Manager Pedro Grifol: White Sox need to talk less, win more

For some reason, optimism is running high on the South Side.

As they approach 100 losses this season, the White Sox are pretty confident things are going to be different in 2024.

"There's a lot of work to do," Chris Getz said after taking over as general manager on Aug. 31. "I am not naive to the expectation that things need to change. To that, I will say the fans deserve different, I am different, we will be different. From this day forward, our organization will do whatever is necessary to be better in 2024 and beyond."

Getz is going to be very busy this offseason, and the roster changes are likely to be massive.

But the Sox do have some talent to build around, headed by center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and starting pitcher Dylan Cease.

"We have no idea what the roster is going to look like, but there's no reason why not," Cease said when asked if the White Sox can flip the script next year. "It seems like we had a lot of underperformance across the board. So hopefully that kind of lights a fire and we come back ready."

When looking ahead to next season, manager Pedro Grifol has been far and away the White Sox's top optimist.

"There's a pretty good percentage of teams that have been out there that can turn it around in one year," Grifol said. "Obviously, it depends on what we do this off-season, but I'm pretty confident we can. I haven't talked to (Getz) about spending money. That's not my place to dive into. That's his responsibility. Him and Jerry (Reinsdorf) I'm sure have had those conversations and will continue to have them. I expect us to be extremely active looking for the type of players we feel can turn this team around in a year and sustain it for years to come."

With that, Grifol hit the mute button.

"At this time, and you'll hear me say this a bunch moving forward, enough with the talk," he said. "Nobody wants to hear the talk anymore. Everybody just wants to see us win baseball games. I'm not going to sit here and promise anything because nobody wants to hear it. They've heard it for a long, long time. It's about us winning baseball games.

"Until April next year, a couple weeks into April, a couple of weeks into the season, that's when everybody should have an opinion and make a decision whether they like what we put on the field or not. It's all going to be based on wins and losses. That's where we're at. I don't think we can talk our way into anything other than winning baseball games at the start of next season. That's what you'll hear from me all winter long.

"I'm done with talking about any type of core or talent or talent on paper. I'm done with that stuff. We've got to prove it there. That's the only place that everybody in this building to see us play, they want us to prove it. They don't want us to prove it in front of a microphone. That doesn't mean anything to me. That doesn't mean anything to them. Even if I was a fan, it wouldn't mean anything to me, either. We've just got to prove it on the field."