Jerry Reinsdorf referred to the 2023 White Sox in the past tense when he introduced Chris Getz as the new White Sox general manager last month, and Pedro Grifol's team responded accordingly. Failing to exist wasn't an option due to scheduling obligations, so they did the bare minimum to maintain vital signs, and now they've lost 100 games, with a shot at 101 losses for the first time since 1970.
Perhaps that's why the White Sox trotted out Getz's new hires -- Senior Advisor to Pitching Brian Bannister, Assistant General Manager Josh Barfield and Director of Player Personnel Gene Watson -- to the media, and over the course of days. Anything to distract from the present mess is preferable, even if the most pressing issue is how any of them are going to be able to help clean it up.
Having processed all the coverage from those sessions, let's update some priors.
Brian Bannister
Perhaps the best thing about the Bannister hiring is that he doesn't have to speak for himself. The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly captured the reaction around the San Francisco Giants organization regarding Bannister's departure, and it's all sounds what you want to hear:
Several Giants pitchers including Wood and John Brebbia cited their work with Bannister and called his departure a significant loss.
“He’s one of the smartest pitching guys I’ve been around and he has a lot to do with a lot of guys signing here,” Wood said. “Banny had a knack for identifying things you could do to be better, and also how to accomplish those things. He was really good at coming up with solutions you could try to propel yourself forward. But so are (pitching coaches) J.P. (Martinez) and Andrew Bailey. He’ll be tough to replace but they have good people here.”
“That’s why I came here to begin with,” Brebbia said. “Looking around the league, seeing the pitchers who had come in and come out, there’s a distinct advantage to being a Giants pitcher. There are definitely other teams that are good at it. But it was pretty clear the Giants were in the elite level of teams.
“There’s no question Banny is elite at what he does. Up and down, our staff on the pitching side — and that’s all I know because they haven’t worked with me on hitting, which in fairness, probably would be a waste of time — is incredible at what they do. It stinks to lose a guy like that.”
There are no clear reasons why Bannister left the Giants for a similar role with a lesser team, but Baggarly reported that Bannister, who also runs a private coaching and consulting business on the side, said the White Sox offered better work/life balance.
Bannister didn't bring that up with the reason he offered the Chicago media...
“This was an opportunity to be a little more empowered and have a little bit bigger impact on the club and the direction and really get involved in every department and every area,” Bannister said. “This is a special franchise, and I’d love to see it be very successful in the near term.”
... but that's not something you want to lead with.
Michael Kopech sounds like somebody who could be a special immediate project for Bannister. A successful team would move Kopech to the bullpen, but the White Sox would have four empty rotation spots without him, he once again has a documented knee problem underneath the degradation of his stuff, and fashioning him into a high-leverage reliever would be kind of a waste for a team that will be likely be ticketed to lose 90-something games.
Bannister and Kopech briefly overlapped in Boston, and if they're not just being polite, they'll each have something to look forward to over the next six-plus months.
“I’ve liked Banny since I met him,” Kopech said. “He’s been nothing but good to me as a professional. He can offer a lot with the experience he’s had being with the Sox and Giants. I’m excited to have him on, excited to get to know him more on a personal level. [And] see where that can take my career and, hopefully, take this team.”
“My sweet spot has always been helping pitchers who are either coming off a down year or have lost their identity a little bit, and really getting in there and building trust with them and helping them identify what makes them a productive Major League pitcher and just walking alongside them in that process,” said Bannister, who already has had conversations with Kopech. “I’m a big believer in him.”
Josh Barfield
As a relatively anonymous front office employee with the Arizona Diamondbacks, there's a little more telling than showing with regards to what Barfield brings.
I don't care to know what Pedro Grifol thinks of him, for instance, but I don't want to be the only one to suffer.
“Watching these guys play [for Arizona], from our dugout over there, those guys were developed right. I’m glad he’s on our side,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol of Barfield. “Smart, articulate, well spoken, you can go on and on and on. I’m happy he’s on our team. I think Chris has done a really good job assembling a nice group around him that’s going to bring some different ideas.”
What's most notable to me is that he's going to be taking the lead on player development, even after the White Sox hire a distinct farm director to replace Getz.
Barfield anticipates being involved “in a lot of different areas.”
“Especially early on on the player development side,” he said. “That’s where I have the most experience and bring a different perspective. Chris has done a great job on the PD side here. I learned a little bit different perspective.
“We’ll still hire a farm director, but I’ll still be heavily involved, especially early on, in that side. As we get into the offseason with roster construction and player acquisition, I’ll be involved in that as well.”
If nothing else, Barfield comes from an organization that managed to wrangle a lot of young talent by different means and shape it into a postseason team, at least within the last seven years. He may not have a lot that he can be individually credited for, but as he ascends into an amorphous assistant GM role, that may continue to be the case.
Gene Watson
The further the White Sox's World Series championship receded into the rear-view mirror, the sadder it became when Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams used it to validate themselves. One of last times Hahn deployed it was also one of his saddest -- his first comments on the Mike Clevinger at the start of spring training.
“From a due diligence standpoint, we have had some success in past years – I’ve been here now, this is the start of my 23rd season, so I’ve been involved in a lot of background checks, a lot of evaluations of players’ makeup from outside the organization – we have had success at times in the past taking calculated risks on players that had, let’s say, immaturity issues with other organizations, bringing them in here, making them part of our environment and giving them a new opportunity to fulfill their potential,” Hahn said. “We probably don’t have that ring in ’05 without taking chances like that.”
While I wasn't enthused about Getz being the only guy considered to replace Hahn and Williams, it's at least a relief that he has zero connection to the 2005. There's no real way he can steal valor, and with what he's said so far, he possesses some awareness that he doesn't have much in the way of accomplishments to lean on.
But one of the reasons I reflexively reject every signing and hiring with a connection to the Royals is a creeping danger that the 2015 World Series is going to be the new championship everybody points to, as if White Sox fans are supposed to care.
"[Watson]'s wonderful," said Grifol, who was with K.C. for 10 years before being hired as White Sox manager last November. "He's really, really well-versed in the game, very creative. He was one of the main reasons that Kansas City did what they did in (20)14 and '15 (World Series). He really knows the landscape of the game, he knows the landscape of other teams. He's going to be really good for us."
Just like the 2005 White Sox, the 2014-15 Royals won with a roster that didn't project particularly well, but managed to maximize its strengths beyond anybody's wildest expectations. Then they spent the next several seasons showing how hard it was to maintain success with such small margins. If Watson is one of the main reasons why the Royals won consecutive pennants and a World Series last decade, then logic dictates that he was a reason why the Royals averaged 102 losses over his last four full seasons with the team.
As I wrote before, the hope is that he's just somebody who's seen enough and knows enough to help Getz avoid some landmines. The hope is that he's being generous with his evaluations of the talent on hand out of politeness, whether he's talking about the roster ...
"We've got stars," Watson said. "We've got stars on the field. We've got to put players around them that love to play the game with them and know how to play and that's what we're going to work for."
... or the front office:
“Our professional scouting staff is outstanding,” Watson said, mentioning that he already has met with his entire staff.
I suppose the bonus of him being jumping to a team shocked by 100 losses from a team that made a home of such squalor is that he knows the areas the White Sox will have to mine:
“When it comes to six-year free agents, Rule 5, major-league free agents, comeback guys, going to facilities in the winter to watch bullpens, our relationships with agents, our relationships with past players, we’re going to turn over every stone we can to improve this team.”
To which I say, keep digging, Watson.
