This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The White Sox had just completed a home series against the D-backs in the final week of the 2023 season when manager Pedro Grifol made the following prediction to those seated around him.

Arizona was going to the World Series. It was a bold call regarding a team on the precipice of not even making the playoffs, but Grifol’s words ended up ringing prophetic.

“I just saw a team that was very difficult to play against,” Grifol told me after his Winter Meetings media session Monday. “And I saw a team that can beat you in many different ways.

“It reminds me of the Kansas City team. They had good pitching, a good bullpen. They played a fast game. They are young, they are aggressive, they are fearless -- and that’s what I saw.”

Grifol was referring to the 2014-15 Royals, who reached the World Series in consecutive seasons and won it all in ’15. The White Sox manager served as the Royals’ catching coach during that time as part of his 10-year stint with the organization.

When I asked what quality about Arizona stood out the most to Grifol, he pointed to their fearlessness. He had seen the same in Royals players like Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar, to name a few.

“They didn’t care if they were in the World Series or in a Spring Training game, it was the same to them,” Grifol said. “Obviously the adrenaline was a little different, but as far as feeling the pressure, they didn’t feel it.

“That’s what it seemed like when we were facing Arizona. It seemed like they didn’t feel the pressure. It’s kind of what it’s about.”

You might wonder why Grifol’s assessment of the 2023 D-backs and the ’14-15 Royals matters in the context of the ’24 White Sox and their ongoing retooling process. Well, it’s a similar personality, a similar style of approaching the game that Grifol wants to see in Year 2 at the helm.

And Grifol believes that it has to start with him.

“There’s two ways of acquiring personality,” he said. “You take it on from the manager or from leaders of the club or from both. In a perfect world, you take it on from the manager and leaders in the clubhouse, and that’s what we’ll talk about.”

Intangibles such as team personality, clubhouse chemistry or even something as basic as communication are sometimes pushed aside in this age of deep analytic analysis. Grifol, who talked to me about building a White Sox culture before he started as manager, believe they matter on the way to success.

“I think the reason people don’t like that is because they can’t put pen to paper. That’s uncomfortable,” Grifol said. “I’m here to tell you that’s real. When a team has good chemistry, you feel it. When a team has got good chemistry, you see it. That’s all that matters to me. One thing I know for a fact is I’ve yet to see a championship won in any sport when they are interviewing the players and they don’t talk about the love for each other.

“Find me a championship where you got five guys getting interviewed and they all talk about how good they are. Every championship won, every good team talks about coming together as a group and the love they have for each other and how much they like to play for each other. That’s what we are going to create. That’s important to us.”