As he addressed reporters Saturday from Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz.,, Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa put last year’s success in the rearview mirror.
“We’ve patted ourselves on the back enough,” he said. “Now it’s time to pop ourselves in the ass about getting to work.”
That should be easy enough after the Sox’s first-round playoff exit, a disappointing ending to an otherwise fine season. La Russa’s return to the White Sox was an eventful one, but now the stakes are higher for the 77-year-old manager and his players.
Baseball is back, and it’s time to find out what La Russa and Cubs manager David Ross have in store for the upcoming season.
La Russa has a team expected to repeat as American League Central champions. Anything less than a World Series would be a letdown with the same stacked lineup and a quality rotation that replaced Carlos Rodon with Michael Kopech.
Ross, on the other hand, has a team in transition. Anything better than .500 would be considered a bonus, at least in the experts’ eyes.
But the beauty of baseball is you never know how things will play out. The San Francisco Giants were two games under .500 in the pandemic-shortened season in 2020 but then won an MLB-best 107 games last year. The free-spending San Diego Padres were 18 games over .500 on Aug. 10 but finished 79-83 and fired their manager after the collapse.
It’s possible the Sox will go backward in 2022 while the Cubs will take a big step forward. Not likely, but stranger things have happened.
That’s why spring training is always the best time of year for managers. Everyone is optimistic and in good spirits, and until proven otherwise, every team has a realistic chance.
This spring will be different than most, not just because it will be shorter but because the 99-day lockout by MLB owners occurred during what would have been the heart of the free-agent signing season. Many All-Star-caliber players are available, which instantly couldturn the Sox into World Series favorites or the Cubs into wild-card contenders.
It’s almost like a second chance for White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts to show fans they mean business.
Whether Reinsdorf and Ricketts have the appetite to spend on a big-name free agent or two is a question only they can answer, and like most owners, neither one is talking.
The Sox addressed two needs Saturday, reportedly signing reliever Joe Kelly to a two-year deal and second baseman Josh Hamilton for one year.
General manager Rick Hahn and executive vice president Ken Williams have been aggressive in free agency before but generally laid low in November before the lockout halted signings.
“All I know is ever since the bell rang, there hasn’t been one time I’ve reached out to Rick or Kenny that I’ve gotten through right away,” La Russa said. “They all took the message and called me back. … We’re working it, knowing there is help (available). We’ve got an attractive situation, so I’m hoping and expecting that we’re going to get some help.”
La Russa added that “whatever we’ve got, we can win with,” whether there are additions or not.
“If we make a move to get deeper and better, happiness,” he said. “They’re going to try their best — I know that. Whatever they end up giving us, we can get to October with.”
The Sox also have a veteran closer in Craig Kimbrel who didn’t succeed in a setup role after being acquired in July from the Cubs. He should be dealt, even if the Sox need to eat some of his $14 million salary. Perhaps the Cubs, who could use a closer if they’re serious about contending, would be interested in a reunion. Again, not likely, but who knows?
Unlike La Russa, Ross has virtually no pressure on him to win this year with the current roster. Signing Marcus Stroman and claiming Wade Miley off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds weren’t enough to fix the league’s fourth-worst starting pitching.
And Friday’s reported signing of defensive whiz Andrelton Simmons, whose -0.5 WAR last year in Minnesota was the worst of any regular shortstop, won’t improve a dreadful Cubs offense that hit .238.
So Ross has a lot of work to do trying to convince fans things are headed in the right direction. But at least he won’t have to worry about dealing with questions about being a lame duck, as his predecessor, Joe Maddon, did all through 2019. Ross on Friday agreed to a three-year extension.
“It’s always been a little funny to me that you sign a three-year deal but yet you’re a lame duck the last year,” Ross told reporters at Cubs camp in Mesa, Ariz. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. But you guys write what you write, and you’re under contract for however long you’re under contract. And that’s the job you’re scheduled to do.”
Thanks for the permission. We will write whatever we want because that’s the job we’re scheduled to do.
Everyone knew at the end of the 2021 season Ross was not going to be a lame duck in ‘22. The extension already had been decided, but the Cubs, for one reason or another, waited until the end of lockout to announce it.
“I can’t imagine anyone representing us better than he does,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said.
Well, there was Maddon, who represented the Cubs well for five years and even won a World Series without getting an extension. Hoyer’s close relationship with Ross was what made this decision a no-brainer, not his managerial skills, which still are unproven.
Hoyer declined last year to label the summer sell-off as the start of another rebuild, and the signing of Stroman suggests tanking is not part of the Cubs’ game plan.
But what that plan is remains to be seen.
Either way, as La Russa said, it’s time to put away the past and look toward the future. It happens every spring.
You know the drill by now.
