Rick Renteria pulled his fourth benching of the regular season by pulling Avisail Garcia from the game on Friday night, and he's not getting any closer to a good reason for one.
The summary on Friday: Renteria said Garcia didn't run to first hard enough on a routine, inning-ending fly to right field. Garcia said that his knee had been bothering him. Renteria said if Garcia is healthy enough to play, he's healthy enough to give a certain effort. Garcia agreed, because he's in no position to disagree.
Then on Saturday, Renteria effectively undermined his own case when discussing Garcia's knee issue:
“You just manage it,” Renteria said. “It’s not going to get any worse, it won’t get any better. Like most athletes, when you have a nagging issue in the body, you deal the best that you possibly can with it.
“At some point, if it becomes so problematic that you can’t perform, then obviously we can (react) at that point. But he’s not in that stage right now. The conversation that I had with him (Friday) and the conversations that we have all had about where he’s at, he’s just going to have to deal with it and continue to move forward.”
Well, how does one go about managing a knee issue? By easing up when strenuous effort won't accomplish anything. Like when it's an easily catchable fly to right for the third out of the inning when Matt Davidson is a base ahead.
Here's the play, which nobody on either broadcast made note of at the time:
Renteria called it a "Texas leaguer," when it was really a routine mid-range flyball that Jorge Bonifacio caught with less of an effort than Garcia gave. It's fitting that Renteria trumped up the charges, because when it comes to this kind of punishment, he's acting like a cop trying to meet a quota.
To catch you up, Renteria's first benching in games that counted involved Welington Castillo, who didn't leave the dirt circle around home plate on a pop-up that was caught in play. Castillo out-and-out quit on the play due to frustration, Renteria benched him and had every reason to.
But Renteria's been chasing that high ever since, and he hasn't connected with any of his three subsequent benching. There was:
- Leury Garcia, who was benched after easing up once he realized he wasn't going to beat the first baseman to the bag in a foot race on a 3-unassisted putout.
- Tim Anderson, who was benched after not running on a ball he saw was caught, although umpires didn't see it at the time.
- Avisail Garcia, who is trying to manage a knee issue.
Anderson's case comes the closest to being valid because he didn't run and the play looked awful because of it, even if a review would have overturned everything. Renteria had a point about not leaving it up to umpires when the play hasn't been called dead, but he could've met his shortstop halfway on the postgame explanation. Renteria might have the people skills to smooth it over in person, but he shoudn't have to use them this much.
The upside of "Ricky's Boys Don't Quit" is that it captured the feeling of a rebuilding season that was more fun than it had any right to be. The downside of "Ricky's Boys Don't Quit" is that Ricky's boys can never look like they're quitting*, especially when they're on a pace for a triple-digit loss total.
It's now at the point where Renteria is demanding eyewash, and it's especially silly during a season in which the front office has stopped trying to provide Renteria a better team. If Rick Hahn were as committed to a winning culture in 2018 as Rick Renteria is, Michael Kopech would take Dylan Covey's spot in the rotation, Eloy Jimenez would stop the revolving door in left field, and Ian Hamilton would join Covey in trying to solve the Sox' high-leverage issues. Hahn looks content to run out the clock instead.
That makes Avi Garcia's situation even stranger, because when he takes it easy on his knee, he's doing the front office a huge favor. If he were to exacerbate his issue into unplayable pain, Hahn couldn't pretend that Ryan LaMarre was more worthy of the roster spot this time, as there are no center field duties to handle. Garcia's reward for this service is getting scolded on multiple broadcasts.
I suppose this is one the hairy aspects of the tanking business. When the prevailing instincts up top, as they pertain to the matters at hand, are so unconcerned with competing, it makes the effort to shape winning instincts levels below all the more futile.
