There have been plenty of underachievers in MLB this season, the Padres and Cardinals among them. The Chicago White Sox are very much in that mix too.
For the second straight season, hopes were high going into the year for the White Sox, only for them to fall flat. Making Pedro Grifol the manager hasn’t done much to help, as the Sox are sure sellers ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline.
Chicago’s parts are greater than the sum, which has been the most perplexing part of the last two years. It’s not that the White Sox are in the throes of a rebuild and devoid of MLB-ready talent, they’re just not putting it all together.
Former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen told the Mully & Haugh Show he thinks Grifol will get another shot next year after they revamp the club, but that an identity needs to be established.
“I expected different things from this ballclub,” Guillen said. “You see this ballclub 20 games under .500, that’s a lot, almost last place. We’re chasing the Detroit Tigers, who thought that would happen to the White Sox this year? And I think just for that reason they’ve got to break everything up. They’re going to give Pedro another opportunity, yeah, with a different ballclub. …
“They have to have an identity. They don’t know who they are, they don’t know how to play, they just have to have an identity. (Are they) going to play to fight, or we’re going to hit a lot of home runs, we’re going to make plays, we’re going to be patient. They don’t have any identity at all.”
Building an identity for the club will likely begin in earnest next week with the trade deadline. The White Sox could make some smaller moves or really open for business and start putting together blockbusters, but either way they need to spend the coming months deciding what type of team they want to be.
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