La Russa named Chisox manager
CHICAGO — Tony La Russa didn’t envision returning to the dugout when he stood at the podium in Cooperstown six years ago and took his place alongside baseball’s greats.
That started to change the past few seasons. And he simply couldn’t resist the opportunity the Chicago White Sox gave him.
La Russa, the Hall of Famer who won a World Series with the Oakland Athletics and two more with the St. Louis Cardinals, is returning to manage the White Sox 34 years after they fired him.
The 76-year-old La Russa rejoins the franchise where his big-league managing career began more than four decades ago. He takes over for Rick Renteria after what the White Sox insisted was a mutual agreement to split.
“How rare it is to get an opportunity to manage a team that’s this talented and this close to winning,” La Russa said. “Most of the time your chances are the opposite. The combination of looking forward to getting back down there and … the White Sox making the call with a chance to win sooner rather than later, I’m excited that they made that choice and looking forward to what’s ahead.“
La Russa inherits a team loaded with young stars and productive veterans that reached the postseason for the first time since 2008, only to sputter down the stretch and get knocked out in the wildcard round. The White Sox have never made back-toback playoff appearances. But after ending a string of seven losing seasons, they are in position to change that.
La Russa becomes the oldest manager in the major leagues by five years. The Astros’ Dusty Baker is 71.
La Russa, who started his managing career with the White Sox during the 1979 season, is returning to the dugout for the first time since 2011, when he led St. Louis past Texas in the World Series. He also won championships with Oakland in 1989 and the Cardinals in 2006.
La Russa is 2,728-2,365 with six pennants over 33 seasons with Chicago, Oakland and St. Louis. He was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2014. Only Hall of Famers Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763) have more victories. He and Sparky Anderson are the only managers to win the World Series in the American and National leagues.
LaRussa got his first major league managing job at age 34 when the White Sox promoted him from Class AAA to replace the fired Don Kessinger. He took over that August and led them to a 522-510 mark over parts of eight seasons before being fired in 1986.
Free agency start sees notable cuts
What figures to be a down and perhaps brutal market for baseball free agents in the offseason following the pandemic began Wednesday when a dozen players were told their contract options had been declined, among them St. Louis Cardinals Gold Glove second baseman Kolten Wong.
The 30-year-old Wong will receive a $1million buyout. Wong, a firstround pick in the 2011 draft, made his big league debut in 2013 and spent his first eight seasons with St. Louis. Wong hit. 265 with a homer and 16 RBIs in 53 games during the pandemic-shortened season, helping the Cardinals make the playoffs for the second straight year. They were eliminated by San Diego in the first round.
Others cut free included:
• Arizona pitchers Mike Leake ($5 million instead of $18 million) and Hector Rondon ($500,000 instead of $4 million)
• Washington righthander Anibal Sanchez ($2 million buyout instead of $12 million salary), OF Adam Eaton ($1.5 million instead of $10.5 million), and infielders Howie Kendrick ($2.25 million instead of $6.5 million) and Eric Thames ($1 million instead of $4 million)
• Colorado 1B Daniel Murphy ($6 million instead of $12 million)
• Milwaukee OF Ryan Braun ($4 million instead of $15 million)
• Seattle 2B Dee Strange-Gordon ($1million instead of $14 million)