White Sox: 3 scapegoats not named Tony La Russa

1) Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf

Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is the person that, in reality, has the vast majority of the blame. He hired Tony La Russa in the first place.

Reinsdorf has felt bad for 35 years that he fired La Russa (who he has long considered one of his best friends) as manager in 1985. La Russa went on to be a Hall of Fame manager with Oakland and St. Louis. When La Russa expressed a desire to return to managing after a decade-long hiatus and after already being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Reinsdorf jumped at the chance to hire him.

He fired manager Rick Renteria after the team made it to the playoffs in 2020 and hired La Russa two days after the World Series ended. But baseball has changed a ton in the last decade and La Russa has not caught up.

Even with winning the AL Central in 2021, La Russa made a lot of bad managerial decisions. With the team’s poor play, they have been under a lot more scrutiny.

As they say, with business, don’t do it with friends or family. Reinsdorf did exactly that and he has been burned big time.

For the team to make the playoffs this season, they need someone other than La Russa to man the ship. Otherwise, they will miss the playoffs when it should have been a walk in the park to make it in.