White Sox embrace youthful swagger as unexpected contenders: ‘Just dumb enough to play hard’

TORONTO — A slew of rookies playing out of their minds?

A trio of young infield sluggers mashing their way to national prominence?

A rotation with some questions on the back end, and a bullpen with even more glaring concerns?

It all just might be dumb enough to work for the White Sox.

“We joke about being just dumb enough to not know, and just being dumb enough to just go play hard, and let it take care of itself,” veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk told the Sun-Times.

He’s one of seven players in the Sox’ clubhouse with postseason experience, one of the few with more than a couple October games on his resume. Now Grichuk’s in a clubhouse full of players aching for their first taste of the playoffs, a prospect that few beyond 35th and Shields ever took seriously early in the spring.

“This room is really talented, and I think it's honestly more talented than the baseball world knows and would give us credit for, because we are so young and the teams out there, people out there, just don't really know,” Grichuk said. Grichuk said. “It's been fun to be a part of it, helping them grow if I can.”

With the Sox coming out of the All-Star break in a first-place tie for the first time in five years — and opening their contending window well ahead of schedule — that inexperience isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“I think you could say it's a bit of an advantage,” said All-Star rookie Tristan Peters, the high-flying center fielder and former Savannah Banana who has made the Luis Robert Jr. era feel like a distant, melancholy memory.

“Somebody said this to me at the All-Star game — they were just like, it just seems that we don't care. Not that we don't care, but we just play so loose,” Peters said. “It's a special team, and I think we just know how to have fun, and baseball is supposed to be fun.”

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It’s the most fun Sean Newcomb has had in years, reminding the veteran reliever of the turnaround he saw coming up with the Braves.

“I remember in ‘18 the first time we all popped bottles for clinching the division, and that came after we went from like 72-90 to 92-70. It was just a complete flip from my rookie year,” Newcomb said before the Sox picked up their second-half quest in Toronto in search of a similarly dramatic flip.

“Benny [Andrew Benintendi] said it best recently, talking to the guys — ‘There's nothing better than popping bottles at the end of the year.’ You obviously want it to be the big one at the end, but just getting to that next goal is the ultimate thing that we're all here for, so that's going to be really fun," Newcomb said. "That's what everyone's motivated by.”

There are still two and a half months for things to go awry, but “showing up expecting to win versus hoping to win” makes all the difference for the Sox, Newcomb said.

Grichuk, whose last postseason action came in 2020 with the Blue Jays, said it comes down to “who wants it more and who's going to stay disciplined and locked in each and every game, and not look too far ahead.”

That sounds great to Will Venable, who’s new to this whole winning thing, too. The second-year manager wants to see more of the same, sending his squad “reminders about the things they’ve committed to and have created a standard around.”

“The distraction of the All-Star break was what we had to deal with then,” Venable said. “Now, [we’re] guaranteed it’s going to be trade-deadline stuff, and everyone talking about what we should do or where we’re at, when really all we need to do is do everything we can to win today. That’s all that’s important. Those distractions will always be there, but we’ll just find ways to keep the guys focused on the task at hand."