Grifol shoulders blame for White Sox's somber season: 'There's no excuse for it'
Even before Pedro Grifol was officially announced as White Sox manager on Nov. 3, he knew expectations were high.
"When managers are hired, they're hired because most of the time they're in a rebuilding situation and they've got some time to kind of set things up," Grifol said. "This is a place where everybody's expecting us to take the next step, and the next step is October baseball. Like (general manager) Rick (Hahn) said, the core to do that is here.
"We've just got to maximize their talent every single day and if it doesn't happen, it'll happen tomorrow and just keep grinding it out."
A 7-21 April left the Sox in the early dust.
They played better in May and June and - thanks to residing in baseball's worst division - the Sox were only 3½ games out of first place on June 9.
A rough month of July has knocked them out of contention in the AL Central, and big changes are expected by the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
On an injury-riddled team featuring center fielder Luis Robert Jr. as the only regular performing above expectations, there is plenty of blame to go around.
Grifol dumped it all on himself before the White Sox played the Cubs Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
"I'm disappointed," Grifol said. "This is on me. It's simple. I sat there and I told everybody that we have high expectations here and I was going to lead us to where we want to go. And it's not happening. I'm disappointed, but it doesn't mean I'm going to quit, that I'm going to stop working.
"I am disappointed, and there's no excuse for it. I am the manager of this team, and this thing falls on me. I'm not going to run from it, I'm not going to hide from it, but I am going to work to get it better."
With veteran talents like Lucas Giolito, Tim Anderson and Lance Lynn all rumored to be on the way out by Tuesday's deadline, Grifol's workload is about to get heavier and harder.
"I'm not going to blame this thing on anybody, it's on me," Grifol said. "And I'm certainly not going to sit here before or after or during a game and throw our players under the bus. I'm not going to do that. It doesn't mean I'm not having difficult conversations with them. It just means I'm not going to sit here and tell you guys about it.
"But believe me, I don't have my eyes shut and say, 'Oh, we're doing good.' This is not what I signed up for. So whether it's personnel changes or whether it's cultural changes or whatever the case may be, it's going to happen. This is too good of an organization, too good of an owner for it not to happen. We're in the process of that."
In the White Sox's clubhouse, the disappointing season is still being processed.
"I mean, it's life," Anderson said. "Life is life and things happen. You try not to think about it too much. But we are here."
Any chance the Sox had at making a late push seemed to end in Minnesota last weekend when the first-place Twins swept a three-game series.
"Definitely a lot of ups and downs," said first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who was back in the lineup against the Cubs after missing five games with a bruised left foot. "Had some games I feel like we let slip away from us. We definitely just need to keep going and try to get better."