Now that Jerry Reinsdorf has done the unthinkable by firing Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, it opens up the possibility of more unprecedented actions. That exercises muscles we're not used to using, and also opens the possibility of heartbreak, so it's easier to plan for a quintessential, self-defeating White Sox countermove, like hiring Tony La Russa as the new president of baseball operations.
The skepticism is understandable. Given how seldom Reinsdorf invites outsiders into his circle of trust, and given how he doesn't talk to anybody on the record besides Bob Nightengale, it's hard to believe he'd even know who to call or text about building a front office suited for 2024.
But even though Reinsdorf has earned no benefit of the doubt, I also find it hard to take seriously the idea that the Sox could somehow stay within the organization after such a seismic change.
This idea was posited by Nightengale ...
... and Bruce Levine ...
... but I don't see any reason to believe them.
For Nightengale's part, his tweets seem more like an account of who remains, rather than a prediction. At least with Chris Getz. With Pedro Grifol, I can believe he's safe for the remainder of the season because what would even be the point, but "at this moment" is buckling under the weight it's carrying with regards to 2024.
Sure, the White Sox have plenty of experience in forcing underlings upon superiors, whether it's sticking Don Cooper on Rick Renteria or Charlie Montoyo with Pedro Grifol. On the other hand, Reinsdorf has plenty of experience paying seven figures for people who don't work for him. Leury García was paid $5.5 million in 2023, and is owed the same amount for 2024, so I don't get why Grifol's $1.5 million or whatever would be such a big deal.
Then there's Levine's tweet, which is far more laudatory and far more wrong.
Getz has not flourished as a minor-league director, at least when it comes to results. The White Sox needed to trade proven players for prospects in order to get the White Sox out of the bottom six in farm system rankings, the affiliates aren't playing anything close to winning baseball ...
... and if that's not enough, the White Sox fired two of their minor-league managers, Omar Vizquel and Wes Helms, due to conduct issues of varying degrees over Getz's tenure. The accusations toward Vizquel are particularly ghastly, and Getz flattered him on his way out the door ("He was a positive influence while he was here").
Getz did handle Anderson Comás' coming out with commendable sensitivity and support, so it's not like he should be written off as a human being, but there's just no evidence that he's ready for greater responsibilities. The ones the White Sox put on his plate may already be too much.
As for Haber, being associated with the White Sox's payroll allocation and analytics operation is the easiest way to eliminate somebody from consideration.
The hiring of La Russa back in 2020 makes it impossible to rule anything out, but it doesn't make sense to fire both Williams and Hahn without committing to sweeping changes throughout the organization. I'm hoping the disastrous hiring of Grifol won't scare Reinsdorf from embarking on another thorough interview process of external candidates. At least he fired the people responsible for that search, rather than the result of it. As the old joke about lawyers go, that's a good start.
