What to know about White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore originally appeared in NBC Sports Chicago
O White socks named major league coach Grady Sizemore as the team’s interim coach after Pedro Grifol’s resignation On thursday.
Sizemore, 42, inherits a 28-89 club and is tasked with leading the team through the final 44 games of a miserable season.
Most people know Sizemore as a three-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove Award honoree and Silver Slugger Award winner with Cleveland, where he played for eight seasons from 2004-11. Sizemore finished his career with short stints in Boston (2014), Philadelphia (2014-15) and Tampa Bay (2015). As a player, he hit .265, had an .806 OPS, hit 150 home runs and drove in 581 runs in 1,101 career games.
Sizemore began his post-playing career in 2017 as a special consultant to Cleveland’s player development department.
In 2023, after stepping away from the game to focus on his family, Sizemore contacted his former teammate, Josh Barfield, about joining the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, where Barfield served as director of player development. At the time, there were no positions available, so Sizemore accepted a $15-an-hour internship with Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen.
Barfield became the assistant general manager of the Chicago White Sox after the season and recommended Sizemore to Grifol and White Sox GM Chris Getz for a position on the coaching staff.
With less than a season of major league coaching experience, it is highly unlikely that Sizemore will be a candidate for the White Sox head coaching vacancy after the season. Getz stated multiple times Thursday that he will look outside the organization. Sizemore’s job is to serve as a mentor to this young squad and squeeze all the juice he can out of the team over the last 44 games.
Along with Grifol, the White Sox also fired bench coach Charlie Montoyothird base coach Eddie Rodriguez and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar.
In their places, the White Sox announced Sizemore as interim coach, Doug Sisson as bench coach, Justin Jirschele as third base coach and Mike Gellinger as assistant hitting coach for the remainder of the season.
