Former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén says he felt “embarrassed” watching the team play this year after being passed over for the managerial position in favor of Pedro Grifol.
The White Sox season might be over, but the postgame show must continue. Credit to host Chuck Garfein and Guillén for continuing to find ways to put out an entertaining product despite the historically bad baseball on the field. Following the White Sox 13-7 loss to the Twins on Sunday, Guillén appeared to reach his breaking point.
After Garfein brought up that Pedro Grifol’s record as the White Sox manager had reached 100 games below .500, the former White Sox manager explained how he reacted to being passed over for the job in typical Ozzie fashion.
“I don’t think I was a bad manager when they picked Pedro over me,” an admittedly bitter Guillén said. “I gotta see a psychiatrist. I’m drinking a lot. I have problems with my wife a lot. The only people that get along with me is my grandkids. Everybody else I hate them I don’t know why. Maybe that’s why. I swear to god. I’m not playing around. I was bitter thinking to myself ‘My god I’m this bad. Then I went to manage in Venezuela and come back and go ‘Wow we win.’ It’s like holy cow I should be embarrassed.”
Grifol enters Monday’s series opener against Oakland with an 88-188 record as the manager of the White Sox. As the losses continue to pile up more and more speculation is growing that he could be fired in the coming days.
Guillén is a folk hero on the South Side after helping guide the 2005 White Sox to a World Series title. During his eight seasons at the helm of the White Sox he guided the team to a 678-617 record and a pair of playoff appearances. However, Guillén’s tenure with the White Sox ended after a disastrous 2011 campaign. He then took a job in Miami that was short-lived. After praising Fidel Castro and feuding with players, he was fired at the end of the season. He hasn’t returned to an MLB dugout since.
He was reportedly in the mix for the White Sox job after Tony La Russa departed for health reasons and even lobbied for the position on the White Sox postgame show in October of 2022. Ultimately the White Sox opted for a relatively unknown name in Grifol. His hire marked the first time the team had hired a manager with no previous ties to the organization since Jerry Manuel in 1998. Grifol spent nearly a decade in the Royals organization wearing a variety of hats. He served as the bench, quality control, catching, hitting, and special assignment coach.
Would Guillén have changed the outcome of the White Sox season? Probably not. But it is hard to believe things would be this bad under his watch.
