12:56 AM UTC
CHICAGO — Who will be the next White Sox manager?
This question has yet to be answered, and in this ongoing process, the organization is Keep candidates quiet. Houston bench coach Joe Espada was not interviewed for the post, but a source confirmed to MLB.com this weekend that he has dropped out of the race. The White Sox have yet to confirm the news.
White Sox GM Rick Hahn rejects admin search via text Comment until someone is named to replace Tony La Russa. La Russa has one year left on his contract, but due to health issues, he left the job ahead of the Aug. 30 home game against the Royals and has decided not to return. La Rusa was replaced by backup coach Miguel Cairo, who Hahn said will be interviewed at a season-end press conference on October 3. It is not known whether an interview was conducted.
According to reports, Espada and Royals backup coach Pedro Griffin was interviewed, and former White Sox coach and current TV personality Ozzie Gillen confirmed to the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday that he was interviewed for the position this week. As first reported by MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, the White Sox are interested in Philadelphia head coach Kevin Long, who is currently involved in the Phillies’ World Series title race.
For the past week, Gillen’s candidacy has been the White Sox The main focus of management rumors. Gillen deftly led Chicago to the 2005 World Series title in his second year in office, and the Southerners went 11-1 after winning 99 regular-season games and leading the American League Central from start to finish. playoff record. In fact, he managed better in 2008, when the injury-riddled White Sox had to win Game 163 against the Twins to take the division. Guillen’s tenure with the White Sox ended after the 2011 season, after which he was involved in a trade that made him the Marlins manager.
His time in Miami was when he was on the MLB coaching bench , and that came amid a somewhat turbulent 2012 season that ended with the Marlins 69-93. When La Russa took over with the White Sox ahead of the 2020 season, he had been out of the dugout since ’11 but remained as involved in baseball as Gillen.
White Sox president Jerry Reinsdorf told in 2017 USA TODAY’s Bob Netenger, Gillen is a great manager who has recommended him for several open positions. But he doesn’t think Gillen will return to the White Sox.
“I hope he ends up somewhere. He can help people,” Reinsdorf told Nightingale at the time. “He just can’t come back here. He burned some bridges when he left here.”
That philosophy may have changed, especially after one of the more disappointing seasons for the franchise in recent memory, with the division favorite expected to end 81-81. The White Sox, in need of a fit and working with the front office as a manager in Year 4 of their competitive window, have managed just two playoff victories so far after a lengthy rebuild.
