During those crestfallen days of 2022, when the Sox were fading fast after their abbreviated heyday of a rebuild which produced nothing more than two winning seasons, Lucas Giolito often talked about the importance of getting back to making baseball fun again.
Giolito mentioned it again this season when the White Sox were sinking even deeper, to a place so bad they had no choice but to trade him away.
“Winning is fun and fun is winning,” said Ozzie Guillen, the manager who oversaw real World Series fun in 2005.
The two go hand in hand. Fun can’t be quantified or noted in scouting reports, it only passes or fails eye tests in the clubhouse, dugout and team flights on road trips. Players talk about the lack of it, especially when they’re struggling as the Sox are, as well as the importance of fun in a winning culture. So it’s place shouldn’t be overlooked.
No one is having fun around the Sox in 2023.
“The clubhouse has been kind of weird all year,” right-hander Michael Kopech said. “We had high expectations for ourselves. I don’t know if we ever clicked or even really got close to reaching our potential.”
With a 43-64 record going into a road trip against the Rangers and Guardians, it’s safe to say it hasn’t clicked under first-year manager Pedro Grifol. With Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman shipped out in recent days in advance of the trade deadline Tuesday, the roster — primarily the pitching staff — will have a drastically different look.
More players could go before Tuesday. The Sox have waning needs for 34-year-old catcher Yasmani Grandal, whose overpriced four-year, $73 million contract expires after the season. A minor leaguer to add to the bunch the Sox collected in deals for the aforementioned veterans could be had for reliever Keynan Middleton.
That’s a lot of overhaul. The clubhouse already has a different feel. Maybe one that can have more fun, for what it’s worth.
“Right now I think the primary focus of this clubhouse is to loosen up and go back to having some fun playing the game,” Kopech said. “I know it’s hard when you’re 20 games under, but it can’t get too much more miserable than losing a lot. We’re going to go out there and play hard and compete and try to have fun doing it.”
The Sox hope to watch center fielder Luis Robert Jr., because of his exceptional talent and work ethic, blossom in a leadership capacity, especially among Latin players. Before general manager Rick Hahn alluded to first baseman Andrew Vaughn’s leadership role moving forward, coaches like assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson had already had talks with Vaughn, Jake Burger and Gavin Sheets about leadership responsibilities.
Everyday players make for the best leadership guys, and the Sox had a somewhat unusual clubhouse environment with pitcher-heavy leadership roles for veterans Lynn, Giolito, Graveman and Kelly, but as the season unraveled it became apparent most of them were welcoming the possibility of getting traded to a contender. Lynn carried an alpha male quality around the room while also dragging around a 6.47 ERA. And his body language when plays weren’t made behind him didn’t fly with everyone.
So it goes when you’re getting beat.
“We still have some good veteran leadership roles in this clubhouse now and they’re going to do what they can to change the atmosphere here,” Kopech said.
Having fun is only one layer of the clubhouse culture Grifol wants to change. It’s nearly impossible to do so on losing teams.
It will be a culture of hard work, but also fun, and he had this message for Kopech on Sunday after the slumping pitcher’s latest rough outing: “Just got to go out there and really enjoy pitching and not put so much pressure on himself. We’ve all seen him go out there and just have a lot of fun and be electric. So we’ve got to get him to that point.”
Winning some games will go a long way.
Contributing: James Fegan
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August 01, 2023 at 04:17AM
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Focus of White Sox: 'Loosen up, have some fun' - Chicago Sun-Times
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