White Sox might've just botched their managerial search completely

During the middle of their 41-121 campaign, the Chicago White Sox fired manager Pedro Grifol. It wasn't only his fault that the team wound up setting a record for the most losses ever in a single season in the modern era, but Grifol didn't help anyone either. He was replaced by Grady Sizemore who went 13-32.

Sizemore's winning percentage (.289) was definitely better than Grifol's (.239), but a .289 winning percentage isn't exactly something to get excited about. Retaining Sizemore is still possible, but the White Sox are in the middle of a search to determine who their next manager will be.

Several candidates have been linked to Chicago already, but none of the available options made more sense than Skip Schumaker, the former skipper of the Miami Marlins. The 2024 campaign was a rough one for Miami, but the season prior, in his first year as a manager, he led an undermanned Miami team to the postseason.

With the Cincinnati Reds hiring Terry Francona and the Marlins being the only other team with a managerial vacancy, the White Sox seemingly had a shot at hiring Schumaker to be their next manager - which would've been a major win. Unfortunately, according to Jim Margalus of Sox Machine, Schumaker is no longer in the running to fill Chicago's managerial vacancy.

"Sox Machine has learned that Skip Schumaker, the former Marlins manager who was considered one of the market’s hottest managerial commodities, is no longer in the running for the White Sox’s vacancy."

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White Sox might've blown their chance at a home run managerial hire

Schumaker no longer being in the running can mean a couple of different things. Either Schumaker took his name out of the running, which would make sense considering just how awful this team is right now, or, the White Sox eliminated him from their search. If it's the former, that's completely out of their control and is the unfortunate result of the team being bad. If it's the latter, though, yikes.

Schumaker's 2023 campaign was so impressive to the point that he won the NL Manager of the Year award as a rookie manager. He guided a Marlins team that had no business of making it to the postseason to a playoff berth. The Marlins mainly got in due to their success in one-run games, which has a direct correlation on Schumaker consistently pressing the right buttons.

The 2024 campaign wasn't nearly as good for Miami, obviously, but given their luck in 2023, that was bound to be the case. Plus, the Marlins dealt with a slew of injuries and traded their best hitter, Luis Arraez, very early into the season. Not many, if any, managers would have better results than Schumaker did.

Can whoever the White Sox hire wind up developing into a good manager? Absolutely. However, the White Sox might've just had a chance at hiring an already proven good manager and blown it. If Schumaker removed his name from consideration, so be it. If the White Sox ruled him out when he might've actually been willing to go there, considering the lack of other openings, that's not great.