Grifol discusses season, shortcomings as White Sox losing streak hits 17

CHICAGO -- The White Sox franchise-record losing streak reached 17 straight games via a 10-3 loss to the Royals Wednesday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. It also marked their 13th straight setback after the All-Star break and moved Pedro Grifol’s career record to 88-185 over parts of two seasons as White Sox manager.

Blame for these glaring shortcomings doesn’t fall totally upon Grifol, but with a ledger at 97 games below .500, Grifol has struggled to find a foothold within his job. Grifol disagreed with that assessment when asked if he thought of himself as a good manager during a 10-minute interview with MLB.com prior to the series finale against Kansas City.

“I think I am. I really do,” Grifol said. “And I think managing is motivating people to play and work hard every single day. I think managing is preparing and making good decisions and serving people and including people. It’s not up for me to decide. I don’t make decisions on whether I’m a good manager or not. That’s for other people to decide.”

“Obviously hearing about it every single day whether it be on TV or social media, it’s not something you want to go through,” White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi said. “He’s kept even-keeled, as we all have for the most part. Just got to show up and do our job.”

In this instance, Grifol’s judgment will fall upon chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, general manager Chris Getz and the rest of the front office. Getz was asked Tuesday about Grifol being set to manage the final two months of this season for the White Sox at the end of his post-Trade Deadline press conference, but his answer stayed consistent with recent responses to this same question and provided no specific managerial vote of confidence.

“We just wrapped the deadline and just wanted to focus on that,” Getz said. “Once again, kind of debrief and look through the players that we acquired and we'll move forward from there."

High hopes for success weren’t exactly prevalent at the start of this 2024 season with the White Sox entering into a rebuild, but nobody could have truly expected a team now approaching historic marks for its ineptitude. They are 1-19-1 over their last 21 series and have a 10-44 road record, as a couple of examples.

Grifol waited his entire career of more than two decades to get this opportunity, switching courses from a front office path midway through with his family’s encouragement. But his dream has become an apparent nightmare.

“Look, there’s a reason why we are going through this. There’s a reason why I’m here. There’s a reason why the good Lord put me in this job,” Grifol said. “There’s a reason why we’ve been hit with this storm. I choose to believe that. That’s my faith. That’s my foundation. I’m not crying about this. I’m going to fight through it. I’m not going to give up.

“You can be in the midst of a storm right now. The next day, you could be experiencing sunshine and rainbows. You have to work hard. What you can’t do is stop working or give up. What you can’t do is lose the faith that you have and think ‘Why me?’ or have this conditional love for the good Lord that I’ll have faith if you give me what I want. That’s not the way it works.”

Grfiol’s faith has been an important part of his life before he was a manager. It will be there long after his managerial career is done.

Many people consider Grifol a good baseball man, regardless of the results. But these one-sided losing results might leave Grifol as a one-time manager whose tenure might not last the ‘24 season.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the judgment of the Major League game is based on wins and losses,” Grifol said. “So, if this doesn’t work out, which I’m the manager here right now so I’m not thinking about other opportunities, but wins and losses are extremely important.

“This might be a little controversial, but the man upstairs is the only one who makes those decisions, whether I get another opportunity or whether I stay with this opportunity or not. And I live in peace because of that.

“I truly believe that one day I’ll have a group of men all around us and we’ll all be raising a World Series trophy. That’s what I believe … I work hard every day, serve others and I try to be the best person I possibly can be and I live in peace because of it.”