Likelihood of Ozzie's Return to Sox Dugout Fading

AP Photo/Dino Vournas

As the White Sox drop yet another game to the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers and their tragic number quickly approaches zero, the chatter grows louder suggesting that Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen won't be back in 2012.

On Tuesday's "The Mully and Hanley Show" on WSCR-AM, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal speculated Guillen's days in the Sox dugout are numbered. "There is a point of critical mass that this team is reaching, and I would expect, I’m not saying this any more than speculatively, but I would expect that Ozzie would be gone."

In the Sun-Times, Joe Cowley has been saying the same thing. He believes that Guillen's days are numbered because of the state of his relationship with GM Kenny Williams. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf has said that Williams will remain, and Williams has tired of Ozzie, his antics and the team's underachievement in recent years. It appears intervention from Reinsdorf could be the only thing that keeps Ozzie with the Sox beyond this season. Over a year ago, the team owner commented, "The biggest mistake I ever made, but I would make it again, is I let [then-GM Ken] Hawk [Harrelson] fire Tony La Russa. I would hope Kenny would never come to that conclusion [with Guillen]. But you can’t make a general manager have a manager he doesn’t want."

We'd suggest to Reinsdorf he might want to give Guillen that extension he's been clamoring for and seek a new GM instead. While Guillen's teams have missed the postseason the past two seasons despite of some of the largest payrolls in baseball, we would place most of that blame squarely on Williams.

It was the general manager who traded for former Cy Young winner Jake Peavy in 2009. Peavy came to the team injured and has pitched in only 39 games in his nearly three seasons with the team while battling a plethora of ailments. He was recently shut down for the rest of 2011. Williams was also responsible for grabbing Alex Rios off waivers from the Toronto Bluejays. We're still convinced it was purely a defensive move to keep Rios off the Tigers, but Toronto let him go for nothing and now the team pays the outfielder $12.5 million to bat .224 with 10 homers and 40 RBIs. Williams traded Daniel Hudson (currently 16-9 with a 3.41 ERA for the Diamondbacks) for Edwin Jackson in 2010, and earlier this year moved him in return for a reliever and prospect -- in fairness, he did also force them to take Mark Teahan off his hands, too, which closed the books on another ill advised Williams trade.

And Adam Dunn? That was Williams' work as well. The White Sox committed to paying the slugger $56 million over four years. In return, Dunn has hit a whopping .162 (that's no typo!) with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs. If his batting average were 100 points higher, those would be utility outfielder numbers. Dunn would also probably be chasing the all-time single season strikeout record if it weren't for the fact the hitter making $12 million has sat more than he's played the past month.

So it's been Williams' high stakes wheeling and dealing which has saddled the Sox with players who have been poor returns on the investments. This has prevented the team from being able to make other transactions or conserve cash until the right opportunity comes along. If anybody is to blame for the White Sox mediocrity, we'd point our finger at Williams. But Williams seems to still have Reinsdorf's backing, and Williams seems content to let Guillen be his fall guy.

As for Guillen, he's not too concerned if his days in Chicago are numbered. He's pretty much got an offer to manage the Florida Marlins in his back pocket, which is worth more than any extension he'd be offered by the Sox. Maybe Ozzie's antics and bluster have worn out their welcome on the South Side and it's time for him to move on. Hell, there was even a time for Ditka to leave Da Bears' sideline. Or perhaps, like Tony LaRussa going on to success in Oakland and St. Louis after departing Chicago, Reinsdorf is making a huge mistake by choosing the wrong side in a disagreement between his manager and general manager.

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By Benjy Lipsman in News on September 14, 2011 9:40 AM

Comments [rss]

HOUSE KEVIN

I am all for this if it means Ozzie's spoiled brat kids stop running their mouths about the Sox.

oonagh1

Amen to that! They think they are the best Sox fans who have ever lived. While they may know more baseball players and more about the game than the average fan, I would venture a guess that the fact their father recieves millions of dollars a year to manage is what makes them Sox fans. It will be interesting to see how big of Sox fans they are when their father is manager of the Marlins next year.

John Wilson

Every friggin season it's the slow start and the effort to catch fire. I'm tired of Ozzy Ball and I bet the players are tired of the act too.

ChicagoD

You know, when the Sox brought A.J. in, he was radioactive. The Giants basically threw him out the door and Twins missed him not one iota. Chalk that one up for Kenny.

Peavy was a risk, but a known risk. I don't know how you criticize them for rolling the dice. The guy is a former Cy Young winner, is just turning 30, and has great stuff the six starts a year he's healthy. Adam Dunn's approach seems to have changed over the last two years. Historically he struck out a lot but also walked a lot. His career OBP is .374 (which is quite respectable). This season is the first time his OBP is below .350 (let alone .300). I think he is just swinging too much. THAT could be the fault of the field staff, if they told him to get more hits and fewer walks. Dunn is aging, but he also seems to be swinging much more often.

twocee

Good point about the coaches. The Sox (IMHO) have shown a history of wanting guys to swing for the fences rather than play "small ball." The team is built to hit homeruns. Dunn had to feel that kind of pressure.

