Getting White Sox back to playoffs is top priority for new manager Pedro Grifol

After being formally introduced as the White Sox's new manger Thursday, Pedro Grifol went to work.

With his wife Alejandra, three daughters and extended family in tow, Grifol posed for pictures near the Guaranteed Rate Field dugout he'll soon call home.

He sat down for an interview with Sox beat writers, called in for Q&As with WMVP, 1000-AM and WSCR, 670-AM and attended Thursday night's Blackhawks game at the United Center with veteran catcher Yasmani Grandal.

On Friday, Grifol went to The Vienna Beef Factory and picked up lunch tabs. After that, he visited McClellan Elementary School and read a book to third graders.

Once all of the hoopla dissipates a bit, the 52-year-old Grifol will get back to the business of baseball.

"A dream come true," he said.

For Grifol, managing the White Sox is a dream opportunity.

Riddled by injuries this season, the Sox fell well short of expectations with an 81-81 record. But much of the core from playoff teams in 2020-21 is returning next year.

"When managers are hired, they're hired because most of the time they're in a rebuilding situation and really 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."

The White Sox showed very little grind during the season, and former manager Tony La Russa was heavily blamed for the lack of energy before he stepped down on Aug. 30 due for health reasons.

Grifol, who spent the last 10 years with Kansas City and was the Royals' bench coach the past three seasons, is confident he can light a fire under the Sox.

"This is a very good club," Grifol said. "It's a club that's prepared to win, to do great things. Personally, I'm going to be a stickler with the preparation, the energy. It's going to get us where we want to go. These guys are going to come to play every single night."

Getting the White Sox's offense going is a top priority for Grifol.

While they ranked third in the American League with a .256 batting average this season, the Sox were 10th with 149 home runs and a .389 slugging percentage and ninth with 686 runs scored.

While it's not official, Mike Tosar is expected to replace Frank Menechino as White Sox hitting coach.

Tosar has also been with Kansas City and was named the Royals' hitting coach in mid-May.

Grifol is big on communication and he'll be stressing it on the offensive side.

"The first thing we're going to do is talk that language," Grifol said. "We're going to talk that analytical language a little bit to where they're going to understand what vert is, they're going to understand what horizontal movement is, release point, release height. Those are the things that we were doing in Kansas City that I strongly believe in.

"Once we understand that language and we know how to attack those areas, it's just going to prepare us. It's going to better prepare us to have good at-bats, which is the most important thing. These guys are so talented and they're so capable of doing special things at the plate, whether it's (Yoan) Moncada going back to walking 80 times, that's special. That's a high on-base, that's guys getting on base.

"So whatever it takes, we're going to address all this stuff, we're going to introduce new things to them and we're going to hold each other accountable to make sure these things are executed."

Accountability is going to start with Grifol.

"Accountability means that you collaborate with everybody, you empower people to do their job and if you do that, it's an easy conversation when they're not doing it," he said. "If you don't empower people to be part of the process, you don't communicate with people, you can't hold anybody accountable. What are you holding them accountable for? For me, the most important thing is making sure everybody in the room understands they have a voice.

"It might not turn out the way they want it, but at least they've got a voice. Most of the time when you empower people and you make this a collaborative thing and everybody's got a voice in it, it's an easy conversation to hold each other accountable. Not just me to them, they can hold me accountable, too. I've got to bring it every day. I can't take days off, pitches off. I can't do that. And neither can the staff."