Grading the White Sox: Frank Menechino

At midseason, the SSS staff graded the 46-46 White Sox, from the head of the class Dylan Cease down to Dallas Keuchel. We invented a WARsss metric that could very well be just a cute way to trot out our special site grades — but really for all you know could be the product of years of research in a stats lab.

Our expanded report card will take us through everyone who saw time in uniform for the White Sox, plus some front-office types. Most of our writers will take on a couple of players, with final grades and short writeups, running through the end of November. Enjoy!

Frank Menechino
Hitting Coach
Midseason: -2.1 sssWAR
Final: -2.469 sssWAR

American journalist André Leon Talley once said, “I scorched the earth with my talent and I let my light shine.” I think of this from time to time as one of the more inspirational quotes out there. I recently compared that to a quote from Frank Menechino that he might have considered inspirational at the time, but was actually wishful thinking about Andrew Vaughn’s at-bats: “Fuck the home run. Let’s hit .300”

The White Sox, on paper at the very least, had the talent. They should’ve been able to go scorched earth on every pitcher they faced. However, the team’s motto in 2022 was mired in mediocrity, which also applied to Menechino’s “coaching” style.

Players were striking out looking and grounding out into double plays more than anything. The team ended the season with 149 home runs, and when you compare that against just one player, Aaron Judge (62), it’s really bad! The team ended with a slash line of .256/.310/.387 with 1,269 strikeouts.

Maybe Menechino should’ve shifted his focus to more extra-base hits and home runs instead of singles and runners left on base. He had the talent in the players, and never utilized it to its full potential. Menechino needs to be one of those offseason clean-house firings (that will never actually happen because, c’mon) because that Mecechino Magic wore off a long time ago.

2022 White Sox Grades

Frank Menechino, BAT COACH, -2.469
Yasmani Grandal, C/DH, -2.549
Leury García, UTIL, -2.7
Adam Haseley, OF, -3.146
Joe McEwing, Third Base Coach, -3.167
Ryan Burr, RHRP, -3.4
Tony La Russa, MGR, -3.5
Dallas Keuchel, LHSP, -3.9