The 2024 White Sox are at risk of being worse than the 2062 Mets: Can they avoid infamy?

Editor’s note: The White Sox have fired manager Pedro Grifol, the team announced Thursday morning.

OAKLAND, Calif. — It was two hours before first pitch, and Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol was sitting in his office this week as he would before any other game. As his struggling club prepared to take on the Oakland Athletics, he sat behind his desk, uniformed, and exuded a calm that belied his plight.

On the day he was hired, in November 2022, Grifol displayed the intensity of a baseball coach through and through, a quality that helped him land the job. “We’re going to prepare every night to kick your ass, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Grifol saida comment that has since gone viral because the White Sox have done little butt-kicking. In his second year at the helm, Grifol is 89-190. And on this day, with his team on a 20-game losing streak, the conversation brought all the expected questions about his job performance.

In public discourse, the end of his term is seen as a matter of when, not if. Grifol leaned back in his chair and politely introduced himself. For the next 10 minutes, he was sometimes thoughtful, acknowledging a desperate desire to win a game. When asked about a radio report who claimed that Grifol was shifting all losses onto his players — part of a motivational tactic that backfired earlier this season — his denial indicated a strong sense of the demands of leadership.

“What coach or manager in their right mind would try to distance themselves from adversity?” Grifol said. “When you’re in a group, when you’re all in the same boat. … It’s not my personality, it’s not who I am.”

But at other times he showed his best side.

When asked if he thought the talent in his clubhouse was better than the team’s record, Grifol said, “I’m not going to answer that question. What’s behind that question?”

When asked if he felt the conversation surrounding his team was unfair, Grifol said, “I don’t read the media. I don’t have social media. So that’s a tough question. I know where we are as a team. I know where we’re going and what we’re trying to achieve. But as far as what’s going on out there, I can just imagine it.

“I don’t avoid anything because I don’t hear the noise. I come here to work with the players.”

Just hours later, those same players would tie an American League record with their 21st consecutive loss. And while they came back the next day to end the losing streak, it proved to be a temporary relief. On Wednesday, the White Sox left Oakland on the heels of another loss, a 3-2 defeat that dropped them to 61 games below .500, 15 games worse than any other major league team.

As the season draws to a close, the White Sox remain on track to break one of the most dubious records in baseball.

In 1962, in their first year of existence, the New York Mets did what no team in the modern era of baseball had done. In a single season, they lost 120 games. The 2024 White Sox are on track to lose 123 games. They’ll need to win 15 of their next 45 games to avoid tying the Mets’ ignominious record. That won’t be easy.

The rest of the season is now a race to avoid the scandal that has become a national story, but the beleaguered manager seems taken aback by all the criticism.

“This is a tight-knit group,” Grifol said. “Here you come from the outside and nobody knows you.”

White Sox manager Pedro Grifol after a loss. (Bruce Kluckhohn/USA Today)

In 2023, when Chicago was expected to contend, their abysmal record necessitated a trade deadline sellout. A year later, a team that started with low expectations has found a way to massively underperform, with a roster full of hitters who have failed to live up to their career numbers. Luis Robert Jr. hit 38 home runs last year; this season, he has just 12. Andrew Benintendi was an All-Star two years ago; this season, his OPS+ is 70.

Andrew Vaughn, Gavin Sheets, Nick Senzel and the recently traded Eloy Jimenez have all disappointed. Meanwhile, Robbie Grossman and Kevin Pillar struggled with the White Sox earlier this year but have improved greatly with their new teams.

All these failures beg the question: where is this all going and what is the plan to get the ship back on course?

White Sox general manager Chris Getz, a 40-year-old former player, was promoted to his position late last season after the firings of longtime executives Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn. He has hammered home the idea of ​​a return, calling this season the first year of a “multi-layered, multi-year project” and boasting about what he sees as growth in the organization’s pitching department.

“We’ve had a pretty good run at the highest level with some of our starting pitchers — for two months we were at the top of the American League with our starters,” Getz said in an interview this week. “That’s not something I think a lot of people thought we could accomplish.”

Yes, there was a period when the team’s starting pitching excelled, but as a whole the staff has accomplished little. The White Sox team ERA is 4.83, better than only the Colorado Rockies.

This season has been more painful than anyone expected, Getz acknowledged. He knows it’s tough to watch. He came in unproven, and his previous work as the club’s director of player development hadn’t yielded many positive results. But as GM, he believes the organization is in a better position now than when he inherited it.

