The White Sox have a manager, and the biggest surprise is that Bob Nightengale was behind Buster Olney and Marly Rivera in reporting it.
The second-biggest surprise is that Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol is reportedly their man.
Grifol had been a known interviewee for both the White Sox and Marlins job, so he's not coming from off the radar. The unexpected element is that he interviewed early in the process, and wasn't subject to any postseason wait times, so the White Sox sure took their time in cementing him in place.
It seems like the news is spilling out now because the postponement of World Series Game 3 spoiled their initial announcement plans.
Among people who followed Royals baseball closely, Grifol was a popular candidate to replace Ned Yost in Kansas City back in 2018, partially because he represented some improvements over Yost's weaknesses:
Grifol has and a conduit for integrating their ideas with players, telling Rustin Dodd, “I love combining the old-fashioned gut feel and looking at the large sample numbers to see how they match.” He was credited with that helped the slugger have a career season in 2019. Grifol seems to have the same attitude as Yost in delegating to players and giving them some freedom, telling Alec Lewis of The Athletic: "When people are allowed to be themselves, if you’re good at what you do and you take pride in what you’re doing, you hold yourself accountable."
Grifol, 52, has never played or managed in the majors, but he's done just about everything else. Before serving as the Royals' bench coach, he'd been a hitting coach, catching instructor and quality control coach. Prior to the Royals hiring him, he'd racked up plenty of other credits:
He joined Kansas City after 13 seasons in the Seattle chain, serving most recently as manager for High Desert (A) in 2012. Previous roles have included area scout, manager at Everett (2003–05), Coordinator of Instruction (2006–08) and Director of Minor League Operations (2008–11). Pedro was also on the Mariners’ major league staff for the second half of the 2010 season. He was also the Winter League manager this past year for the Venezuela squad where Alcides Escobar played. A Florida native, Grifol was the Florida State High School Player of the Year in 1988 out of Christopher Columbus High School and then helped Florida State University to the College World Series in 1989 and 1991, earning All-America honors in ’91.
Grifol does fit Rick Hahn's description as somebody who has experience in a dugout with a championship level team, as he was the catching coach on the World Series-winning 2015 team. You can raise questions about whether a catching instructor is close enough to the decision-making part of the dugout, or whether 2015 is "recent," but technically correct is the best kind of correct.
The Royals have been far less successful in recent years with Grifol closer to the action -- and the Royals passed up opportunities to try Grifol themselves, instead rolling with and standing by Mike Matheny -- which leads to natural questions about why he'd be the guy to resuscitate the White Sox's postseason hopes.
I wouldn't use the Royals' process to paint Grifol one way or another, because Dayton Moore had already put a Yost succession plan in motion by installing Matheny in the front office as a manager-in-waiting. It's similar to the way the White Sox cleared the path for Robin Ventura, but churchier. The results also looked familiar, as Moore's personal loyalties painted the franchise into a corner. That's one of the reasons why Moore is no longer in Kansas City, and while the Royals could've hired Grifol this time around, it's easier to understand why JJ Picollo would seek a fresh stamp with an external hire.
As for the other concerns, they're valid, but the same can be said for the other first-time managers hired from this process. The personal descriptions of Grifol make it sound like he'd be a fan favorite were he sourced from the Rays, Dodgers, Astros or Yankees. With the Royals hiring Matt Quatraro away from the same job in Tampa Bay, the next year or so might give us an idea of how much that matters.
