Who will be the next White Sox manager? Sorry A.J., Ozzie backers, but not them

Pedro Grifol is out as manager of the Chicago White Sox.

OK, so who’s in?

With the team on pace to lose 123 games this season, the search if officially on to find the next White Sox manager.

And so far, even though it’s just underway, it sounds a lot like the last couple managerial searches that have taken place on the South Side.

The head of the baseball department held a press conference and trumpeted the need for the team to move outside its own walls. Sound familiar?

Of course, plenty of fans probably found that rich, considering Chris Getz was promoted from within to take over for Rick Hahn just last summer, the chief criticism of that process being that Jerry Reinsdorf didn’t take his search for a replacement past the existing front office.

And plenty of fans can remember back to 2020, as well, when Hahn voiced a desire to get away from the White Sox’ historically insular hiring practices, only for Reinsdorf to install Tony La Russa for another stint as the bench boss at 35th and Shields three and a half decades after the end of his first.

[MORE SOX: On pace for worst modern MLB season, White Sox fire manager Pedro Grifol]

Hahn finally got to hire a manager without White Sox ties when he brought in Grifol, who oversaw consecutive disasters: first 101 losses last year with win-now expectations and a 60-games-below-.500 mark in this rebuilding year, with the team steaming toward the modern record for losses in a single season.

So now, another opportunity and another declaration that the next manager of the White Sox won’t have “White Sox DNA,” to borrow from Hahn, running through his veins.

“We do plan on targeting individuals for the manager position that are in other organizations, but yet in uniform,” Getz said Thursday. “The expectation is to hire someone outside of the White Sox.”

Indeed, the team’s tendency to hire managers with that “White Sox DNA” goes well past La Russa getting a second crack at bringing baseball glory to the South Side. Ken Williams hired former teammate Ozzie Guillén in 2003, with immediate success in the form of the 2005 World Series title before just one more playoff appearance over Guillén’s final six years on the job. Then came five playoffs-less years of Robin Ventura, a teammate of both Williams and Guillén, before Rick Renteria moved from Ventura’s bench coach into the manager’s chair for four mostly rebuilding seasons.

In other words, this has been a trend, one that has produced few playoff teams and has led to a second long-term rebuilding project.

It makes sense that Getz would want to move away from such a track record. And he already has in the hires he made at the end of last season to fill out the brain trust of the team’s front office, bringing Josh Barfield over from the Diamondbacks, Brian Bannister over from the Giants and Gene Watson and Jin Wong over from the Royals.

Getz now wants to bring that same line of thinking to this managerial search, hoping to find new ideas and new ways of doing things by reaching outside the White Sox’ organization for a new skipper.

“I think it’s important to bring in a new voice, a fresh voice, perhaps that’s been exposed to areas of this game that we don’t currently have in our organization,” Getz said. “I’m very curious to learn more about some of these individuals. And then we’ll get it to the finish line and name the next manager.

“When it comes to hiring people outside the organization for any role, you’ve got a chance at coming up with thoughts and ideas that didn’t exist. That’s the importance of having a diversity of thought in a group.”

What that all means, of course, is that fan cries for familiar faces to succeed Grifol will fall on deaf ears.

There will be no second stint for Guillén, there will be no managing gig for A.J. Pierzynski, no matter how much they echo fan criticisms on their respective broadcast platforms. Even Grady Sizemore, the Grifol assistant who took over as interim manager Thursday, and successful minor league bosses Justin Jirschele and Sergio Santos seem unlikely to be on Getz’s wish list thanks to the White Sox being their current employer. You can cross special assistant Jim Thome off the list, too.

But of course, we’ve heard all this before, and so fans are more than welcome to approach this supposed turning of the page with a healthy dose of skepticism.

It was just four years ago that Hahn was embarking on a similar quest, only for La Russa to wind up with the job. It’s Reinsdorf’s team, after all. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale was the one to report on the seriousness of La Russa’s candidacy back then, and before Grifol was even ousted, Nightengale was already reporting on how serious a candidate Pierzynski would be to replace him.

A second spin for Guillén would seem ridiculous, on paper. Despite becoming a heroic figure on the South Side for winning in 2005 and bringing a fun personality to the game, he hasn’t had a major league managing job – and only a small number of interviews – since the end of his one year helming the Marlins in 2012. That’s 12 years ago, for those counting at home, or one more year out of the manager’s chair than La Russa had when he returned to lead the White Sox, 11 years removed from the end of his time running the Cardinals.

Guillén might win cheers from the fan base for criticizing the team on the postgame show, but across baseball, the manager’s job – and the manager’s relationship with the front office – has evolved, for better or for worse, since he became a fan favorite for his no-filter approach two decades ago.

But all that said, he’s still the guy who put that World Series trophy in Reinsdorf’s trophy case.

Crazier things have happened, as the chairman exhibited just four years ago.

Right now, though, all we can go on is what Getz had to say for himself, outlining a managerial search that will supposedly be “broad” and “thorough,” one that will seek outside voices and land on whoever he determines is Mr. Right for the future of this franchise. A future, by the way, that isn’t expected to materialize any time soon.

Nightengale has also reported on current Marlins manager – and former La Russa charge – Skip Schumaker being eyed as a top choice. But will the guy who was the NL Manager of the Year in 2023 like what he sees in the White Sox’ long-term forecast?

“If we find the right competitor and someone that has a vision, they can look at this opportunity as something they certainly don’t want to pass up,” Getz said. “They have to have faith in the direction of our organization. That message comes from me and certainly others. I’m very confident we’re going to find someone who is going to be a great fit for moving forward in filling a need that is a high priority for us moving forward.

“I think it’s going to be important for them to understand where we sit right now and also just as important (to be understanding) of the vision that we have moving forward. … It’s going to start with finding that right candidate.”

Of course, Getz and Grifol seemed to be in lockstep when it came to the vision for the organization, too. At least that’s what we heard until Getz mentioned “misalignments” and a difference in “belief systems” with his now former manager Thursday.

If Grifol was, internally, not on the same page as Getz, could Guillén ever be? Could Pierzynski?

But even ignoring the bold personalities of each of those accomplished baseball men, Getz headed such challenges off at the pass with his declaration that the next White Sox manager won’t be someone who already has their picture plastered all over Guaranteed Rate Field.

At least, that’s what he said he wants. Given recent history, you could be excused for not holding your breath.