“Ultimately, no one is going to feel or believe that we’re working toward something until it shows up in the win-loss statistics,” Getz said. “That’s the reality of our sport. That’s the reality of the fans. Until that happens, there’s going to be a high level of skepticism.

“But for those of us who live under the hood and understand this multi-layered project before us, they understand that this is part of the process that has been laid out.”

Many of those fans who question the credibility of the rebuild also don’t believe that owner Jerry Reinsdorf will ever fully invest what it takes to transform the White Sox into sustainable winners. After all, the most expensive contract in White Sox history is the $75 million that Andrew Benintendi earned before last season.

White Sox GM Chris Getz. (Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)

When asked whether Reinsdorf would eventually increase his financial investment, Getz replied firmly: “Yes.”

“There will be times when we need to leverage financial resources to bring in free agents, or invest in infrastructure and technology and continue to expand and strengthen our front lines or departments across the organization,” Getz said.

“That’s all part of this plan.”

That plan seems hard to imagine, especially as the dispiriting losses pile up, though the White Sox, like most great teams, don’t let it show. This week, the clubhouse functioned like almost every other team in the league. Before the game, players busied themselves with cards or on their phones. The mood was lighthearted. Even the silence after Monday’s game seemed typical of a great team. Whether a team is in first place — or in contention for worst team ever — there’s usually silence.

The most striking difference: In this locker room and on this team, players are expected to explain something that seems almost inexplicable.

“We’re dealing with it the best we can,” outfielder Corey Julks said softly. “We’ve got to work together as a team.”

The trade deadline also offered little consolation to those who hoped Chicago’s plan would materialize in any substantial way. The White Sox were universally criticized for their return in a three-team trade that netted Miguel Vargas and two 19-year-old prospects for Erik Fedde, Tommy Pham and Michael Kopech.

Getz said he knew the trade would be criticized going in. But he said he’s still very happy with the return and hopes it can signal an organizational shift.

“That’s why I’m here, obviously,” Vargas said. “I’m trying to take that energy from L.A., trying to bring it here. Having that culture… trying to bring that here, that energy to be able to succeed in the future.”

Vargas left a club that was in first place and went to a club that had lost 15 games in a row at that point.

In the days that followed, it became clear what the consequences of talking to the media about the club’s problems were, and how much this affected the players.

“We just haven’t scored as many runs as the other team in 20 straight games,” pitcher Garrett Crochet said before a game this week.

When asked, probably not for the first or last time, about the fear of avoiding a record loss, he said, “I’m done with this interview.”

John Brebbia, a 34-year-old workhorse reliever in his first season with the White Sox, is the oldest and most experienced player on the roster, and he believes the talent is better than the record. He understands the concerns about finishing with a worse record than the ’62 Mets.

“It’s fair, it should be asked,” Brebbia said. “If it goes that way, we’ll be asked. It’s part of the job. I can’t speak for everyone’s motivation. But from my perspective, it seems like everyone shows up and wants to win as much as they can.”

But off the field, the White Sox have become a sideshow. Even the team-run postgame show has drawn criticism.

Before Grifol was hired, Ozzie Guillen was reportedly one of several candidates interviewed by the organization. His ties to the White Sox run deep, both as a player and later as a manager during Chicago’s 2005 World Series championship. He was ultimately not selected for a reunion and now works as an analyst. After a recent loss, Guillen brought up the team’s choice of Grifol, joking on the radio, “I don’t think I was that bad of a manager.”

The fans have seen enough, too. Paper bags have become part of the standard uniform for some White Sox loyalists who still attend games. In Oakland, in the stands behind the visitors’ dugout, White Sox fan Matt Verplaetse bought a ticket and sat down alone. He wore a T-shirt with what has long been a common cry among fans: “Sell the team, Jerry.”

Verplaetse grew up in the Chicago area and has since moved to Northern California. He loves baseball and remains a die-hard fan, although he was still self-conscious enough to ridicule his presence.

There are many questions to be asked about the future of the franchise. The legitimacy of their long-term plan — and the quality of the coaching staff and players they can bring in — are the most important. But for now, in the last 45 games, Verplaetse has focused on perhaps the most important question.

“I think when we started, everybody expected it to be pretty bad,” he said. “But (they) never predicted it would be this bad. And now it’s almost a morbid curiosity.

“How bad is it going to get?”

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photos: Getty Images / David Berding, Lachlan Cunningham)