White Sox let Jason Benetti jump to Detroit

Given that Jason Benetti said last year that his contract negotiation felt like an arbitration hearing, it's not surprising that he's no longer with the White Sox. The things said in hearings tend to result in scars, and given that Benetti chooses words for a living, he probably selected them carefully.

What's shocking is that he's moving from the White Sox to the Detroit Tigers, who are not only a division rival, but one that has to deal with the effects of Bally Sports' slow-rolling bankruptcy.

The Tigers announced it with glee ...

... as they should, because their TV booth has been in flux since the implosion of the long-running pairing of Mario Impemba and Rod Allen. The Tigers let previous play-by-play voice Matt Shepard go after the season, and Benetti's arrival represents a huge upgrade for them.

Meanwhile, the White Sox took a passive-aggressive stance to defend the honor of Brooks Boyer, as if that has any value outside of the White Sox front office:

As we have in the past when career-changing opportunities were made available for Jason’s consideration while under contract with the White Sox, including ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Statcasts, the Olympics, Peacock Sunday MLB games, and most recently, becoming one of FOX’s top play-by-play talents for national broadcasts, we agreed to allow Jason to explore the opportunity with the Detroit Tigers, which he has accepted. We are proud to see Jason continue to live out his dream to bring the games he loves into the homes of fans in his unique style. We will miss Jason calling White Sox games and wish him the very best on this next chapter of his storied broadcasting career.

If you're looking for silver lining, the White Sox have an opportunity to upgrade the couple dozen games Benetti missed. The White Sox didn't seem to have a real sound plan for games where Benetti wasn't there, because while Len Kasper could step in and provide his standard quality for a TV broadcast, the radio booth was then treated like a real afterthought.

Otherwise, just like everything else with the White Sox, it seems likely to get worse before it gets better. Boyer signaled how the White Sox valued their own strange business habits over an in-demand employee when he compared Benetti to two employees White Sox fans held with little regard:

What’s unique about the Sox’ negotiations with broadcasters is that they’re done with the broadcasters, not agents. Benetti has joked that he feels like a player in arbitration. [Brooks] Boyer disagreed with the comparison but stood by the Sox’ way of doing business.

“Whether it’s [executive vice president] Kenny Williams or [general manager] Rick Hahn, they don’t use agents,” he said. “We’re compensating them; we have a partnership with them. There’s never been a need to have any sort of outside entity come in and negotiate these things.”

This is why the White Sox tend to stick with employees who have no leverage or desire to work elsewhere. It's simply too much work to retain somebody who is good enough to get better jobs.

The White Sox said they're sticking with Kasper in the radio booth and Steve Stone as the TV analyst, and now it's fair to wonder about the future of both. Kasper ostensibly joined the White Sox to call postseason games for a World Series hopeful and share duties with his good friend Benetti, and now both of those things aren't there anymore. The arrival of Benetti reinvigorated Stone as a broadcaster, and given that he's 76, there's a chance that any odd fit could make his other interests more appealing.