Columnist talks disastrous White Sox season

The Chicago White Sox are suffering through a historically lousy baseball season. They have a shot at breaking the record for losses set by the 1962 expansion New York Mets (40-120). The team fired Pedro Grifol as manager two weeks ago, and many questions remain about the franchise’s direction.

To learn more about the White Sox, we caught up with Paul Sullivan . The columnist and baseball writer has been with The Chicago Tribune for 43 years. The Homewood, Ill. native has followed the White Sox and Cubs for several years, but has never seen anything like this.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Awful Announcing: Two years ago, this team was 81-81. What’s happened?

Paul Sullivan: “The year before that, they won 93 games, so it’s gone progressively downward from a playoff team. That 81-81 season with (Tony) La Russa was considered unbelievably disappointing, and then to go from that to 101 losses last year and now to this, it’s like jumping off a cliff. Everything’s gone wrong. Bad decisions by management, bad play, poor free-agent signings, injuries. You can name it, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

“It started with the .500 season when just all their stars started going downhill, especially Tim Anderson, who was an All-Star (in 2022). Eloy Jiménez, always injured. Lance Lynn, they gave him money. He fell apart, the bullpen, just everything. It’s hard to say in short, succinct words.”

Who deserves the most blame?

“I think the ownership has probably got to be the top to blame because they’re running on the show. Hiring Tony La Russa didn’t work out for Jerry Reinsdorf, and then when (La Russa) left, Pedro Grifol was someone who’d never managed in the big leagues, so that was a mistake. I don’t know if you could single out one person.

“The old management, Ken Williams and Rick Hahn , certainly share a lot of the blame for some of the signings. Andrew Benintendi, they gave him quite a bit of money. He hasn’t panned out. I don’t think you could pinpoint one thing. Everyone shares in the blame for this.”

Does Chris Getz, the general manager, need more time?

“He’s going to get more time. He was a controversial choice because they didn’t look around to see who was available, who they could have gotten with more experience. He was a player personnel guy, but with no experience as a GM. I guess anyone deserves more than one year.

“He did dismantle most of the team, and now it’s up to him to rebuild it. His trade deadline decisions didn’t impress anyone, so that was kind of a poor start for him. It was an important trade deadline for the White Sox. A lot of assets, or seemingly a lot of assets, that they didn’t get much in return for. It’s going to be a big year for him next year for sure.”

What’s your impression of new manager Grady Sizemore?

“It’s hard to say. He was there all year, kind of invisible. No one ever would have expected him to take over the team. He was just kind of like a spare coach. Never said a word. You wouldn’t even have known he was there, and then all of a sudden, he’s the manager with no experience, of course. He’s only been there less than two weeks right now. The team hasn’t done much that you could say, ‘Oh well, Grady’s helped with that.’ I think he’s trying to steer the ship away from 120 losses. The goal right now is to not break the Mets’ record.”

What is La Russa’s role with the club now?

“They said he’s kind of a consultant to Getz. So, he’s always around for consulting, I guess. He’s at the park a lot. He’s on road trips. I’ve seen him in the clubhouse. So, it depends on who you talk to, but he’s there. I don’t know how much power he has, but he certainly has Jerry Reinsdorf’s ear.”

How accessible is Reinsdorf?

“He doesn’t talk to the media. He did talk once last year. He fired Williams and he talked, but that was it. He talked at the winter meetings about Jim Leyland going to the Hall of Fame, but he wouldn’t take any questions on the team. He’s inaccessible.”

If a White Sox fan asks, ‘Is there any reason for optimism?’ what do you tell them?

“They do have some good young pitching, I think. Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush, and Jonathan Cannon have already come up this year and shown that they can compete. They have developed some good young pitching in the minors, and hopefully that continues.

“Then the key would be to spend on some hitting, because they don’t have much in the farm system and are likely to trade Luis Robert. So really not much optimism in that regard unless they spend some money this offseason, which is probably unlikely.”

How does this team compare to others you’ve seen?

“This is the worst team I’ve ever seen, by far. I don’t cover them every day, so I should point that out. I go there a few times a week and watch games on TV if I’m not there. Yeah, it’s the worst team. It’s a Triple-A team playing in the majors, and it shows.

“When they went out and made moves last offseason, they wanted to get defense and pitching and they neglected to remember that you have to score runs. It turned out to be not a very good move. It’s going to be a long rebuild. There’s just no other way around it.”

Jason Benetti left the broadcast booth and is now with the Detroit Tigers. John Schriffen has had his critics . What do you make of that drama?

“He’s giving a very rosy assessment of things. It’s almost like an infomercial to him. He’d be good as maybe a talk show host in Dubuque, Good Morning Dubuque , or something. But he just doesn’t seem to have it as far as being a play-by-play guy in the major leagues. Maybe it’s difficult for him to cover a bad team. He’s never done this before.

“But there’s one thing about White Sox fans: they watched Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall in their prime when they were among the most critical announcers in the game. They expect, or they want, their announcers to be honest with them, and I don’t think they feel like they’re getting that this year.”

Are you surprised Schriffen has been feuding with 670 The Score ?

“I don’t know if I can say I’m surprised because I don’t know the guy. He doesn’t talk to us. I’ve asked him to talk. He wouldn’t talk. No, I can’t say I’m surprised. I think it’s foolish, but that’s up to his bosses to tell him to knock it off. Either they don’t tell him, or he doesn’t listen. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”

How much do you hear from White Sox fans that you know personally?

“Most of my family is White Sox fans, so I hear about it all the time. I grew up in Homewood, a south suburb, so a lot of my family and friends are White Sox fans. It’s the kind of job where even when you’re home or out with friends trying to relax, someone’s going to bring up the White Sox.

“Well, Cubs, too, I guess. It goes both ways, but mostly White Sox. It depends on who’s doing worse. There are a lot of angry Cub fans, too.”

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