Grifol, Hahn lay out expectations for White Sox

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Pedro Grifol will discuss big-picture expectations for the White Sox, and talk talking about the high goals set for the 2023 season -- as they should be for a group possessing such vast talent.

But in order to accomplish those high goals, which the first-year manager hopes is a World Series title, Grifol understands the view has to be day by day. Or a five-day expectation as he explained before the first full-squad workout on Monday.

“That’s what we’re going to stick to,” Grifol said. “Our expectations for the next five days are come out, be extremely detailed. We’re going to teach these five days on how we want to do things. We’re building our culture.

“We’re coming together as a team. This is the first time that pitchers and position players are together. We didn’t do a team defense today, but we will tomorrow, which is really important to make sure we match the speed on both sides. Expectations for the next five days are come out here, work hard, high energy, get your work done and get out. Go home to your families.”

The addition of Elvis Andrus via a one-year, $3 million free-agent deal makes the White Sox a more complete squad than they were Sunday. Andrus, 34, moves to second, with young talent such as Romy Gonzalez switching into a Ben Zobrist-type, around-the-diamond role and Lenyn Sosa, ranked as the club's No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline, starting the season at Triple-A Charlotte.

Depth is always a plus to support lofty goals, but talent alone doesn’t produce titles. It’s why developing a distinct White Sox culture was an offseason goal for general manager Rick Hahn and the front office. It’s why Grifol has talked about the team’s culture a few times in the first week of Spring Training, after laying out his thoughts in an interview with MLB.com a few weeks ago.

Andrus thought team cohesiveness was lacking for the White Sox toward the end of the disappointing 2022 season.

“I don’t think winning teams have too much to do with talent. Every team has a lot of talent,” Andrus said. “It’s about how can we play as a team, stay together. Everybody pulling the same way instead of each guy trying to do their thing.

“We addressed it already. Pedro, he’s an amazing manager. He’s a really smart coach, and he’ll find a way to get us there and as soon as we all stay together, the talent will take over and there is a lot of talent on this team.”

Grifol is not a meetings guy, telling the media managerial comments from those sessions last a little while before disappearing from players’ minds. He wants to reinforce matters through discipline and focus on the field.

One sentiment delivered by Grifol clearly stuck with players on Monday: You can’t win it in spring, but you can sure lose it. So, hard work and doing things the right way potentially moves a winning culture to a championship culture.

“I've said all along the expectations for this team are very high,” Hahn said. “We're embarrassed by how things played out last year and know that this team is capable of much, much more. You harken back to a year ago this time, when we were widely viewed as not only potential favorites in the division but also to do damage in October, and you fast forward to the expectations outside the organization at this time.

“We get it, based on how we performed and what happened last year, why a lot of those expectations publicly have tempered. Internally, I don't think expectations have changed in terms of what we're hoping and expecting this team to be. We know what this team's capable of doing, and our expectations are to meet those capabilities."