The problem with MLB coaching or executive searches is that every team resides in a major market with a major airport, so you don't get any of the flight-tracking fun that accompanies the college coaching carousel. You're left to rely on standard news sources, the occasional tweet of questionable veracity, and your own intuition.
I mention this because it'd really be nice to know if Mike Rizzo were making any special trips to Chicago.
Rizzo, the longtime GM of the Washington Nationals, has been expected to reach a contract extension after the Nats engineered an ahead-of-schedule turnaround following their stunning downfall in 2021. They lost 97 games that year, and 107 in 2022. Had 2023 followed a similar script, he'd probably be out of a job. Instead, the Nats are 59-69, and playing better in each passing month. The Stephen Strasburg contract will have to be paid in full even though he's planning on retiring, but aside from one more year of Patrick Corbin, there isn't an onerous contract on the books.
The Nationals agreed to an extension with Davey Martinez, and while Rizzo's talks were described as "close," there hasn't been any development since Monday.
A day later, the White Sox fired Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn.
These developments could be connected, because Rizzo has legitimate ties to the White Sox. He grew up in Chicago because his father scouted for the Sox, and Rizzo himself began his post-playing career as a White Sox scout. In fact, he's the guy who signed Frank Thomas.
Rizzo has gone on to bigger and better things, but his lasting relationship with Jerry Reinsdorf is well-documented. Washington Post columnist Barry Svrluga made the connection immediately:
And as it lingers there, other reporters are starting to wonder. Bruce Levine reiterated on Wednesday that "Rizzo and his family have always had a good relationship with White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, going back 40 years," adding that Rizzo's contract expires Oct. 31. Then on Thursday, Jon Morosi threw this out there:
Supporting the speculation, the Nationals are up for sale and Ken Rosenthal and Britt Ghiroli said Rizzo's deal would be expected to mirror the Martinez commitment: two years, with an option for a third. It's possible that Rizzo might want a little more security if he doesn't know who his next boss is going to be. With the White Sox, that question, while more open than it used to be, isn't that pressing.
If this delay in Rizzo's negotiations and the White Sox's firing of Williams and Hahn isn't mere coincidence, then I'm inclined to regard it as a leverage ploy. It's a credible-enough option to let it dangle out there, but when you consider that a lot of Rizzo's success is attributable to giving Scott Boras clients what they want, he'd have to operate under restrictions to which he isn't accustomed.
Yet it's also a pleasant diversion from dreading the reported Chris Getz-Dayton Moore pairing, because unlike Theo Epstein or David Stearns, it's actually plausible. Some of Rizzo's other hallmarks -- particularly his fearlessness for making tough decisions -- would fit the current White Sox situation well, and Reinsdorf wouldn't have to add a new phone number to his contact list.
It would just require Bob Nightengale to be wrong about something he usually gets right -- ideas that only sound like a good idea to Reinsdorf and Tony La Russa -- so I'm not banking on it. But if he happened to whiff on this story, it'd be fun to speculate about why Getz became the hot name out of the chute. There's still palace intrigue about that question regardless, with A.J. Pierzynski openly wondering if Getz participated in a coup staged by La Russa...
... but it'd be infinitely more enjoyable to dig into it after Reinsdorf made a different, better decision. When tantalizing, embarrassing items emerge about a situation that won't change regardless of how bad it makes the franchise look, it feels like discovering a detail in your prison cell. Congratulations for seeing something new. It'll get old quickly.
