White Sox manager Pedro Grifol has gotten to know his boss — the big boss, chairman Jerry Reinsdorf — quite well in the last year and a half.
He gets a lot of text messages from him, has conversations about baseball and the current state of the team, and has a more than a good feel for Reinsdorf’s baseball acumen. In a conversation with the Sun-Times last week, Grifol said he believes he has the support of the man who has signed his checks for the last season and a half and will sign them for another season and a half if he’s allowed to work through his three-year contract.
Grifol also says he’s so consumed with his job that he doesn’t devote much time to worrying about its level of security.
“I feel like I [have his support] but I don’t really focus on that,” he said during a recent conversation with the Sun-Times. “I’m the manager right now. And I’ll do it for as long as they want me to do this, because I absolutely love it. Right now we haven’t had anything but adversity, and I still love [being a manager]. I’m an optimist, and I think about the day this thing is going to be really good. That’s what I choose to focus on.”
To focus on Grifol’s first season in 2023 was to see a 61-101 record for a team built to win, with a $181 million payroll, the 14th highest in baseball per USA Today’s Opening Day report. To zero in on 2024 is to see a 15-40 record going into their game on Tuesday against the Blue Jays at Guaranteed Rate Field. It hasn’t been a good recent week or so, with six consecutive losses and 10 in the last 11 games after an 11-8 stretch that softened the blow of a 3-22 start.
The Sox are in the thick of a franchise-worst 55-game start to a season. They are rebuilding, but Grifol says his boss — the man fans blame most for the state of their team and whose desire to win is questioned — doesn’t have much patience when it comes to winning.
“I’ve known Jerry for a year and a half,” Grifol said. “Nobody wants to win more than he does. I know that for a fact because I’m the one who gets phone calls, and I talk to him. I get text messages. He is 100% committed to winning. And he is extremely knowledgeable about the game of baseball.
“He’s not just a fan. The questions he asks, he knows exactly what’s going on. He knows the game. You’re not in the game for 44 years, around 1,000 coaches, sitting in on meetings and listen and listen and listen and watch and watch and not know the game. He’s passionate, he’s extremely competitive.”
Reinsdorf cut payroll in 2024 — the Sox’ at $135 million ranks 18th among 30 teams, per Spotrac — and it remains to be seen what the payroll will look like in 2025. No one will be stunned hearing Grifol saying good things about the man who controls his fate as his team tumbles toward unwanted records, especially when it comes to how he should spend his money.
“I’m not buying the ‘you just have to spend to win,’ ’’ Grifol said. “He’s a smart guy and I know what I know and ‘I’ll give it to you when I give it to you’ and that’s cool. You don’t want to do it recklessly.
“He’s a smart, smart business guy and baseball guy. And believe it or not, he’s a good evaluator as well.”