Navin_Johnson

The seemed very bunt-shy.

ChicagoD

There's no reason to bunt, but the "clogging up the bases" mentality when it comes to walks is a disaster. Looking at Dunn's dramatic decrease in walks makes me wonder if he was told that he was being brought in to hit home runs, not take walks. That leads to taking fewer pitches, which means fewer 2-0 and 3-1 counts, which leads to . . . fewer home runs.

Maybe Dunn is . . . done, so to speak, but de-emphasizing his contract and asking him to just be who he is might be a bigger benefit.

blipsman

I agree that Dunn's collapse was entirely out of the blue, but if you have to point a finger someplace within the Sox organization, Williams is the guy who signed him and committed resources that can't be used elsewhere. He hold more blame over that than any of the on the field coaches. And where would the Sox be if Dunn put up career average numbers? Probably in first place, and there'd be little talk of Ozzie's departure.

twocee

I don't think one player is to blame for what the Sox have done this season. Konerko is the only player who is having anywhere close to a good year. Everyone else: AJ, Rios, Quentin, Beckham -- they are all underperforming. Sure, Dunn hitting a normal batting average might have won a few games for us, but would it have won the 10-15 we would need to be comfortably in front of the division? I don't really think so.

Navin_Johnson

I think they'd maybe have pulled it out too, which is what makes it all so depressing.

Navin_Johnson

You would have to be some kind of special psychic to know that Dunn would just suddenly forget how to hit a baseball. I wouldn't blame anyone in the organization for that. How long, and how many shots at bat he got I suppose is worthy of discussion.

twocee

In fairness to KW, Dunn has never had this bad of a season and there was really no reason to think he would be this horrible based on his career. He wasn't coming off of an injury, he is simply getting older. Some decrease in production from switching leagues? Sure. But not this.

I don't think the Edwin Jackson trade at the time was a bad one. It was made as a stopgap measure, and we did get some good games out of Jackson. It's a shame that Hudson was the price, but hindsight and all that.

The Rios move? Yeah, that was bad all the way around. Getting rid of Thome for the "DH by committee?" Horrible, on the financial, on-field production, and general fan goodwill fronts. Peavy? A waste, although you look at Don Cooper's knack at rescuing broken-down pitchers and I can understand the move without agreeing with it.

Overall, I think KW has made more good moves than bad, although his bad ones have been pretty spectacularly bad, and they have unfortunately come one right after the other over the last couple of seasons.

As far as Ozzie -- I honestly would like to see him take the Marlins job. I love Ozzie, and I think he's a good manager, but I truly think he's a better national league manager. I think the Sox's fantastic interleague record is because Ozzie just naturally clicks when he is dealing with the pinch hitters and hit and runs and sacrifice bunting that is more prevalent in the national league. I'd like to see what he could do managing there.

My biggest problem with Ozzie, and I'm not sure if this is completely his doing or if KW had some say -- was the constant moving of position players in the infield. Alexi Ramirez was shaping up as a really good second baseman and then they moved him to shortstop, where he has floundered ever since. Beckham was doing great at third for a season, and then they shuffled him over to second, leaving a huge hole at third (which hasn't been filled yet), and leaving short AND second played by people who aren't all that good at either position. I've lost count of the errors made by our infield, and when your best fielding players are the pitcher (when Beurhle is playing) and your 30-something year old first baseman, your infield has a problem.

BlueFairlane

I have to agree, the anti-Williams sentiment seems driven by 20/20 hindsight. The thing I like about Williams is that he's willing to take chances. He won't automatically spend big money on a Soriano-like sure thing (though he's willing to do it on occassion). He takes chances, he's willing to buck conventional wisdom, and sometimes that bites him and sometimes it works wonders. And when it works, it's a beautiful thing to behold. The thing is, while most of us were scratching our heads over Rios, nobody saw the collapse of Peavy or Dunn, and the fans and media all cheered the arrival of both of them. To grumble about Williams over it now just seems like sour grapes.

I think the problem with the Sox the last two years owes to something far less tangible than the GM's ability to read the stats. Clubhouse mood, while impossible to measure or track, makes a tremendous difference in a team's performance, and this is a clubhouse in a bad mood. Management at all levels is reacting out of spite, and it's affected everybody's performance on the field. And while I love Ozzie and would hate to see him go, I think it just might be time. Ozzie gets bored. Regardless of what he might say, he won't be happy if he stays here. He needs new people to taunt. I'm with you. That Marlins job would be perfect for him.

slickpoetry

I was not in favor of bringing Peavy here. But I'm only me.

I was lukewarm on Rios and had high hopes for Dunn.

mike_thoms

I kind of feel like the Peavy thing was 50% b/c they wanted him and 50% because the Cubs wanted him. KW is a petty ass when it comes to the Cubs.