CHICAGO — While Friday’s loss to the Cubs represents Grady Sizemore’s first game as an MLB manager, he isn’t unfamiliar with the woes the White Sox have had this season. The bigger question is though, what are the White Sox getting in their new interim manager?
“I really only know one way to play this game,” Sizemore said Friday. “I’m going to try to have the team embrace that same mentality of playing hard and playing with everything you got.”
Back in November, the White Sox announced their major league coaching staff for the 2024 season, with Sizemore being brought aboard among the new hires as a major league coach under then-manager Pedro Grifol.
“I tried to just help out any way I could. I was obviously helping out with outfield and base running, but also trying to help Marcus [Thames] on the hitting side,” Sizemore said of his responsibilities as a Major League Coach Saturday. “I just was trying to learn, too.
“I was around Pedro and those guys just trying to pick up anything I could and be an extra helping hand anywhere that I was needed.”
The position was Sizemore’s first at the MLB level. Before joining the White Sox coaching staff, he previously served as a coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Complex League team in 2022, and as a coach in the Cleveland Guardians player development system in 2017.
“Me and my wife were just starting to have kids so, I spent that time just with the family,” Sizemore said. “Everyday, not missing a thing. Just trying to be there, have fun, and watch them grow up.”
“Them” are Sizemore’s three kids — Two boys, who are five and nine, and a daughter, who is six.
When asked how they see their dad, Sizemore smiled and laughed, saying, “I’m just the play toy. I think that’s how they would describe me. The fun one, hopefully.”
While Sizemore laments not being able to be there for birthdays and their first day of school, he said one of the enjoyable factors of being their dad is that they didn’t grow up with him during his playing days.
They know nothing of the Gold Glove, All-Star that patrolled center field in Cleveland during the late 2000’s. They just know him as dad.
“They don’t know the sport all that well. This is all new to them. This is their first year coming to games and spring training,” Sizemore said. “Coming here is all new to them, and they love it. They’re having fun with it. The difference between a coach and a manager means nothing to them. I’m just dad. That’s all it is.”
Before his first stint as a professional coach and his three bundles of joy came into the picture, Sizemore was a three-time American League All-Star who won a pair of Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger award during a 10-year playing spent between four teams, his prime coming in his years playing for the Cleveland Guardians from 2005-09.
Sizemore, in his (and the front office’s) eyes
When he was officially introduced as the White Sox interim manager in the Guaranteed Rate Field dugout Friday, Sizemore said he never envisioned becoming a manager at the MLB level, and he never found the grandeur some say the title carries as attractive.
“I didn’t come into this just to manage. There was no appeal factor, it was really [just] getting to know these guys and trying to build trust, trying to build relationships and make an impact,” Sizemore said. “I think I started this because I enjoyed working with some players, and I enjoyed the feedback I got from them when I was able to help, and that’s what I’m trying to lean into.”
And that’s exactly what made Sizemore an appealing candidate to take the reins for the last seven weeks of the MLB season, according to White Sox General Manager Chris Getz.
“The amount of respect, it almost seemed instantaneous,” Getz said of Sizemore when he first came into the clubhouse after being hired. “He spoke of some of the better coaches and the best managers he was around, and a lot of them, it was because they were authentic. They were honest. Grady, he presents that on a daily basis. It’s very natural for him.
“As I observed that and I was around it more, I made a decision to make this change … I felt like he would be the right voice for this current situation.”
Sizemore, in the eyes of his players
The White Sox falling just short of a seven run comeback in the third iteration of this year’s Crosstown Classic against the Cubs Friday, 7-6, and Sizemore’s debut as a MLB manager.
Even though staff ace Garrett Crochet was shelled by the Cubs offense, who tallied six runs on four swings in 2.1 innings against the big lefty, energy remained high as they chipped away at a 7-0 lead in an effort that ultimately never came to fruition.
Players, young and old, were quick to praise the rejuvenation Sizemore’s personality has brought to the club as a new-found manager. Alongside sold-out crowds in the yearly Crosstown Classic, it’s one of the primary reasons why the White Sox played a peskier brand of baseball with their new manager on the top step Friday, albeit only a one game sample.
“Just going off last night … I mean, everybody was having fun,” said rookie infielder Brooks Baldwin. “We battled our way back last night and even throughout the game when we were down early, everybody was still in good spirits. Everybody was getting everybody up in the dugout and having good at-bats.”
“Being around him this whole season has been nice,” said Andrew Benintendi. “Obviously, he’s been in our shoes before and he understands that there’s going to be ups and downs and he’s a pretty even-keeled guy too so, it’s nice to see there’s not going to be any panic in the way he carries himself.”
Benintendi, who played on the 2018 World Series champion Boston Red Sox that finished the year 108-54, also said he exudes all the characteristics of a winner, and it’s been infectious inside of the White Sox clubhouse.
“You can tell that all he wants to do is win. He’s not going to waste his time coming here to not do that. Having him at the helm here, it’s exciting,” Benintendi said. “It’s a breath of fresh air for the last few months.”
Benintendi and Baldwin echoed similar sentiments shared by Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets on Sizemore just a day prior — He’s a guy who played hard, played to win, and when someone has a reputation like that, it’s easy to prop them up as a leadership figure.
“I think guys look up to guys like Grady. A lot of people look up to him because he was one of those iron men who played the game hard,” Vaughn said. “He played the game right. We definitely look up to that.”
“Everybody respects him and loves playing for him,” Sheets said. “We’re looking to the future now. It’s about righting the ship as fast as we can and getting things moving in the right direction, setting stuff up for next year.”