coach for a failed Los Angeles Angels team in 2023, and while that's true, he had some success as the hitting coach for the New York Yankees from 2017 to 2021.

Assuming Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn are still on the roster for 2024, can Thames get them to start hitting the ball in the air again? Will we ever see an uptick in power and plate discipline with the Sox? Those are some of my key questions.

Cubs get away with two egregious mental mistakes, stave off elimination in Game 5

Anthony Rizzo

The 2016 Major League Baseball season will continue for at least another day, after the Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians, 3-2, on Sunday night at Wrigley Field in Game 5 of the World Series.

Cleveland's lead in the series is cut to 3-2. Game 6 is Tuesday night in Cleveland.

The Cubs got this win with quality pitching. Jon Lester did what he is paid to do -- pitch well in big games. He limited the Tribe to two runs on four hits over six innings. He struck out five and didn't walk anybody. After a brief relief appearance by Carl Edwards in the seventh, Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman recorded eight outs to pick up the save.

It was not easy for Chapman. The Indians got the tying run to second base in the seventh inning, and they got the tying run to third in the eighth. Both times, Chapman turned them away. The hard-throwing lefty then worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning, striking out Jose Ramirez to close out the game.

The Cubs got three runs in the fourth inning off Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer, highlighted by a solo home run from Kris Bryant. Addison Russell had an RBI on an infield single, and David Ross added a sacrifice fly.

That said, I thought the Cubs were fortunate to get away with two egregious mental mistakes that just can't happen at this time of the season. One miscue was made by Anthony Rizzo in the fourth, the other by Chapman in the eighth.

After Bryant's home run tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth, Rizzo was the next hitter. He put a good swing on a pitch from Bauer and drove it to deep right field. He stood there, watched the ball, admired it, then slowly started to jog toward first base. Too bad the ball wasn't gone. It hit the wall, and Rizzo suddenly had to hustle to get into second base for a double.

The Cubs are fortunate Cleveland right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall made a poor throw back into the infield. Any kind of decent throw to second base and Rizzo would have made an embarrassing out. Rizzo later scored the go-ahead run in that inning on the Russell single, so if he's out at second base two plays earlier, that three-run inning doesn't happen, and it's anybody's guess whether the Cubs are still in the hunt today.

This isn't an isolated incident, either. Throughout these playoffs, we've seen Javier Baez, Willson Contreras, Jorge Soler and now Rizzo not hustle out of the box after making contact. That's embarrassing for your team, even if you don't get thrown out, when you're competing for a championship. It's also a poor reflection on manager Joe Maddon. If one guy pulls that crap, it's the player's fault. But when it's a team-wide thing, the manager better do something. The Cubs can't afford that sort of mistake if they hope to win two games in Cleveland. Next time, Chisenhall might make an accurate throw.

Chapman nearly cost himself the lead, too, when he failed to cover first base on a grounder to the right side of the infield by Rajai Davis. Rizzo made a terrific stop on the play, preventing the ball from getting down the right-field line for extra bases. But when he got up to make a feed to first base, Chapman was nowhere to be found and Davis was easily safe.

Davis led the American League with 43 stolen bases this season, and he predictably swiped second and third base after Chapman gifted him the infield single. From Day 1 of spring training, pitchers work on getting over to first base on grounders to the right side. For Chapman to fail to get a good break off the mound in that spot is inexcusable. It's inexcusable in any situation, let alone in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, with a one-run lead, in an elimination game with everything at stake. That miscue cost the Cubs three bases. It could have cost the game.

Fortunately for Chapman, he did have his best stuff on the mound, and he got Jason Kipnis to pop out weakly and struck out Francisco Lindor looking to strand Davis at third.

Again, though, that's a mistake the Cubs better not make once they get to Cleveland. I think the Cubs need to play not one but two clean games Tuesday and Wednesday in order to win this series.