THE GREAT CHICAGO BASEBALL SWINDLE
"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night." – John Lydon, January 14, 1978
What started with a bunch of energetic young men ended three years later in a haze of recrimination, blood, and chaos. The Sex Pistols exploded out of London in late 1975, shaking up British music. By the end, with mounting health issues, public derision and their disgust with management, John Lydon quit with a dispiriting final performance that closed with that question from the Winterland stage. Show over, he abandoned a band that had become truly rotten.
The 2021 AL Central champions took a dreadful fall, as the rot in Jerry Reinsdorf’s organization became a disgrace of historic proportions. The terrible business practices that led to 2024 remain in place, so this plan does not pretend to propose a contender. No, this plan understands all too well that the genius behind CHSN and a diamond in The 78 will hamper the team until he is gone. I could propose an OPP that starts and ends with “Jerry sells the team to a local billionaire who then hires good management and gives them the resources they need,” but that is not the spirit of the exercise. Instead, I try to put myself in Chris Getz’s shoes.
The Chicago White Sox are so far from contending that the goals for 2025 are:
1) Ensure a space in the 2026 draft lottery,
2) Prioritize the development of young players who might be part of a good team someday, and
3) Find ways of bringing cheap talent into the organization that could eventually be traded for prospects in hopes that Jerry Reinsdorf will be gone before we all wither and die.
This organization is tanking for the first pick in the 2026 draft. I didn’t say that was my plan, that is all this organization is capable of while Jerry Reinsdorf flails around for a functioning TV situation and stadium deal. What I suggest is that we work to develop the young talent as best we can and add some talent that could either be part of a good team once new ownership eventually takes over, or trade bait for more prospects.
MANAGER
After interviewing a ton of candidates, I might hire Rodney Linares. He’s Kevin Cash’s bench coach with the Rays, so he knows his way around both an analytically-inclined organization and low budgets. He’s also got a ton of minor-league and LIDOM managing experience.
While we are here, let’s make sure Linares has a good coaching staff. Get a hitting coach with a track record of effectiveness, maybe Brant Brown (whose work with the Dodgers and Marlins looked good before a frustrating stint with the Mariners) or Kevin Seitzer (as long as Bo Jackson approves). One reason I like Getz interviewing a lot of managerial candidates is he is learning about how other organizations work and getting a sense of a lot of other people around the industry. Maybe a few of the ones who don’t become manager (George Lombard? Alyssa Nakken? Morgan Ensberg?) will fill out the coaching staff. Let’s have a coaching staff as large and as talented as the one Gabe Kapler put together in San Francisco in 2021 and emphasize coaches who can develop the young players. (These investments include bringing analytics up to the standards of the Brewers, Rays, and Dodgers, and ensuring there are clear lines of communication involving the coaches, analysts, and players.)
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Andrew Vaughn: $6.4M non-tender
- Nicky Lopez: $5.1M non-tender
- Garrett Crochet: $2.9M tender
- Gavin Sheets: $2.6M non-tender
- Enyel De Los Santos: $1.7M non-tender
- Jimmy Lambert: $1.2M non-tender
- Justin Anderson: $1.1M tender
- Steven Wilson: $1M tender
- Matt Foster: $900K non-tenderNone of these hitters needs another paycheck from this organization. I’d keep Anderson and Wilson around at that price to soak up innings. Crochet’s getting tendered for trade, because we have established that we can’t have nice things.
CLUB OPTIONS
Write “pick up” or “decline” or “rework” after the option.
- Yoán Moncada: $25M ($5M buyout) decline
- Max Stassi: $7M ($500K buyout) decline
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Michael Soroka (Made $3M in 2023) let go
- Mike Clevinger ($3M) rew….c’mon, no. Let go with extreme prejudice
- Chris Flexen ($1.75) let go for the sake of mercy and sanity
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Tomoyuki Sugano (2 years, $20 million).
No. 2: Naoyuki Uwasawa (2 year, $20 million).
No. 3: Yariel Rodríguez (2 years, $18 million).
No. 4: Liván Moinelo (2 years, $12 million).
No. 5: Kyle Keller (1 year, $2 million with a $3 million option).
No. 6: Baek Ho Kang (4 years, $40 million).
No. 7: Kazuma Okamoto (4 years, $40 million).
No. 8: Austin Hedges (1 year, $6 million).
