Tony La Russa, a Hall of Famer who had not managed in a decade when the Chicago White Sox hired him to steer them into contention before the 2021 season, will not return as Chicago’s manager in 2023. The team confirmed the decision Monday after weeks of speculation about how a health issue that kept La Russa away from the White Sox since the end of August would affect his future.
“It has become obvious that the length of the treatment and recovery process for this second health issue makes it impossible for me to be the White Sox manager in 2023,” La Russa said in a statement issued before a news conference Monday afternoon. “The timing of this announcement now enables the front office to include filling the manager position with their other offseason priorities.”
La Russa, who turns 78 on Tuesday, said in that statement that health issues did not affect his ability to manage this year and called Chicago’s season “an unacceptable disappointment.” The White Sox hired La Russa in place of less-experienced predecessor Rick Renteria in the hopes of turning a team that looked built for a few years of contention into a bona fide winner.
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But they did not make that leap under La Russa, who oversaw a loss in the American League Division Series in 2021 before watching the White Sox sputter out of contention by mid-September this year, despite their place in the relatively weak AL Central.
“In the Major Leagues, you either do or you don’t. Explanations come across as excuses,” La Russa said in his statement. “Respect and trust demand accountability, and during my managerial career, I understood that the ultimate responsibility for each minus belongs to the manager. I was hired to provide positive, difference-making leadership and support. Our record is proof. I did not do my job.”
That the White Sox and their hands-on owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, gave La Russa that job in the first place was not exactly a surprise, given that La Russa had managed the team for eight seasons from 1979 to 1986 and had history with the old-school owner. But the hiring was controversial, even ridiculed, around the sport: Not only had analytics totally changed the way games are managed and managers interact with front offices in the decade since La Russa had retired, but social norms and clubhouse conduct had transformed, too.
In the years between his managerial departure in 2011 and his return in 2021, La Russa made several public comments that seemed to suggest his old-school, no-nonsense baseball mores could alienate younger players less willing to curtail celebration and flair for the sake of outdated and often racially biased taboos. He was critical of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest, suggesting that he would tell a player who wanted to protest during the national anthem to stay in the clubhouse instead.
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So when La Russa inherited a team that featured one of the game’s most vocal Black stars, Tim Anderson, he seemed like an unnecessarily tense fit for a roster that had yet to coalesce into a stable winner. La Russa eventually earned praise from Anderson, and concerns that he might try to, well, tamp down fun, went unrealized.
But what did come into question, particularly this season, was his ability to handle the strategic operations of a team hindered by injuries and crippled by inconsistency. The most prominent questions about his competence emerged after he issued two intentional walks to opposing hitters who had two strikes on them. Fans on Chicago’s South Side more than once chanted “Fire Tony!” this summer — something that was not lost on the veteran manager.
“At no time have I been disappointed or upset with White Sox fans, including those who at times chanted ‘Fire Tony.’ They come to games with passion for our team and a strong desire to win. Loud and excited when we win, they rightly are upset when we play poorly,” La Russa said in his statement.
The White Sox are on the verge of an organizational reckoning after another injury-riddled season saw them not only take no steps forward but take a step back. They began the season with the seventh-highest payroll in the majors. The Cleveland Guardians, who began the season 27th on that list, claimed the division title instead.
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