White Sox manager Tony La Russa will be away from the team for an indefinite amount of time to attend to an unspecified medical concern, the club announced this afternoon. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports he’s undergoing testing on his heart. The veteran skipper missed last night’s game on the advice of doctors. He underwent testing this morning, and the team stated he’ll now return to his Arizona home to meet with his personal physicians.
Bench coach Miguel Cairo served as acting manager last night against the Royals. The former MLB infielder will continue in that capacity for the duration of La Russa’s absence. Cairo informed the media that he’d been in consultation with La Russa about in-game strategy (link via The Athletic). The White Sox have 33 regular season games remaining, including tonight’s contest. Losers of five straight, Chicago enters play Wednesday with a 63-66 record that has them six games behind the Guardians in the AL Central.
La Russa, 77, is in his second season at the helm in Chicago. Hired over the 2020-21 offseason, he’s reportedly under contract through 2023. MLBTR sends our best wishes to La Russa and wishes him a speedy recovery.
Met him in 2020 when he was with the Angels. Really cool guy and he took the time to chat with us. He was stoked when I asked him about the work that he does with stray animals. He’s definitely not the best fit for the White Sox (or any team for that matter), but I wish him the best.
Cool dude… I’m not a huge fan of the current iteration of LaRussa, but the man has achieved more in his life than most of will ever get a sniff at.
Thank you for providing contrast to the ( likely) overwhelmingly number of negative and callous comments this article will receive. Everyone would have been better served by his continued semi-retirement; yet people will pile on him as is the shameless way that is the interwebs.
His success was the result of taking the best pitching coach with him wherever he went. He was an average manager, Dave Duncan was the genius.
Good point!
Now what about hitting and defense? Oakland and STL weren’t shabby in those areas either.
At some point-whether you like or don’t like a coach or an athlete- you have to give people their due.
On that note, Reinsdorf should never have hired LaRussa as manager (let Samuel bring him back on his school reunion tour).
Acting as if he IS NOT one of the all-time great managers SIMPLY because of his teams’ W-L record is also known as denial.
Managers and coaches are only as good as the players. Leo Mazzone was a great pitching coach with the Braves as long as Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, etc were around. When he left to go to Baltimore no one ever mentioned him.
Oh no! I hope it’s nothing too serious. Wasn’t a fan until I met him at the ’97 ASG in SF and we talked books of all things.. Cool dude.
I hate to say bad thing about him, but it’s time to hang em up. He’s had a phenomenal career, enjoy the rest of your life and relax!
I support Larussa, and do agree with you.
Managing that roster was a no-win job for anyone.
Out of shape, lazy ballplayers that play worse fundamental baseball then my high school team…..although we did win a state championship.
The owner has to stop treating the teams players as if they were his spoiled children that need to be protected from doing hard work. A) Get an new FO; b) Dump almost all of the position players on the ML roster and a good number of over the hill pitchers; c) get a competent major league Catcher and SS to start. .
d) Bring in Ron Washington to manage. Allow him to pick his coaching staff. Assure him that any player that will not commit to learning to play professional fundamental baseball; respect the game; work as a part of a team to win a championship – will be traded.
The chances of the above happening are zilch.
Tony is that you?
Best wishes to TLR and to his health. HOF manager and like all managers doesn’t swing a bat or throw a pitch. Only thing he’s lost his how to deal with millionaire 25 year olds.
Mr. Larussa did that well for years….with other teams.
Jerry has those hot-shot, party-animals soiled rotten. The incompetency was in the FO years before Mr. Larussa came back to manage. They have 3.5 guys that can play D – Robert, Engel, Vaughn when he plays 1B, and Pollock…..sort of compared to how he used to.
Don’t know that anyone knows how to run the bases properly. Situational hitting is non-existent – everything is HR Derby.
Kids just wanna have fun!
