Say what you will about Jerry Reinsdorf, but the White Sox chairman fulfilled one promise.
In a blanket response to numerous national media inquiries for a statement about the state of the White Sox earlier this month, Reinsdorf ended it with, "I expect to have more to say at the end of the season."
Today, he said more, releasing the following lengthy statement at 2:30 p.m., which allowed John Schriffen to read excerpts of it during the broadcast:
To White Sox Fans,
By all measures, our on-field performance this season was a failure. As the leader of this organization, that is my ultimate responsibility. There are no excuses.
I want to thank you for continuing to support the team throughout what was an embarrassing season. You all deserved better. This season’s performance was completely unacceptable and the varying reactions and emotions from our fanbase are completely understandable.
While embracing new ideas and outside perspectives, we will do everything we can to fix this for 2025 and the future. This will include further development of players on our current roster, development within our system, evaluating the trade and free agent markets to improve our ballclub and new leadership for our analytics department, allowing us to elevate and improve every process within our organization with a focus for competing for championships. In fact, change has already been happening in our baseball operations group throughout this past year. When named general manager in 2023, Chris Getz and his staff immediately began conducting a top-to-bottom evaluation of our existing operations. Chris is rebuilding the foundation of our baseball operations department, with key personnel changes already happening in player development, international scouting, professional scouting and analytics. Some of these changes will be apparent quickly while others will need time to produce the results we all want to see at the major-league level.
Our organization’s most important decision in the coming months is to evaluate and identify a new manager and leadership voice for this organization. Chris is well underway with this search. He has identified the key attributes and preferences for our next manager and has already begun an exhaustive search with a wide range of candidates to lead the White Sox in the clubhouse and dugout.
Even in the worst of seasons, where at times it felt like nothing was going right, there were bright spots that provided reasons for optimism about our future. The overall health of our organization is improving. Our minor league rankings show this growth. The Class AA Birmingham Barons won the Southern League title, while Class A Kannapolis reached the finals of the Carolina League, and our organization has built an impressive future pool of very talented prospects.
Whether said out loud or written in a statement, words are easy. I understand we need to show our progress through action, and I commit to you that everyone associated with the White Sox is focused on returning this organization to the level of success we all expect and desire.
Above everything else, I am a fan, a fan of baseball, of Chicago and of the White Sox. Every loss this season -- every blown save, every defensive miscue, every shutout, every sweep -- hurt. It was a long, painful season for us all. We recognize, on a daily basis, that it is our responsibility to earn your trust, attention, time and support. We vow to take that approach daily as we put the work in this offseason to be better.
We owe it to each and every one of you.
Jerry Reinsdorf
As the White Sox close out their second full season of Attempting to Regain the Trust of the Fan Base, let's start with the cynical interpretation, since that's usually the viewpoint that prevails in the end: This statement doesn't include anything about Reinsdorf selling, or hiring a president of baseball operations, or otherwise lessening or withdrawing from his role in the White Sox's decision-making process. He said that Chris Getz is rebuilding the foundation and well underway with the managerial search, but there's plenty of negative space in the statement to suggest that Reinsdorf, Tony La Russa or whoever else is in his ear can run interference.
There's also a filler paragraph about the success of Birmingham and Kannapolis, but when you consider that all four White Sox affiliates finished with sub-.500 records in the second half, the last thing you want is a couple of first-half titles building false confidence at the ownership level.
That said, if he's trying to form a habit of delivering on promises, here's one to note:
New leadership for our analytics department, allowing us to elevate and improve every process within our organization with a focus for competing for championships.
This one can be documented well before wins and losses, because it should show up in the White Sox's front office directory. The White Sox have 35 titles and 43 people listed in their major league and minor league operations. The Tampa Bay Rays have 132.
I wouldn't expect the White Sox to add 90 employees over the course of one winter -- hell, that'd probably be a huge mistake if they're not even sure how to ask the right questions yet -- but here's where we can point to the Royals in a non-ironic sense as one example to emulate.
Just like the White Sox, the Royals fired their GM years too late, only to hire one of his lieutenants. Like the White Sox, J.J. Picollo's first season at the helm was a disaster. As this article by The Athletic's Britt Ghiroli details, everybody in the Royals' decison-making ranks used it for sufficient motivation.
It is the first team Picollo truly engineered. The organization underwent a significant offseason reshaping before they even signed a player, hiring a new scouting director (Brian Bridges), promoting Jim Cuthbert (director of pro personnel and strategy) and Daniel Guerrero (international scouting director) and investing in new technology.
As they turned over a third of the big-league roster, the Royals also hired six people in research and development, including Pete Berryman, who travels with the team as a major-league analyst, and a new R&D director, Christine Harris.
Picollo, who hired [Matt] Quatraro from the analytically-minded Rays, wanted someone who would challenge the status quo. And Quatraro and his staff — which includes bench coach Paul Hoover (also from the Rays) and Sweeney (Cleveland Guardians) — made it clear last season that the Royals’ analytics needed work.
“If we were going to take a big leap in that area, it wasn’t going to be a slow trickle of add two (people) this year, add two the following year,” Picollo said. “To really integrate R&D we needed to go for growth.”
As long as the White Sox lack a transcendent talent like Bobby Witt Jr., pointing to Kansas City only goes so far, but the Royals of previous seasons would've wasted Witt's MVP-caliber performance because of all the crippling inefficiencies elsewhere. They were able to build the base to support it, which is why the White Sox's current emphasis on foundation isn't misplaced. They've just been stressing it for so long -- while sliding in the opposite direction -- that you can't place faith in them knowing what they're doing.
As Reinsdorf's own statement reminds: Words are easy.
