Former Philadelphia Phillies Player Named Interim Manager of White Sox

With the Chicago White Sox having a historically bad season, a former Philadelphia Phillies player has now been tasked with leading that team for the remainder of 2024.

Feb 21, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Chicago White Sox coach Grady Sizemore poses for a photo during Media Day at Camelback Ranch / Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

With the Philadelphia Phillies' 6-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night, they have officially started a winning streak.

After taking two out of three against the Los Angeles Dodgers to earn their first series win in six tries, they have seemingly put their prolonged struggles behind them that had alarm bells going off all across the city.

If the Phillies have truly broken out of their slump, then those issues will be a footnote when viewing their season as a whole. Even with six straight series losses, they now now hold the best record in the MLB once again.

On the other end of that spectrum is the Chicago White Sox, a team that is putting together one of the worst years in Major League Baseball history.

Sitting at 28-89 this season, they decided to fire manager Pedro Grifol on Thursday after he amassed an 89-190 record in just under two years in charge.

The White Sox announced that one of Philadelphia's former players, Grady Sizemore, will be the interim skipper for the remainder of the season.

pic.twitter.com/tipA9gwqSW

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 8, 2024

Sizemore joined the Phillies in late-June 2014 on a minor league contract after he was designated for assignment by the Boston Red Sox.

The three-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glover eventually was called up to the bigs, appearing in 60 games for Philadelphia and producing a .253/.313/.389 slash line with 14 extra-base hits and 12 RBI that earned him a one-year contract for the 2015 season.

But after 39 games during that campaign, the Phillies decided to move on from him, eventually releasing him after first designating him for assignment.

Sizemore finished out his career with the Tampa Bay Rays and was largely out of baseball until 2023 when he took an internship with the Diamondbacks. His former teammate, Josh Barfield, left Arizona's organization to take the assistant general manager job with Chicago ahead of this season.

That's how Sizemore got a coaching position with the White Sox this year.

Now, he'll be tasked with leading this team for the remainder of the season as they look to avoid the dreaded designation of finishing with the worst single-season record in Major League Baseball history that has been held by the New York Mets since 1962.