Is Grifol next name up on White Sox's chopping block?
The White Sox's clubhouse has quite a different look these days.
After Tuesday's bombshell announcement - executive vice president Kenny Williams and general manager Rick Hahn were both fired after a combined 54 years with the organization - assistant GMs Chris Getz and Jeremy Haber were spotted buzzing through the clubhouse Thursday.
Hahn, and Williams, traded away seven veteran players before the Aug. 1 deadline, so there has been a steady flow of new faces arriving from Class AAA Charlotte the last three weeks.
Before Thursday night's game against the equally hapless Oakland A's at Guaranteed Rate Field, Korey Lee joined the Sox's roster. The 25-year-old catcher was acquired in a July 28 deal that sent relief pitcher Kendall Graveman to the Astros.
Even though he's wrapping up just his fifth month as manager, Pedro Grifol has become a near veteran presence due to all the changes.
There are so many questions moving forward, but so few answers since 87-year-old chairman Jerry Reinsdorf rarely, if ever, has talked on record to the media for 20-plus years.
Who replaces Williams and Hahn?
Maybe Getz and former Royals general manager Dayton Moore, who is currently an advisor with the Rangers. Maybe not.
What's the 2024 roster going to look like?
At this point, no clue.
Will Grifol be back for a second year as manager?
If Getz and Moore wind up running the White Sox, most likely yes. If not, it looks like one and done for the 53-year-old Grifol.
Hahn was a staunch Grifol supporter throughout one of the worst seasons in the franchise's 123-year-old history, but he's no longer giving votes of confidence.
On Wednesday night, Grifol met with Reinsdorf and, reportedly, former Sox manager/current consultant Tony La Russa.
Was his future discussed?
"I'm not going to get into that," Grifol said. "I'll let time play that out."
He did add sitting down with Reinsdorf was nothing out of the ordinary.
"I've had these meetings before," Grifol said. "I said it a couple of days ago, this is not my first meeting. Had a meeting, a couple of meetings in April, had a couple of meetings in May. This is an ongoing thing. We're all in this thing together, top to bottom, so this is not because of what transpired.
"This is what we do in ways that we've done all year, to get us better. That's what this is about. We're about getting better. I like the fact that there's really good communication and there has been really good communication. You always know where everybody stands and what everybody's thinking. That's all I can say about that."
Grifol again said the White Sox are not planning a massive rebuild like they did in 2016-17.
"It's definitely not a rebuild," Grifol said. " When you've got (Luis) Robert in center field and Eloy (Jimenez) and (Andrew) Vaughn and Timmy (Anderson), I don't consider it a rebuild. Winning is at the top of (Reinsdorf's) list. So is doing it right. And setting it up for just not to win one year, to win multiple years and try to sustain it. "I think the most important thing right now is setting up a good foundation to set it up the way we want to set it up. So it's our responsibility and our job to get it right."
For now.