Pedro Grifol took in Monday’s Chicago White Sox game from a different vantage point.
Serving a one-game suspension as part of the fallout from Saturday’s Sox-Cleveland Guardians brawl, Grifol watched the series opener against the New York Yankees from Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s suite at Guaranteed Rate Field.
He tried to make the most of the view.
“That saying that the farther you are away from the game, the slower it is or the easier it gets? It looked pretty slow and pretty easy from up there,” Grifol said before Tuesday’s game. “It was pretty nice. I was able to see a lot of things that I think are really important for our growth, fundamental things that we probably need to address.
“Obviously I didn’t want to (not be managing). But I took advantage of a different look to see some things that I wanted to address.”
Grifol was one of six individuals to receive suspensions from Major League Baseball after the incident. That list includes Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, who is appealing his six-game suspension.
Grifol said the Sox hadn’t heard anything in regard to Anderson’s appeal. Anderson was not in the starting lineup Tuesday as he recovers from a bruised left forearm after getting hit by a pitch in Monday’s game.
“TA’s a little stiff today,” Grifol said. “He was (originally) in the lineup, but obviously we chose to not push it. He’s good. All the X-rays were negative. Just give him one more day to get ready for tomorrow.”
Grifol was back in the dugout Tuesday. He saw some value in Monday’s perspective.
“The game is seen a different way,” he said. “I remember scouting, I was taught that if you cut the field in half and focus on catcher, third base, shortstop and left field pre-pitch, you’re able to have them in your sights and see pre-pitch. And then do it to the other side as well.
“I was able to do that yesterday and it was pretty valuable for me. I took a lot of notes and there’s a lot of things we’ll go over as a staff.”
Grifol was reminded of his scouting days in the Seattle Mariners organization.
“My first six years were in scouting,” he said. “And when you’re a field coordinator and farm director, you’re up there a lot, taking notes. It’s just a different look. But I used to find those days very valuable because you see things that you can’t see from the dugout.
“Anytime I would go into an affiliate, I would be there at least seven days and my first two days were always in the stands. And then my next four or five days would be in the dugout with the notes I took the previous days. It is a different look. It’s a very important look too.”
The Sox are continuing to take looks at pitchers for possible future fits. Monday that included a scoreless two-thirds of an inning from Brent Honeywell. The Sox claimed the right-hander off waivers from the San Diego Padres on Saturday. He has spent time in the majors with the Tampa Bay Rays (2021) and Padres (2023).
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“I felt just a little rusty,” Honeywell said Tuesday. “I didn’t play catch for a couple of days. Threw off the mound twice, but other than that I’ve faced that (Yankees) team over there more times than any team I’ve faced in the big leagues. I made my debut against them. Faced them again this year. I knew it was going to be a little bit of a fight out there but got the job done.”
Lane Ramsey got his first career strikeout Monday in his second big-league appearance.
While part of these final two months will be used for evaluation, Grifol said the Sox will keep presenting teaching moments.
“I don’t think you ever stop teaching,” he said. “However, the level of teaching that we are doing now, it’s a heck of a lot more than it was at the beginning of the year. But that stuff is fun because you’re getting (some) guys here that are just getting to the big leagues and you’ve really got to dissect their outings and everything that they’re doing.
“That part of it is fun, but at the same time it’s critical to the direction that we’re going. You never stop teaching, you’ve always got to continue to work on getting better, but obviously when you get guys here — and we’ll continue to get younger, too, in the coming weeks — (teaching is) a big part of these next two months.”