Randal Grichuk’s renaissance campaign with the White Sox — capped with a go-ahead two-run home run in Sunday’s season-ending 4-2 win over the Rockies — began inauspiciously. Designated for assignment by the Yankees on April 29 after a slow start, he spent days considering offers before the Sox rushed in late.
“They called at the last minute — the day I was making my decision [May 4] was the day that [Austin] Hays got hurt,” Grichuk told the Sun-Times. “It wasn’t the best opportunity for a guaranteed role. We knew there was a chance that it was just for when Hays got healthy.”
The White Sox needed a right-handed bat to mash lefties, but the fit was narrow.
“My first day in Anaheim, I was like, ‘Why did I sign up? There’s a million outfielders,’” Grichuk recalled.
Not only did the 35-year-old Grichuk pound lefties — his .654 slugging percentage against southpaws was tops in MLB (min. 170 PA) — but the well-traveled slugger became a crucial veteran presence. The youthful Sox clubhouse had a zillion self-referential t-shirts this season, but one featuring a photo of Grichuk set against block lettering of “WORLD’S GREATEST DAD” was a mainstay.
“[Andrew Benintendi’s] a great veteran, and he’s definitely been awesome for the guys,” Grichuk said. “He’s a little more reserved. So filling a void, so to speak, of being older, being a little bit more vocal, it’s all fallen together in a perfect marriage.”
For someone with over 200 career homers, Grichuk has a very level swing. To get his hard contact in the air, he needs to catch the ball out in front. In order to do that, Grichuk needed a team that was comfortable with him being aggressive.
“He’s at 11 years of service time and has never walked, why at 35-years-old is he going to carry an above-average walk rate?” said Sox hitting coach Derek Shomon, expressing such comfort. “He is at his best when he’s getting off multiple swings inside the strike zone.”
With the Sox in 2026, Grichuk was at his best often.
Doyle peaking at the right time?
Outfielder Brenton Doyle still hasn’t walked since the White Sox acquired him at the August trade deadline. And during an early September stretch of right-handed opposing starters, he went almost two weeks without cracking the starting lineup.
But time on the sidelines allowed Doyle to practice the recommended tweaks to his setup made by Sox hitting coaches, aimed at moving his hands further from his body to enable a looser, more powerful swing.
“Once I started getting in [the lineup] more consistently, I’ve been able to trust the [work] I was putting in, in the [batting] cage, and results showed pretty instantly,” Doyle said.
After a two-run shot on Sunday, Doyle has homered three times in his last five games.
Primed for playoff level information security
When field coordinator Chris Denorfia was hired last December, he arrived with intent to monitor pitch-tipping, sign-stealing and other tells for a young roster not acquainted with a major-league level of scrutiny on these details.
“We are kind of teaching that on the fly to a lot of these guys,” Denorfia said. “We make sure that they have the correct information in a digestible atmosphere and a digestible form. And sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.”
The Sox are headed out to play the Astros after all. It can’t hurt to be prepared.
