As the White Sox rocket toward an all-time record for losses in a season, a record that even team officials acknowledge is likely at this point, it seems to put to lie to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf's claim that his decision in hiring Chris Getz was geared around plans for a quick turnaround.
Cutting the Opening Day payroll by over $55 million, per Cot's Contracts, from the previous year arguably already challenged it, but I digress.
The irony in holding the White Sox up to that standard is that everyone, certainly the front office that has taken over since those words were spoken, knew at the outset that a quick fix from a 2023 team that lost 101 games and boasted a below-average farm system until last August's trade deadline was not a good idea.
And now that a historically awful season is nearing its end, no one would question that a long-term overhaul of the organization is necessary. This season has been brutal and dispiriting, grueling and embarrassing for coaches and players but especially fans. It's also robbed anyone of the illusions of competing in 2025 that healthy and productive campaigns for Luis Robert Jr., Yoán Moncada and Eloy Jiménez, or better starts for Andrew Benintendi and Andrew Vaughn might have enabled.
"Although it’s been grueling to watch the outcomes to these games I also need to take a step back and understand there is a big picture focus to this too," Getz said on Friday. "There’s many departments that need time and energy and improvement, so as we look forward we can put ourselves in position to have sustainable success. That’s really been my focus and will remain my focus."
What departments could those be? After a year that has seen the White Sox release seven-figure international signings Yoelqui Céspedes, Norge Vera and most recently Erick Hernández, whose time in the organization ended before making it to a full-season affiliate, the front office aims to bring significant changes to the international scouting operation. That would ideally include upgrading and/or even moving their Dominican Academy.
In an era of player development where most players -- and certainly every big leaguer -- has their own private hitting coach, establishing a cohesive organizational offensive program is trickier than ever. But for all the commenters who have read stories about Brian Bannister's work in pitching development and openly pined for the White Sox to find an hitting version of the special advisor, team leadership has had the same thought. It wouldn't make sense to fill such a position for the sake of filling it, but the Sox will at least look into whether they can bring in someone who could make similar impact on the hitting side of the organization, where the major league team is scoring the fewest runs the game and several key prospects are performing below expectations.
You wouldn't be crazy to wonder how appealing an opportunity with the White Sox looks after they followed up a year of front office turbulence with possibly the worst major league season of all-time, but optimism abounds for a front office that was just able to pull off what they viewed as their most pressing issue at the major league level: ousting manager Pedro Grifol. That's yet another thing that being less than reprehensibly awful on the major league diamond this year might have stalled out for longer.
The opportunity to install a manager of their choosing is viewed in many ways, to be the real start of the new regime effecting their stamp on how the major league club will play.
"Starting this managerial search, to find someone who understands where our organization is and where it needs to go," Getz said last Thursday when asked why this situation is different from the last White Sox rebuild. "Looking for that strong alignment is motivation, it’s exciting. And a first-time general manager wrapping his first year to get this chance is something that is stimulating. It really is. I view this is a great opportunity for myself and the organization and look forward to getting that started."
Buying into that vision still requires a fair bit of maneuvering. The White Sox did not earn good reviews throughout the league for their work at the trade deadline. There are some in the organization who believe that 19-year-old Aruban infielder Alexander Albertus could prove to be the best player from the much-derided return for Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech and Tommy Pham, but they would understand if an A-ball prospect who will miss the rest of the 2024 season with a leg injury doesn't immediately move the needle for everyone.
Despite expectations of a seller's market, the White Sox found it to be fairly rigid, with some typically aggressive teams sitting out, and others suspiciously shopping specific recognizable prospects that they had obviously soured on internally. It's expected the team will once again engage teams in talks on top starter Garrett Crochet in the offseason, without feeling like they missed a specifically golden opportunity at this deadline.
Because while it's complicated to assess their return from the Dylan Cease trade -- Drew Thorpe dominated in the minors to earn his debut but is now sidelined, Jairo Iriarte is promising but has yet to undergo the big adjustments they feel will unlock his ceiling, Samuel Zavala will be tasked with adding strength in the offseason -- the Sox view of this trade market, where the Padres moved a slate of arms they valued below Thorpe and Iriarte, is that they wouldn't swap out what they got for what was available this July.
It's just that they probably would have won more games that way, but that's something they keep insisting they were willing to sacrifice.
"If it was the highest priority, [the players traded out] would likely still be in White Sox uniforms," Getz said Friday on potentially setting a record for losses. "Although we want to avoid that record, it wasn’t at all costs."
And yet too little of this year's suffering has any sort of clear purpose. If nothing else, if the Sox had better performances, they would have had more to trade in and maybe slightly less uncertainty about who will hit for this team going forward. Everyone who has worked with top prospect Colson Montgomery this season lauds how he's handled a disappointing offensive season at Triple-A Charlotte, and speaks to how handling this adversity will serve him well going forward, but it would also really ease the nerves to see him put together a sustained hot streak for the first time all year.
Similar things could be said for fellow first rounder Jacob Gonzalez, and Bryan Ramos has gone from having a small shot at sticking in the majors to needing to continue to make approach gains in Triple-A.
The White Sox have a litany of issues that go all the way up and down the organization. The clarity is that their new leadership knew this coming in, and now everyone else knows it too. But while it's great that nobody's harboring nor selling false hope, at least illusions provide something to look at. Any operation on the right track won't make the wait for something to believe in take much longer.
