Join the club: Liam Hendriks would like to see White Sox clean up defense

The next White Sox manager and current front office need to address multiple issues before Opening Day 2023, includingdefense, baserunning, hitting and hustle. The pitching staff would be all in on seeing more plays made in the field.

“The saying goes ‘Defense wins championships,’ ” closer Liam Hendriks said. “From what I read the other day, we are the 28th-ranked defense in baseball. We had the 10th-ranked pitching staff in baseball. So there were certain times where the pitchers made up for the … deficiencies in the field.”

Not to pin run prevention problems solely on Sox fielders, Hendriks listed numerous things he needs to get better at. But catching the baseball prevents outs and makes pitchers last longer. The Sox gave away too many outs this season.

“You have to have the faith in everybody behind you,” Hendriks said.

“And that goes into everything, whether it be offense, defense, pitching, and it all combines into one. There’s definitely room for improvement, but there’s room for improvement in every single facet of our game.”

What about Ozzie?

While support among fans and in some media circles has increased for the idea of moving 2005 World Series manager Ozzie Guillen from his TV chair to the dugout, there are no indications Guillen would be considered for the manager’s job. Hahn answered a direct question about Guillen Monday with a brief answer.

“I’m not going to get into specifics of candidates,” Hahn said. “I sort of laid out the general parameters and you can go from there.”

Hahn said the selection will be a collaborative process including himself, chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and vice president Ken Williams coming to a consensus.

“I’ll be leading the process,” Hahn said. “I’ll be the one having these initial conversations here, over the coming months, or coming weeks I should say.”

Squandered

Similar to leaving runners in scoring position, the Sox’ failure to never really be in the race for the AL Central, let alone contend for a World Series, was an opportunity lost of major proportions. Contention windows last only so long.

“The squandering of this year is something I will carry with me for a while,” Hahn said.

“There’s no one associated with this organization, at least on the baseball side, including the guys in uniform, scouts, player development, who doesn’t find this past year unacceptable. And extraordinarily frustrating and disappointing. A lot of hours, time, effort, support for fans, dollars were poured in to try to create a successful expanded window for this team to contend.”

Anderson waits till next year

Tim Anderson played his last game Aug. 6 because of a finger injury but wasn’t terribly missed because of Elvis Andrus’ performance on both sides of the ball.

Andrus is a free agent and Anderson, who has been with the team but quiet while on the injured list, will open the season healthy.

“Definitely different, not being able to be 100 percent,” Anderson said Tuesday. “Just being up and down, battling through injuries. Definitely not a place you want to be at.”

Anderson’s energy and vocal presence on the field were infectious and he said he’ll be the same guy next season.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m definitely going to go out and have fun, for sure.”

Anderson said playing for Tony La Russa was “definitely different.”

“Learned a lot from him,” Anderson said. “Definitely competitive. Things that he brought to the game were different. He’s super competitive. Just overall, it was good.”

La Russa’s record

Following the announcement of La Russa not returning in 2023, all wins-losses since he left the team are officially credited to acting manager Miguel Cairo. La Russa’s all-time record stands at 2,884-2,499, second all-time in wins behind Connie Mack.

The Sox are 17-15 since Aug. 30 under Cairo.

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