The White Sox have ushered in a new era over the last year and a half, as they have a new general manager who has completely overhauled the front office and the coaching staff. This was needed, as the remains of the Rick Hahn era needed to be replaced so that the White Sox could move on and be competitive again.
Despite moving off of most of the players from the 2021 team, Tony LaRussa, and Pedro Grifol, there are still stories that come out and show you how bad it really was behind the scenes. The latest disaster story comes from ex-White Sox player, Clint Frazier.
Frazier appeared on the Foul Territory show to discuss his career and the other happenings in baseball. However, there was one story that he had from his short stint with the White Sox, and it wasn't pretty.
“If you take me out of this game, we’re going to have a serious problem.”@ClintFrazier recalls the moment a teammate threatened former manager Pedro Grifol during his time with the White Sox. pic.twitter.com/qQSwq72QJm
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) June 20, 2025
When discussing a story about the White Sox, Frazier noted that a player on the team didn't hustle down to first base after a ball was hit in play. When the manager at the time, Pedro Grifol, came over to confront this player, the player said "If you take me out of this game, we're going to have a serious problem." According to Frazier, that player stayed in the game and proceeded to be in the lineup every day moving forward.
White Sox fans knew the Pedro Grifol era was terrible, but hearing stories like this makes it even worse. There is a certain amount of leeway that managers give to veteran players, but when a player essentially "threatens" the manager, they need to take control and show them who's running the team, regardless of who it is.
To hear Frazier use the phrases: "challenging the people in charge was all I saw" and that "prisoners [were] running the asylum," when describing his time with the White Sox is truly disheartening and that unfortunately sums up Pedro Grifol's era with the White Sox all too well.
Frazier only played one season with the White Sox, as he got in 33 games with the team in 2023. At that point, there are a few veterans that could have been this player talking back to Pedro Grifol. While we may never know for certain who this player was, fans that were tuned into the happenings around that team may have a good idea of who that player could be.
While this type of stuff usually comes out after a manager's tenure, it is nice to see that on it's face, new manager Will Venable runs a much tighter ship and his players at least seem like they want to play hard for him everyday. For once, that's a refreshing change.
