It turns out our discussion over how the White Sox should handle Liam Hendriks' $15 million club option/$15 million buyout was short-lived.
Jon Heyman reported on Twitter that the White Sox are declining the option, so that puts them on the path to pay him $1.5 million over each of the next 10 years. As I wrote this morning, that saves the team something like $2.5 million over the duration of the deferment because each payment is not adjusted for inflation.
This doesn't rule out a reunion, but it probably makes sense for Hendriks to sample the entire market if he's due $1.5 million from the White Sox regardless. As Jake Burger discovered, there's more fun to be had elsewhere.
PERTINENT: Liam Hendriks named AL Comeback Player of the Year before White Sox's decision for 2024
When the White Sox hired Paul Janish as the team's new director of player development, I couldn't figure out how Janish knew any of the team's high-ranking decision-makers. It didn't necessarily require a tie, but given that Janish wasn't an employee of note for a successful organization, a personal connection seemed like a much more likely impetus than Janish being a random find.
In the discussion, our old friend larry filled in the gap:
the overlap is janish and barfield are high school buddies (perhaps even earlier than that). played on same travel team in houston. they were two best position players in their class in Houston area.
Chris Getz didn't say as much when he discussed the hiring with reporters later on Thursday, but he confirmed that Barfield was a driving factor:
“Josh has tried to hire Paul for years over with the Diamondbacks,” Getz said. “Paul and I have had discussions in the past over potential opportunities with the White Sox. Now that we have come together, Josh and I, we finally were able to bring Paul in to help us build a championship club.”
As Josh [Nelson] and I discussed on Thursday night's Sox Machine Live, if Barfield is spending his first year or so as assistant GM focusing on player development, then maybe Janish will be more of an assistant/associate director in spirit, and that's the kind of entry-level title that former players receive without much scrutiny.
It just receives a lot of attention here, both for reasons natural ("What is Chris Getz doing?") and cynical ("What is Chris Getz even doing?").
Speaking of scrutiny, I laughed at this quote from Janish, who still has to learn what terms are loaded:
“It’s getting back to the root of developing baseball players. You have to show up and play hard every single day. The term culture gets thrown around, and the way that the guys show up — ‘the White Sox way’ — that’s what we’re going to try to continue to implement and kind of reinvigorate within the organization,” Janish said. “Obviously at the minor league level, it can grow organically from the bottom. … That’s been a big theme, just playing winning baseball."
As for who is throwing "culture" around, Janish will have to look into that.
PERTINENT: White Sox hire Paul Janish as director of player development
