Former Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen throws more animosity Tony La Russa’s way with every defeat. Is it time to make a change?
This ends with one of Guillen or La Russa losing their job. It’s an old-fashioned showdown between two of the more outspoken veteran managers in their sport.
Guillen’s job is to give his opinion, while La Russa’s is to lead this White Sox team back to the postseason. Say what you want about Ozzie — he’s doing his gig just fine. TLR, meanwhile, could be in jeopardy of losing his managerial job as season’s end.
Chicago lost again on Tuesday afternoon, this time to the Cleveland Guardians. The game featured a little bit of everything, including an intentional walk of Jose Ramirez on an 0-1 count. It’s not the first time La Russa has seemingly fallen asleep mid at-bat.
White Sox: Ozzie Guillen loses it on Tony La Russa
Guillen’s postgame reactions have been increasingly negative of late, and this time he even took a shot at former White Sox and Cubs manager Rick Renteria in the process.
Poor Rick. What did he do to deserve such treatment? Renteria was let go in 2020, only to be replaced by the more accomplished La Russa, hence Guillen’s comments here. He also managed the Cubs in 2014.
The White Sox are four games under .500, and six games out of first place in the AL Central. By no means is the season over, but this could get away from them rather quickly. And frankly, Chicago is far too talented to be a middling team.
The answer to their problems is two-fold: Chicago could either fire La Russa, or retool at the deadline. The latter of those two could cause them to lose MLB-ready talent, which doesn’t do a team that ought to be contending much good.
The former, as in firing La Russa, might give them the necessary boost to either sneak into the postseason this year, or build momentum for next season.
Whatever this iteration of the South Siders is trying to do, it clearly isn’t working.