Grading the White Sox: Miguel Cairo

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!

Miguel Cairo
Bench Coach/Manager
Midseason: n/a
Final 3.48 WARsss

If this were any other year, no one would have known that Miguel Cairo even existed, let alone mattered at all for the White Sox in the 2022 campaign. But, the fact that he was the club’s second highest-rated coach says how terrible this season was — and how good he initially looked at the helm in Tony La Russa’s absence.

Now, Cairo basically didn’t do anything in the first five months of the season. As the bench coach, there probably wasn’t anything you could blame on him (or credit him for). However, from August 31 to September 18, he gave the White Sox hope. Tony La Russa’s absence due to a medical condition brought Miguel up to the manager’s seat, and the team excelled with 12 wins in his first 17 games, including a period when they went 11-2 right after he took over. What did Cairo do, you may be asking? Well, he wasn’t Tony La Russa — and that was about it. But that was enough to energize the team until the 19th, when a loss against the Guardians essentially knocked the White Sox out of the playoffs and into a five-game losing streak that basically locked them into a .500 season.

Cairo probably wasn’t at fault for the spiral, and had Cleveland done literally any worse than they did in the period he was managing, he had a better roster, or he had taken over earlier in the season, the White Sox might have been a playoff team. Cairo had a good little stint as manager, and gave us one last spark of hope that this team could accomplish literally anything this season.

Cairo’s gone now, like most of the coaching staff for 2022 — but at least he was a net positive in his time last season.

2022 White Sox Grades

Miguel Cairo, Bench Coach/MGR, 3.48
Tim Anderson, SS, 3.43
Kendall Graveman, RHRP, 3.1
Josh Harrison, 2B, 3.0
Gavin Sheets, RF-1B, 2.5
Jake Burger, 3B, 2.2
Romy González, IF, 2.0
Aaron Bummer, LHRP, 1.8
AJ Pollock, OF, 1.3
Matt Foster, RHRP, 1.2
Yoán Moncada, 3B, 0.92
Lenyn Sosa, SS, 0.85
José Ruiz, RHRP, 0.83
Mark Payton, OF, 0.6
Carlos Pérez, C, 0.399
Lucas Giolito, RHSP, 0.392
Adam Engel, OF, 0.237
Vince Velasquez, RHP, -0.4
Reese McGuire, C, -1.1
Kyle Crick, RHRP, -1.65
Joe Kelly, RHRP, -1.75
Daryl Boston, 1B Coach, -2.0
Anderson Severino, LHRP, -2.2
Jerry Reinsdorf, OWN, -2.321
Jake Diekman, LHRP, -2.366
Rick Hahn, GM, -2.401
Bennett Sousa, LHRP, -2.425
Frank Menechino, BAT COACH, -2.469
Yasmani Grandal, C/DH, -2.549
Leury García, UTIL, -2.7
Adam Haseley, OF, -3.146
Joe McEwing, 3B Coach, -3.167
Ryan Burr, RHRP, -3.4
Tony La Russa, MGR, -3.5
Dallas Keuchel, LHSP, -3.9