Dave Duncan did well and carried Tony his whole career. Tony was successful, sure, but the vast majority of his legacy was built by the genius of Duncan. That’s why he retired when Dave did. He knew.
Dave Duncan turned nobodies into 15 game winners with sub-4 ERA’s on a yearly basis. Dude doesn’t get any recognition, he should be a HOF pitching coach.
I made that very point in an earlier article. Duncan was the silent better half of LaRussa and without him he’s just old and clueless. Well said.
Hall of famer, somewhat ahead of his time in the use of analytical stats/data, and old-school, this may be his body’s way of telling him that it’s time to shut it down. It could also be the organizations way of giving him an “escape clause” (falling on your own sword) without the messy fallout of “firing” a HOF legend, etc.
Damn. I wanted Larussa off the team but not like this. Hope he gets better.
Huh
What a disappointing season for a team who, coming into the year, had sky high expectations, now ending with their older manager taking a leave of absence due to health concerns. The winds of change will be blowing soon in Chicago taking La Russa and possibly others with it
How convenient.
Here’s how the Sox rank MLB-wide in major team stats (30 teams)….
Batting:
BA: 4th
OBP: 14th
SLG: 18th
OPS: 17th
Pitching:
ERA: 20th
WHIP: 23rd:
OBA: 17th
Fielding:
Errors: 6th highest amount
Fielding Percentage: 27th
Payroll:
7th highest
_
o This is a team that’s at its payroll max dictated by revenue.
o It has few young players on the roster that have a good amount of upside potential.
o It’s farm system is ranked poorly – many consider it the worst in MLB
o Not sure it has any prospects ready to come up that can impact the team.
_
Anyone talking about “they have talent” and blaming the abysmal play and general stats on the manger is reaching. This is one of the lowest, if not the lowest baseball IQ teams in MLB; as well as one of the most undisciplined teams in MLB….and it has been since Ozzie was fired. The current manager is the 3rd full-time manager since Ozzie. The players change. The team performs the same way.
They have no more money to spend. They need to get that payroll down. They need to get younger. Most of their players are overpaid for what they produce on the field, and are not going to be attractive to other teams in trade. This Baseball Ops area is in as bad a shape as any franchise in MLB, and maybe in the worst shape. The FO has painted itself into a corner……and that didn’t happen overnight. My belief is that the FO knew the truth of the situation last year and that’s why they made that ridiculous trade of a solid young (and inexpensive) 2B for a closer when they already had the best closer in the AL. IMO they knew that they had to “go for it” in 2021 because that team had nowhere to go but down.
They can go on a run till the end of the season. It won’t change anything in 2023.
The ownership group needs to meet (if they haven’t already) and come up with a long term plan.
His success is all because of Steroids and dave duncan
Correct
I’m sure he’s under a lot of stress. Never a good thing, especially at an advanced age.
While if true his health is the priority I told anyone I knew during the 1st half of the season the only way they would move LaRussa out of the dugout (for ineptness and non success) was to make up a medical issue to save face and spare his boss and friend/owner Jerry Reinsdorf embarrassment for his sole choice of hire.
He will never “fire” LaRussa again so this could be a saving grace for Sox fans, stay tuned…
Well wishes to TLR! I had no idea Miguel Cairo was his bench coach or even still in baseball. One of my favorite former scrappy Yankees players.
Wishing TLR a full recovery in retirement.
Yet another white Sox manager catching Kenny Williams disease. Robin got it after his only winning season, now la Russa. Time to cut Kenny.
Their farm.system is weak since their players in the majors now were their top rated ones, but no replacements for them.
It’s tough to increase payroll when the free agents under preform.
I think it’s a way to respectfully fire him and it’s a smoke screen of an excuse to do so. Hopefully he quietly retires now.
Great career but time to retire and enjoy life.
White Soxs are like the Cubs and they give you hope and then pull the rug from under you.
Whatever the medical issue let hope it isn’t life threatening and wish him the best but he need to retire and just enjoy the time he has left.