The Chicago White Sox will be looking for a permanent manager very soon.

As the struggling Southsiders play out their 120-loss (and counting) season, Grady Sizemire has been tasked with leading the team over the finish line of the regular season as the club’s interim manager.

Sizemore was promoted from Chicago’s coaching staff to replace Pedro Grifol, who was fired on August 8. A new report says the permanent replacement could be another internal candidate: former Dodgers pitcher Sergio Santos.

As MLB.com’s Scott Merkin noted, Santos led the Double-A Birmingham Barons to a second-place finish in the Southern League and a 72-66 record in his first year at the position.

Santos made his professional coaching debut as manager of the FCL Yankees in 2022, where he led the club to the championship and was named the league’s Manager of the Year.

Santos, a Los Angeles native, pitched 12 games for the Dodgers in 2015. In 13.1 innings, he allowed seven runs, walked seven batters, struck out 15 and posted a 4.73 ERA. He was designated for assignment in June of that year and signed with the New York Yankees.

Santos, a shortstop at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, was drafted in the first round of the 2002 MLB June Amateur Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. After seven years, he transitioned to full-time pitching in his first year in the White Sox organization.

“The doors to being an everyday player seemed to be closing, so I was confident and happy that everything worked out,” he said in a Barons press release in March.

Santos advanced to the minor leagues in 2009 and debuted as a pitcher with the White Sox in 2010. From 2010 to 2014, he went 7-12 with a 3.89 ERA in 180 appearances for the White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.

Santos retired as a pitcher after the 2015 season, with a career record of 7-12 and a 3.98 ERA in 194 games, all as a reliever.

The White Sox are not expected to have much success in 2025 – their general manager Chris Getz said on live television that the team will not invest in free agency to improve its roster this offseason.

That could be a daunting task for Santos – or anyone else – but it could provide an inexperienced manager’s first chance to break into the big leagues, for better or for worse.