This Sox slugger working on 2023 rebound
This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin's White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CHICAGO -- Yasmani Grandal is putting in the offseason work, just as the upbeat and confident White Sox catcher discussed with the media during the team’s last road series of 2022 in San Diego.
Grandal’s intense work has involved 30 training sessions with Paul Goodman, the Chicago Blackhawks’ head strength and conditioning coach, with a goal of getting endurance back up, for at least the first three weeks of the program, according to the 34-year-old veteran.
“It’s been great,” Grandal said. “I don’t know if I can say this on camera, but he’s been kicking my [butt] a little bit. I feel good. I can’t wait.”
Grandal gave the update Friday in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood after joining the White Sox, with help from Digs with Dignity, in giving 22-year-old single mother Alexandria Luellen and her 6-year-old son, Kamari, a complete home makeover and Thanksgiving dinner.
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The 2022 season was one to quickly put in the rearview mirror for Grandal, who is a proven producer and a proven winner, with a streak of seven straight seasons reaching the postseason ending in ’22. Grandal slashed .202/.301/.269 with five home runs, seven doubles and 27 RBIs over 376 plate appearances.
But Grandal has been able to progress this offseason without injury rehab work involved in the preparatory process, a positive point he made when talking in San Diego and reinforced Friday, noting how much different it felt being healthy. Grandal also will be working alongside a different managerial voice in Pedro Grifol. The duo attended a Blackhawks game on the night of Grifol’s official hire, and Grandal liked what he has heard in the early conversations between the two.
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“Actually, I was supposed to work out with him back in ’14, and he ended up going to manage in Venezuela -- and I kind of missed him there, too,” Grandal said of Grifol. “It seems like we've always been supposed to meet at some point, and it just never happened.
“Everything he said, it's the right thing. He's spoke to, pretty sure, all the players by now. He wants to bring in the new attitude, the attitude that we need and make sure that we're playing baseball the right way and we're getting as prepared as we can possibly get. For me, that's all you can really ask.”
Grandal received a few text messages from players he knows, players whom Grifol has had, and the main thing he got from them was, “You guys are in good hands.”
“That’s all you want,” Grandal said. “He seems like a really good guy.”
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Julio Mosquera, the White Sox catching coordinator, will join Grandal for a week or so next month to continue working. Grandal added they have a catchers’ camp planned for Arizona.
“We're going to bring all the young [White Sox] guys and work out there for maybe four, five days, and then we'll continue working,” Grandal said.
Mosquera will return in January to help Grandal.
“We'll be full go by the time Spring Training gets here,” Grandal said.
Having the productive Grandal of ’21 back in ’23 is essential for a White Sox turnaround. The early returns seem highly positive for this plan to come to fruition in the final season of Grandal’s four-year, $73 million contract.