White Sox

Ken Williams: ‘I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned'

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The start of the White Sox season has tumbled, as they sit at 7-17 with the third-worst record in baseball. And they're not happy about it.

"You have to know I’m not in a good place right now," White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams said to the Chicago Sun-Times. "I’d be lying if I said I (wasn't) concerned."

RELATED: History doesn’t bode well for struggling White Sox

The White Sox have now lost six straight games and their season is arguably taking a turn for the worst. After a hot start to the season, with bats and offense topping the leaderboards, they've slumped.

Injuries to Tim Anderson, Yoán Moncada, Eloy Jiménez, Joe Kelly and overlapping injury listers in Liam Hendriks, Garrett Crochet and Matt Foster have not helped, either. 

Their starting pitching has been inconceivably underperforming, too. They have the third-worst ERA across baseball. Lance Lynn, one of the main culprits, holds a 7.92 ERA, as of this writing.

They've shown flashes of their potential, but they hardly align in sync to win ball games. Whether it's hot bats and no pitching, great pitching and no bats, or unfinished close games, the Sox have yet to find a groove.

"But this is where we are," Williams said. "And I’m not so pleasant to be around right now, but you try to gain perspective. We have [139] games and five and a half months left to make up six games [behind AL Central leader Minnesota]. If we are who we think we are we’ll look back on this as a good test of character and drive."

It's true, the White Sox and the other 29 teams have a long way to go. It's a long season and the Sox are far from out of contention in the AL Central, sitting seven games back from the Minnesota Twins.

But what if things don't improve?

“Then changes have to be made, it’s as simple as that," Williams said.

Since the White Sox' rebuild effectively started in 2016, they've been to the playoffs twice and haven't won a single series in the postseason. They've been to the playoffs three times since winning the World Series in 2005.

Part of the White Sox' adjustments heading into the 2023 season was hiring Pedro Grifol from Kansas City as their new manager. He, along with the White Sox, hired an abundance of new staff members, too.

Grifol received raving reviews before donning a White Sox uniform. Williams doesn't believe Grifol's been much of the problem, but a potential buoy in the storm, if you will.

"He is who we thought he would be," Williams said of Grifol. "Very steady, positive and encouraging but in a very real way. He’ll stand up and tell you when he’s dissatisfied with something, then turn the page back to positivity. The in-game moves have been solid. The handling of the pitching has been exceptional."

Grifol has been an anchor to the White Sox' struggles. While it may not seem like it, the White Sox themselves know and understand it. Lance Lynn mentioned on Foul Territory the difficulties of adjusting to a new coaching staff, however.

"To be honest, we are in the midst of everybody learning a whole new way of going about things in this organization," Lynn said. "Coaches staff and everything. And guys are taking the right steps. The problem is it hasn't clicked."

MORE: Lance Lynn explains difficult start to Sox' season

From the upstairs point of view, they empathize and expect things to start trending in the opposite direction, too.

“There is a reasonable expectation for these early trends to change," Williams said. "It’s not guessing, it’s not hoping, it’s looking at what you have and saying this is an aberration right now and the trends will start to change."

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