As Double-A manager, Sergio Santos returns to White Sox under more traditional conditions
Sergio Santos only spent three years in the White Sox organization before returning this season as the manager of the Birmingham Barons, but he arrived in 2009 and departed in 2011 under circumstances so unusual that Santos described both with the same phrase:
It was kind of weird how it happened.
Santos was invited to White Sox spring training in 2009 as a position player, but the team saw a more promising future in relief. Santos wasn’t ready to concede yet, so the White Sox traded him to the Giants in order to see his position-player future all the way through.
But there was a catch: If he wanted to explore pitching, the White Sox called dibs on the conversion. Sure enough, the Giants didn’t have a Triple-A shortstop job for him, so they sent him back to the White Sox, and Santos said everybody held up their end of the bargain.
“It was just kind of, ‘Your word is your bond. We’ll get you there for a player to be named later,’ and I think [the Giants] ended up sending me back for that same player to be named later, and that was me, right? So it was kind of weird how it happened, but grateful that it did happen.”
After speeding his way through the minors in 2009 and successfully learning on the job in a major league bullpen in 2010, he pitched his way into the closer role with 30 saves in 2011. At the end of that season, the White Sox signed Santos to a three-year, $8.25 million contract with three club options.
But two months later, the White Sox traded him to the Blue Jays for Nestor Molina.
“I love Chicago, my family loves Chicago, so when I signed that three-year deal, we’re all excited, like ‘Hey, we’re going to be here for the next three years, it’s going to be great,'” Santos recalled.
“And I remember I was golfing with my neighbor in the offseason, and I was 2-over on the front and I was playing great, and then Kenny Williams gives me a call on the turn. When he told me I got traded, I said, “All right, just tell me it’s a West Coast team,’ and he said Toronto, and I was like, ‘Oh my…’.
“I got traded to Toronto twice. I got traded to Toronto in ’05, and it was me and Troy Glaus for Orlando Hudson and Miguel Batista. So it was kind of weird how it happened, but it’s a business at the end of the day, and it happens.”
His entrance and exit as a player were among the numerous topics Santos and I talked about over a 12-minute conversation in the first-base dugout during the Barons’ season-opening series. I’d previously shared Santos’ insights with regards to minor league winning percentages and Brooks Baldwin, but here are a handful of other highlights from the transcript before the season creates new stories.
Nostalgia pangs for when the White Sox sometimes did smart things….
Bringing him back into the org might actually be a contemporary smart thing!
There was that brief window where the KW-Ozzie-Coop command structure led to some pretty promising results from finding pitchers that other orgs had given up on. We didn’t spend 15 years saying Coop’ll-fix-em for nothing.
I miss Coop….
and his ‘throwing strikes’ philosophy…
Serge Protector! Cool read. Just make him the damn big Club’s manager.
Thanks, Jim. It’s great to get insight into Santos and how he’ll be approaching player development. And great to see somebody in the org whose rise within it might well turn out to be a really good thing.
Santos having high self-confidence is a sign of a great leader. I hope he keeps climbing the ladder. The White Sox might have a vacancy very soon.
Hard to believe but this Santos interview does not scream “this guy is full of crap”.
It’s withing the standard deviation … which means it’s unlikely to be repeated.
Imagine someone speak frankly and coherently for 12 minutes. Couldn’t be the Chicago White Sox manager.
Sheets in RF for game 1. If Getz wants to show separation from the previous regime, he needs to acknowledge the hard truth regarding Vaughn and not undercut the value of his hottest bat at the moment by trying to shoehorn Vaughn into the lineup because he was a 3rd overall pick. The organization just needs to take the L for that pick and bench him.
Plan for 2025- shield the prospects to allow development and play people in their rightful position.
16 games in…sh*t nevermind, let’s just do all that stuff again
Holding out for “cash considerations”
And Vaughn is batting 2nd, against a RH pitcher? The Sox had a brain trust meeting last night where TLR said instead of hiding AV in the 8th spot or the bench or Charlotte, they should do the opposite and showcase him in the 2 hole; the manager and GM immediately agreed and thanked the “fearless leader” for the support. Golden sombrero radar alert.
Vaughn does have a .795 OPS against Singer, better than all but Lee, Eloy, and Maldonado. Maybe Vaughn busts out with his first 2 dingers of the year.
We posted almost similar thoughts simultaneously.
And Vaughn hitting second. Remember when Moncada wanted to hit 2nd, and Grifol sputtered all that bullcrap about Moncada needing to earn it and about being a team player, move the runner, sacrifice? After that bullshit, he places a guy that leads the team in grounds into double plays, strikes out a lot, and has only one extra base hit all year. I am so sick and tired of this buffoon.
Santos seems competent and well spoken. I don’t see much of a future for him in this organization.