During his introductory press conference with the Houston Astros back in November, José Abreu was asked about the offer the White Sox made him, if an offer even existed.
Abreu answered in Spanish, and those who attempted to translate it all conveyed different tones. The White Sox's offer was “really good” and “respectful.” Or maybe it was “not bad”? Unless it wasn’t even a formal offer to begin with. Rick Hahn didn't provide details, so we were on our own.
At least until this week, anyway. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Greenberg talked to Abreu at Astros spring training in West Palm Beach, Fla., and based on the story that resulted, it sounds like we can cross “respectful” off the list.
“Sometimes,” he said, “when you’re at a place where maybe you’re not being respected to the point where you think you should be, you just have to go somewhere else.”
It also sounds like it was more than just the offer that soured him on the experience of his final year.
The communication thing is a live-wire subject because the 2022 Sox were deficient enough in that department — not just from the front office or manager Tony La Russa on down, but also between the players in the clubhouse — that more than one player has whispered about it since. Abreu, who had as much credibility as anyone on that team, now is one of them.
“I think sometimes talking about the past can bring a lot of animosity,” he said, “but I think the best way I can put it is just that we weren’t a real family. And I’m hoping maybe [the Sox] can get to a situation where a lot of the guys there that do deserve to be in a good situation, they can have it there and be able to win. But I don’t really have too much more to say about that.”
This helps explain why Abreu dodged as much fanfare as he could during his final days in a White Sox uniform.
It also takes me back to last August, when Abreu expounded on the White Sox’s inability to produce a consistent stretch of contender-grade baseball. His response included a pair of consecutive sentences, the first of which looked like an attempt to convince himself:
Honestly, I think this is a really good culture, to put it that way.
It was followed by one I think he meant:
I think the group of guys that we have here, the young guys — even though I don’t think we are as young as we think we are — are trying to do their best every day.
Likewise here with Greenberg, there’s a similar phrase in the middle of a sentence that’s sopping with implications:
And I’m hoping maybe [the Sox] can get to a situation where a lot of the guys there that do deserve to be in a good situation, they can have it there and be able to win.
If Abreu felt compelled to identify guys “that do deserve to be in a good situation," that inherently implies that there are guys who don’t deserve to be in a good situation, and the gossip in me wants him to name names.
In a P.O. Sox mailbag back in October, Two Dog questioned Abreu’s leadership abilities, and asked whether I thought the White Sox needed to let Abreu leave for an actual alpha to emerge. I conceded that the impact of Abreu’s leadership was likely minimal, but he also didn't strike me as a guy who would gum up the works if a stronger voice emerged. After all, we had the same conversation about Paul Konerko, who was a total pro and a rock, but also didn't seem to possess any special ability to galvanize a clubhouse against organizational shortcomings.
Maybe the White Sox struggle to instill productive work ethics in their players to the point that any player who has one is immediately placed on a pedestal. Maybe the White Sox hierarchy is so contaminated that Abreu could be made of pure zinc and he'd still give way in time.
While I wish Pedro Grifol the best, and the ability for him to go about his business in his way, these sore remnants are why I wish the White Sox would've subjected themselves to a thorough public hearing of the Tony La Russa era before they tried to turn the page. SoxFest attendees lack subpoena power, and Hahn would not face charges of perjury for lying to fans, but without an accounting of even some of the things that went wrong, there's no real reason to think the White Sox won't make similar wrong turns that result in the same dead end, because the same people are in charge.
The only thing that really changed over the last 20 years is who provides the quotes, so you won't even get the messy, rubbernecking entertainment value of Kenny Williams calling Abreu a selfish idiot who won't be missed.
The depravity of the 2022 White Sox has apparently created a new genre of spring training story in 2023, in which a player who can call himself a personal success story still has to wear the sins of his teammates.
At the start of camp, Jimmy Lambert, who endured some serious obstacles to enjoy some medium-leverage MLB success at the age of 27, said that "everyone's coming in here with a chip on their shoulder."
Now here's Seby Zavala, who went from being outrighted at the start of 2022 to seizing a second chance to claim the second-catcher job, talking about the White Sox lacking a sense of urgency.
“We lacked that attention to detail, urgency last year in spring training and it kind of trickled into the season and we were never able to get it back,” Zavala said. “But this year everybody is real detail-oriented and making sure we do the little things and make sure something like last year doesn’t happen again. We have too many talented people on this team to have a repeat of last year.”
