White Sox Rumors

9:35pm: A White Sox official told Bob Nightengale of USA Today that La Russa will neither lose his job nor face any discipline from the team.

8:28pm: Newly named White Sox manager Tony La Russa was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in the Phoenix area last February, Jeff Passan and Paula Lavigne of ESPN.com report. La Russa allegedly crashed into a curb and had a “light odor of alcoholic beverage,” according to the peace officer who responded to the call. He was “argumentative” when taken into custody, per the officer.

Maricopa County in Arizona officially filed DUI charges against La Russa on Oct. 28, one day before the White Sox hired him as their new manager. The White Sox knew about the arrest at the time, club spokesman Scott Reifert said (via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic). He could face up to 10 days in jail if convicted.

This is the second DUI for La Russa, who was arrested in 2007 when he was the Cardinals’ skipper. He led the Cardinals for five more seasons after that and ended his tenure with a World Series championship in 2011. La Russa went into temporary retirement after that, though he then worked in multiple front offices prior to taking the Chicago job.

This is certainly not the start to the La Russa tenure that the White Sox had in mind when they rehired the Hall of Famer (he previously managed the team from 1979-86). Whether Major League Baseball will discipline him in any way is unknown.

The White Sox announced today that Hall of Famer Tony La Russa is returning to the organization as their new manager for the 2021 season. La Russa has agreed to a multi-year deal, tweets Scott Merkin of MLB.com.

This is, of course, the second managerial stint for La Russa with the White Sox organization. His first began more than four decades ago in 1979 and ran through the 1986 season. While others were connected to the White Sox vacancy, most notably former Astros skipper A.J. Hinch, it appears that La Russa was owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s pick from the beginning. Indeed, ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that the move to hire La Russa was purely a “Reinsdorf decision” while noting that others in the organizations “have concerns” about La Russa’s ability (or lack thereof) to connect with the club’s young core.

It’s been nine full seasons since La Russa last managed at the MLB level, with the Cardinals, and the game has changed considerably since that time. Data from clubs’ analytics departments has increasingly made its way into in-game decision-making, often generating polarizing reaction from fans, and the sport as a whole has moved to embrace aggressive defensive shifts and pitching strategies that defy the conventional wisdom which permeated big league dugouts during La Russa’s last run.

Since that time, La Russa has remained involved in the game in a variety of roles, most notably serving as the Diamondbacks’ “chief baseball officer” from 2014-17 — a stint that is remembered more for his role in overseeing one of the more lopsided trades in recent memory than for the team’s performance in that time.

After moving on from skipper Rick Renteria, it was reported that the White Sox wanted an experienced manager with a winning pedigree, which prompted many onlookers to speculate about Hinch and former Red Sox manager Alex Cora. La Russa does fit the bill on a fundamental level, having spent 33 years a Major League manager during which time he’s posted a .536 winning percentage, taken home six pennants and won three World Series titles.

Still, to say this hiring bucks the industry trend at this point would be making a colossal understatement, and the decision to bring La Russa aboard has already generated a rather perplexed reaction from those within the game and pundits alike. La Russa will inherit a wildly talented core of young players that give him the foundation for a championship caliber club — Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Nick Madrial, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease and Dane Dunning among them — but the unconventional (by today’s standards) nature of his hire will also put him under a microscope as he strives to navigate that core to the World Series.