J.J. Picollo praises Grifol but says Royals needed to hire outside the KC organization
While the Kansas City Royals were introducing manager Matt Quatraro and the start of a new leadership era for their club, Pedro Grifol concluded a 10-year tenure with the organization and began a new chapter as the new manager of the AL Central Division-rival Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox announced they’d hired Grifol and signed him to a multi-year contract, giving Grifol his first chance to manage in the majors after more than 23 years in professional baseball as a scout, farm director, coach and minor-league manager.
He’d been a candidate for several managerial positions in recent years, including twice with the Royals.
“Really happy,” Royals executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo said of his reaction to the White Sox hiring Grifol. “I had a great discussion with Pedro on Sunday morning when I told him we were going in another direction, but I also had kind of a good indication that he was still in the running with the White Sox. … He’s in a great spot; now we’ve just got to beat him.”
Picollo praised the qualifications and strengths of all of the Royals’ internal candidates, including third base coach Vance Wilson, Triple-A manager Scott Thorman and Grifol, but said the search committee he headed ultimately felt the need to go outside of the organization.
The Royals announced Quatraro’s hiring Sunday, and introduced him in a news conference Thursday morning at Kauffman Stadium.
“We felt like we needed, at this time, to get a little bit of outside influence, fresh thoughts and challenge us professionally as well,” Picollo said.
Picollo said he expects that the White Sox will request to speak with members of the Royals’ coaching staff about joining Grifol’s staff in Chicago, but no such discussions had taken place as of Thursday morning.
Tosar, who has a long-standing professional relationship with Grifol that predates their time together with the Royals, could be a candidate to join the White Sox staff as a hitting coach.
Likewise, the Royals may approach the Tampa Bay Rays about potentially hiring members of their staff to join Quatraro in KC.
“We’ll be very professional about it,” Picollo said. “I think we’re very respectful of you’re not going to decimate somebody’s staff.
“If you can get one staff member to come with you, in this case it would be very helpful for both Pedro and Matt to have somebody they’re familiar with. That’s something we’ll work out. We just haven’t had the discussion with the White Sox yet.”
Grifol spent the past three seasons as bench coach for the Royals after having previously served as their quality control/catching coach (2018-19), catching coach (2014-17), special assignment/hitting coach (2013-14) and Arizona Rookie League hitting coach (2013).
He was part of the major-league staff during the Royals’ back-to-back AL pennants in 2014-15 as well as the World Series championship in 2015.
During his news conference Thursday in Chicago, Grifol thanked several former and current members of the Royals organization, including former general manager Dayton Moore, former managers Ned Yost and Mike Matheny and Hall of Famer George Brett, who was the club’s hitting coach when Grifol joined the major-league staff as an assistant hitting coach in 2013.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Grifol told reporters in Chicago. “I know it has taken a long time for me to get to this seat, but I wouldn’t change a thing because every job I’ve done in this game has given me the resources to troubleshoot anything that will come my way.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 2:00 PM.
