The White Sox had to do this, but let’s not act as if Pedro Grifol was given a chance.

Jul 19, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol (5) watches play against the Kansas City Royals in the fifth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 19, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol (5) watches play against the Kansas City Royals in the fifth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

It felt as if the tides were finally turning for the Chicago White Sox. They won a game, defeating the Oakland Athletics 5-1 to snap an AL record-tying 21-game losing streak. That win brought them to within 60 games of the .500 mark.

They then took an early 2-0 lead on Wednesday thanks to a rare Andrew Benintendi home run. Winning two in a row for the first time since they beat the Colorado Rockies twice in a row in late June felt like a realistic possibility. Unfortunately, the Athletics would score three runs in the bottom of the seventh and win the game 3-2.

That loss wound up being the final straw for White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, who was mercifully fired on Thursday morning. The timing was strange given the fact that the White Sox had snapped their losing streak, but the decision was final. The White Sox will name an interim manager sometime soon (presumably bench coach Charlie Montoyo) and then hire a full-time manager in the offseason.

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White Sox finally free Pedro Grifol from impossible situation

The press release is as depressing as it gets.

“Grifol, who was hired on November 3, 2022, led the White Sox to an 89-190 record over one-plus seasons at the helm, including a 28-89 record in 2024.”

Grifol wound up finishing 101 games under .500 without even completing two seasons. He won just 31.8 percent of his games overall, which is unfathomably low. He proved he wasn’t any good as a manager by calling his team out unprompted after they were shut down by an elite pitcher and seeing his own players disagree, but let’s be real. The White Sox could’ve had anyone in MLB history manage this team. They still wouldn’t have gone anywhere. It wouldn’t have been this bad, but they wouldn’t be in the playoff picture either.

Grifol is the classic example of being a fall guy. Is he a good manager? No, probably not. Was he given the slightest chance to succeed? Absolutely not. The White Sox were at a severe talent disadvantage entering the season and only made things worse by tearing things down. While they weren’t necessarily wrong to rebuild, it’s tough to blame Grifol for not winning when GM Chris Getz didn’t give him the pieces to actually win.

This is just a brutal situation all around. The White Sox will try and convince someone to take over a team that could very well finish with the worst record in MLB history and then turn around and trade Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr. Their roster can and likely will be worse next season than this one, which is hard to comprehend. That’s a really tough sell. As for Grifol, who will hire him to manage after what just transpired in Chicago? No, it wasn’t all his fault, but 21-game losing streaks just can’t happen.

It’ll be interesting to see where both sides go from here. Grifol’s firing was inevitable. The only question was whether it’d happen in-season or in the offseason. Now, it’s up to the White Sox to make the right decision in the dugout to turn things around.