No. 9: Austin Slater (1 year, $8 million).
Last year, the only thing Chris Getz and I had in common was I suggested signing bringing Erik Fedde over from Korea. That worked well, so I am going back to Asia to shop wholesale. The first four free agents are pitchers, with Sugano and Uwasawa penciled into the rotation, Rodríguez looks to be in late-inning situations and Moinelo and Keller are depth long relievers. The last two are lefty sluggers, neither has a good defensive reputation. Let them split 1B and DH and see how it goes. I would rather see them try to adapt to MLB then trot out Vaughn and Sheets again.
The domestic free agents are Austin Slater, who will caddy for Dominic Fletcher against lefties, and Austin Hedges, who will compete to see if he can become the worst offensive catcher the team has fielded since 2023. His reputation with pitchers rivals the last offensive sink, so maybe he can help Korey Lee out if Edgar Quero isn’t ready to break camp with the Sox.
TRADES
No. 1: Trade Garret Crochet to Phillies for Starlyn Caba, Eduardo Tait, and Jalvin Arias. I don’t believe Colson Montgomery will be a shortstop by the time he is 25, so Caba is the long-term answer. He is not, however, the short-term answer as he is a teenager. That is a trait he shares with the other two players coming back: Tait is a hit-over-defensive bat at catcher, and Arias is a hulking right fielder with power and hit tool questions.
SUMMARY
Rotation:
Tomoyuki Sugano
Naoyuki Uwasawa
Davis Martin
Jonathan Cannon
Drew Thorpe
Bullpen:
Yariel Rodríguez
Prelander Berroa
Steven Wilson
Justin Anderson
Liván Moinelo
Kyle Keller
Lineup:
LF Andrew Benintendi
CF Luis Robert Jr.
1B Kazuma Okamoto
DH Baek Ho Kang
3B Miguel Vargas
2B Lenyn Sosa
C Korey Lee
RF Dominic Fletcher
SS Jacob Amaya
Bench:
C Austin Hedges
SS/2B/3B Brooks Baldwin
RF/LF/1B/DH Zach DeLoach
RF/LF/1B/DH Austin Slater
Budget: Who cares? It’s a pretty cheap team, and Jerry is getting what he paid for.
This team is horrible. Possibly 120-loss horrible. Again. In that respect it will be as realistic as any path the 2025 Chicago White Sox will take. But elements of a brighter future may be visible. The Opening Day roster has veterans who can be jettisoned if any of the talent in Charlotte or Birmingham forces the issue. If Sean Burke shows enough in Glendale, swap him in for Keller. If Bryan Ramos can hack it in RF, bench Fletcher and send DeLoach down. This plan adds to the farm system and brings in veteran talent that might earn a prospect or two at the deadline. And the team is in excellent shape to compete for a top-5 pick in the 2026 draft, after earning the 10th pick in the 2025 draft with a 121-loss season. It’s a dispiriting show, but one that could lead to more enjoyment later.
After Lydon left the Winterland stage, he flew out of San Francisco and headed back to London. There, he formed Public Image Ltd, and within eighteen months had created the most thrilling music of his career. The Sex Pistols had inspired bands on both sides of the Atlantic. Opening their final show was the Nuns, featuring a young Alejandro Escovedo. He later developed an elegant chamber-rock sound that earned him the title “Artist of the Decade” from critic Peter Blackstock twenty years later. Playing after the Nunes were the Avengers, one of San Francisco’s great punk bands. Their bassist Jimmy Wilsey later became famous as the author of all the eerie guitar lines in Chris Isaak’s hits. A brighter future could be found even in the midst of the great rock & roll swindle.
Maybe that’s true here. Right now the way fans feel about Jerry Reinsdorf reminds me of a song on John Lydon’s greatest album. Second Edition is a pulsing, seething set of rants and basslines he called “death disco.” In its most striking song, Lydon sang:
Slow motionSlow motionGetting rid of the albatrossSowing seeds of discontentI know you very wellYou are unbearableI've seen you up far too closeGetting rid of the albatrossFrying rear blindsIf I wantedShould I reallyIf I run awayRun awayRiding along on the crest of the waveGetting rid of the albatrossAnother will not forgetI know you very wellRun awayRun awayShould II run awayGetting rid of the albatrossI know you very wellYou are unbearableI see you far too closeIf I wanted toIfRun awayRun awayI ran awayI ran away
