“Quiet Quitting” White Sox Season Ended 5-17-21
It was a rare and balmy 60-degree night in Minneapolis on May 17, 2021. The White Sox were drumming their hated rivals the Twins 15-4 in the ninth inning. Early season sensation Yermin Mercedes came to the plate facing utility player turned pitcher Willians Astudillo. With a 3-0 count, manager Tony La Russa gave Mercedes the take sign. Instead, Mercedes launched a looping 47 mph “pitch” 423 feet to center field and over the wall. Broadcasters Steve Stone and Jason Benneti laughed and joked about it on live TV. White Sox fans around the world laughed about it. Mercedes’ White Sox teammates laughed about it. The one person who wasn’t laughing however was La Russa. In fact, he was steaming mad and came out of the dugout to yell at Mercedes, who was happily rounding the bases.
It was La Russa’s actions that overshadowed what had been a great night of baseball. The Twins had in recent years been beating the White Sox without mercy. It was good to see some measure of revenge being enacted by this new, energetic, budding, young team. But not for the old crabby manager La Russa. He was brought in because of his buddy, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. The power play by the owner over General Manager Rick Hahn wreaks of the arrogance of a rich billionaire when he should have, “stayed out of White Sox business.” The famous quote uttered by then GM Kenny Williams towards former Sox slugger Frank Thomas, who ironically now is part of “White Sox business,” as a postgame analyst. Go figure.
La Russa followed up his on-field yelling theatrics by lambasting Mercedes in the postgame news conference. La Russa also sent a personal apology to the Twins for Mercedes actions as apparently being an actual baseball player is offensive.
"He made a mistake, there will be a consequence he has to endure here within our family,” La Russa said.
And that right there was the beginning of the end for the White Sox and where La Russa lost the clubhouse. La Russa’s credibility was ending and the what we now know as “quiet quitting,” began. Although I doubt the consequences within the family La Russa was talking about was related to fans having to endure the most underachieving team in White Sox history. Not only were they an embarrassment to watch in 2022, they were not even fun to watch. Stone, who last year was laughing, this year has become one of the targets of Sox fans online frustrations after his tweet this summer telling people to get off the bandwagon and don’t come back, because he predicted the team would get hot and win the division.
That never happened. The White Sox have been eliminated from the playoff race and are in jeopardy of finishing third in their division. The teams core players, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal and Luis Robert have all struggled with multiple injuries and overall poor play. La Russa himself has been out with health issues. Add season ending injuries to important bench players Danny Mendick and Garrett Crochet and the pain of the season really comes into view.
While the Sox have suffered more than their fair share of injuries, La Russa cannot be absolved for his poor managing. He never had the pulse of this team. He never fit in with the personality of this team and seemingly tried to force his way of doing things on a team built for power and playing loose. Attempting to change their philosophy to contact hitting, sacrifice bunting, stealing bases and following unwritten rules of baseball, all solid philosophies, simply doesn’t work with this club. Trying to force it upon them was a huge mistake, just as was apologizing to the Twins.
Rick Hahn should also be criticized for his role. It seemed like after La Russa was forced upon him, Hahn just sat on his hands and said “okay well I’m done here.” He traded starting second baseman Nick Madrigal and bullpen arm Codi Heuer for closer Craig Kimbrel at last year’s trade deadline. Kimbrel a closer, was brought in to be a setup man. It was a massive failure and he was then moved during the offseason but the hole at second base was left unattended to by Hahn. He threw a lot of money at bullpen arms in free agency, only to see the Sox have one of the worst bullpens in baseball. At this year’s trade deadline, he did nothing of significance. Sorry but Jake Diekman don’t cut it. The White Sox also have two first basemen playing left and right field in Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets.
The players themselves deserve a lot of the blame as well. Soft tissue injuries from pro athletes in 2022 is not acceptable. Try yoga, infrared technology, hydration and well… STRETCHING! I am all for looking at the training staff for this problem as well. But the bad baserunning plays, outfielders running into other players on fly balls, lack of concentration on defense and not running out ground balls is all on the players.
After losing the first game of the series against the Cleveland Guardians at home last week, this team mailed it in. I witnessed it first hand as I attended the second game of the series and got to watch Moncada make two mental and one physical error in a mere three innings of work, during a general air of malaise 8-2 loss. I left in the fourth inning. In the meantime, the Guardians, another longtime rival had a message for the White Sox as they celebrated their division title days later.
“Fuck the White Sox.”
I doubt Cleveland will be issuing an apology to La Russa anytime soon.