(670 The Score) White Sox general manager Rick Hahn couldn’t contain his excitement Thursday.
Hahn freely admitted he was beyond thrilled to have landed Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol as the White Sox’s new manager. And while an executive sharing glowing praise for a new hire at an introductory press conference is certainly par for the course across sports, it was notable for Hahn and the White Sox because of what happened last time the organization embarked on a managerial search.
Back in October 2020, Hahn’s wishes were ignored when chairman Jerry Reinsdorf hired good friend and Hall of Famer Tony La Russa for his second stint as White Sox manager. While Hahn has never publicly revealed details, it’s widely believed that he wanted to hire A.J. Hinch instead. Hinch landed with the Tigers.
This time, Hahn got the leader he wanted. Reinsdorf, executive vice president Kenny Williams and Hahn unanimously agreed that Grifol was the right manager to hire, Hahn said. Grifol was one of eight candidates whom the White Sox had an initial interview with, Hahn said. They considered upward of 30 candidates in all.
“Today’s a pretty exciting day around here,” Hahn said upon introducing Grifol on Thursday. “You may see me smiling a little bit more than you have over the past year, 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 to you all Pedro Grifol as our new manager.”
In some of his opening remarks, Grifol stressed that the White Sox will be a fundamentally sound team that plays with “passion” and “pride for this uniform.” That was music to Hahn’s ears.
“Why Pedro?” Hahn said. “This is the part where I need to catch myself a little bit from going too far over the top, a little too gushing perhaps. But we sit here today and with the hiring of Pedro feel like we are taking a major step toward putting ourselves back on track on the trajectory that we all felt like we were on over the previous seasons prior to last season’s disappointment. In Pedro, we are hiring someone who is a renowned communicator, a modern baseball mind who is seeking to build a cohesive and inclusive clubhouse environment and one where the attention to detail and the accountability will be priorities.
“At the end of the day, after Jerry, Kenny and I sat down with Pedro, it was very clear to all three of us that he would be the unanimous choice to address some of things that we need to improve in. Again, I could go on about this for the next two hours probably, about how Pedro fits.”
Grifol replaces La Russa, who announced in early October he was stepping down due to health reasons. It came at the end of a really disappointing 81-81 season for the White Sox, who entered 2022 with championship aspirations.
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