It's called the "dreaded vote of confidence," for a reason, and White Sox general manager Chris Getz neither made a huge effort of defending Pedro Grifol's performance on Friday afternoon, nor tilted blame toward his manager for what he termed as a "frustrating" 3-22 start to the season.
"He’s been steady," Getz said. "We just ask for consistency from our coaching staff. The clubhouse, they’re showing up on a daily basis ready to play and perform. Obviously we wish we had better results, but the evaluation is always ongoing for players, staff and myself. It’s still early in the year. It could feel like there’s a lot to overcome, and really focusing on getting our players better on a daily basis."
Prospect development, rather than coaching staff job security, was the major theme of Getz's media availability on Friday, which was largely spared from TV cameras due to the Bears debuting their first-round draft picks. He lauded the improving health of White Sox prospect depth, the strength of the Double-A roster, and referenced that one Bleacher Report writer who ranked them as having the third-best farm system in the sport.
If there's one thing that cannot be denied about the White Sox in 2024, it's that Drew Thorpe is absolutely shoving through his first four starts at Birmingham. That, and the major league offense needs to start averaging three runs per game; ideally more.
"This wasn't going to be a quick fix by any stretch. We had a lot of areas that needed to be improved," Getz said. "There’s no perfect way to go about it. We’re at a point where we’re certainly trying to go out there and score more runs. There are some younger players on this roster, and we will continue to add younger players as the season progresses. Some of those veteran guys who have been through situations, perhaps like this before or have a proven track record, can help in the development of players at the major-league level. There’s a handful of different factors. At this point, just felt like it was time to make some of those moves and add some different bats and different dynamics to this team."
With the emphasis chairman Jerry Reinsdorf put on a quick turnaround for this team while justifying the decision to not even look at external candidates to lead this team, that first sentence is ripe for getting clowned on. But Getz certainly isn't wrong, and his own team's early performance is hardly making him look like a liar.
But outbidding the Padres for a 36-year-old Tommy Pham to try out his slimmed-out physique in center field while backed up by a 32-year-old Rafael Ortega, with a 33-year-old Mike Clevinger on the way to join the rotation can seem like a legion of quick fixes, as small efforts to stanch a historic level of losing have filled up much of the White Sox recent transaction log. Jonathan Cannon is the only player on the current major league roster born after the start of the year 2000, and his rotation spot is imminently threatened by the presence of Clevinger and Brad Keller at Triple-A Charlotte. Korey Lee hitting .279/.326/.465 while splitting time behind the plate with 37-year-old Martín Maldonado, is one of the few young player success stories in Chicago to which Getz could point.
On an individual level, Dominic Fletcher being optioned when he's slugging .267 and striking out in 30 percent of his plate appearances doesn't require a long explanation, and certainly not if Getz sensed -- as he said -- that his young outfielder seemed overwhelmed by a whirlwind past three months after being traded for in February. It's just rare for a team that is so miserable in the present to offer such little vision of its future, which largely has to be viewed through an MiLB.TV account.
Even something that should be a forward-looking practice like watching 24-year-old Garrett Crochet acclimate to starting, is complicated by him having only two seasons of team control after this one, when the Sox major league roster looks as far away from relevancy as any team can look.
"You've got six months to play baseball and we're at the end of April," Getz said. "There's going to be plenty of at-bats and plenty of innings for our young players that we want to see up here. We want to surround them with guys who have had some success and there's a lot of value in that. Certainly some of these players that get the opportunity on one-year deals to show what they can offer to Major League Baseball. There's other chances to perhaps grab some value at the trade deadline or at some point to help once again to get our organization healthy."
In a year that began with major league results quietly de-emphasized, and now is in a spot where you can only hope that this start does not reflect upon Getz's larger work in remaking the organization, the emphasis on player development shouldn't take immediate scrutiny off Grifol.
“How he communicates with players," Getz said of how he evaluates his manager. "Obviously, in-game decisions are a part of the evaluation. Anyone from an outside perspective [will say], ‘Why did we do that? Why didn’t we do that?’ More so, I really focus on the development of our players, and are we on the right track to getting those guys to be productive major league players. That is the most important thing right now.”
Every major league game presents an opportunity to build value, whether teams are using it well or not. With Getz not so quietly hoping to cultivate some July trade assets from the collection of short-term pacts with veteran players he has swung recently, the major league roster needs to contribute toward the mission of improving organizational health too. That's certainly the case if the GM's short response about the state of player development at the major league level is any indication.
"I look forward to seeing better performances out of our players."
