It's been more than two months since the White Sox beat Jason Benetti to his announcement that he was leaving Chicago to become the play-by-play voice of the Detroit Tigers. While Brooks Boyer wasted no time waving goodbye, it seems like the Sox weren't prepared to name a replacement.
At long last, Chicago Sun-Times media reporter Jeff Agrest says the Sox are finally closing in on a new broadcaster, and it won't be the early favorite.
The White Sox have narrowed their field of potential replacements for TV voice Jason Benetti to three, the Sun-Times has learned: Red Sox radio voice Will Flemming, ESPN 1000’s Connor McKnight and John Schriffen of ESPN TV.
Mike Monaco, who initially was a favorite for the job, removed himself from consideration this week because of scheduling conflicts with ESPN. He signed a three-year extension with the network late last year.
I'm not familiar with Flemming or Schiffren, while McKnight can be counted upon to deliver sound information about the White Sox, so any of the three could turn out to be perfectly acceptable. With Monaco removing himself from the proceedings, though, it reminds me of the White Sox waiting until the World Series to announce a manager, only to realize that the guy they settled on wasn't connected to a postseason team. Not in the slightest. Did the White Sox get their first choice with Pedro Grifol, or their fourth? Here's hoping Benetti's replacement doesn't put that question front of mind.
PERTINENT: Jason Benetti did the hard part
Some of you beat me to it in the comments on Friday's post, but Ken Rosenthal talked to Grady Sizemore about his new role as a coach on Pedro Grifol's staff, and it might have never happened without Trayce Thompson, of all people.
Thompson grew up idolizing Sizemore, and Josh Barfield connected them when Thompson was working out at the Diamondbacks' alternate training site in 2020. Sizemore started talking to Thompson about hitting, and that was his avenue into getting back into the game as a coach.
In Friday's discussion here, Asinwreck noticed the same quote that jumped out to me -- Sizemore's description of his duties ...
Grifol said Sizemore will be something of a hybrid, assisting Bourgeois with outfield defense and baserunning, leading the bunting department, contributing to hitting instruction and “probably a million other things.” The way Sizemore understands it, “I’ll have a little bit of freedom to do everything, be helpful in any way I can.”
... sounds a lot like the way the Sox described Mike Tosar's job as field coordinator last offseason.
“[Tosar is] extremely versatile, which is something I really like about our staff,” Grifol said. “I just didn’t want to make him a hitting coach because he’s got a lot of value to the bunting game, to base running, certainly he’s got a lot of value to hitting and infield. We’re going to use these guys maybe in a different way than most teams … we’ve got some versatility on this staff and we’ll cross-pollinate at some point every day.”
Tosar's biggest contribution to the 2023 White Sox ended up being a quote that will live in infamy -- "Our preparation on a daily basis will be elite" -- so the Sox whittled down his responsibilities to assisting hitting coach, and now Sizemore will attempt to be that jack-of-all-trades in his first-ever MLB coaching gig.
As for Thompson, he told Rosenthal that "part of me is jealous of these guys with the White Sox." Thompson, of course, has played three different stints with the White Sox, so you can never rule out a fourth.
PERTINENT: White Sox announce coaching staff with some new names, different titles
