This is now my fifth installment of “The Mourning After” series, the first four being:
– The day after it was announced Kopech need TJ Surgery
– The day after the Padres signed Manny Machado
– The day after the Phillies signed Zach Wheeler
– The day after the Sox got beat up on Opening Day 2020
These are getting to be too often now. We need to slow down how often I need to write one of these! But, alas, I feel this one was warranted still.
The White Sox were sitting pretty last Saturday. They had split the series 1-1 with the Reds after taking three of four from the Twins. They had about a 90% chance of winning the division for the first time since 2008. Instead, the White Sox struggled mightily this week, going just 1-7 since last Saturday while losing the division by one game to the Twins. It was a painful week for White Sox baseball, featuring questionable managerial decisions, a lack of fundamental baseball, and the continuation of some serious slumps.
Naturally, this stirred up some emotions among Sox fans – nothing new here. However, heading into the playoffs, fans are pretty upset about the lead the Sox blew. It left feelings of a team that let their foot off the pedal and maybe didn’t even deserve to be going to the playoffs in a normal year.
I understand your frustrations, and I will address all of them. Hopefully, by doing so, you can move into your Monday with some sort of peace of mind on the topic of the White Sox and the 2020 Playoff Picture. Let’s begin.
The Playoff Structure
Before talking about this week, I think it’s important that we talk about the playoff structure this year. Trust me, I have a plan for this.
2020 is an unprecedented year for the MLB playoffs. Eight teams from each league made the playoffs, with everyone facing off in the Wild Card Round. The standard LDS and LCS series will follow.
Wait, everyone in the Wild Card Round? Indeed. The top 4 teams have home field advantage.
Hence, we have the biggest problem with the 2020 playoff structure: there is very little additional incentive to winning the division, rather than just making the playoffs. If all teams have to play in the Wild Card Round, and there are no fans to make home field advantage the advantage it usually is, there is no reason why teams wouldn’t just try their best to clinch a seed that makes the most sense for their game – perhaps a weaker opponent, or one they match up with better. What’s the incentive to go for the division when you feel better about the team you would play as the 6th seed?
Personally, I agree with expanded playoffs – I do think that, while flawed, they present a net positive to the game. However, providing no byes or additional incentives for teams to chase the division crown will lead to a lot of weeks similar to the one the White Sox had across baseball in the years to come.
Why? Well, let’s talk about each series.
The Cleveland Series
The White Sox could’ve walked out of Cleveland with, at the very least, a split. Some could argue they could’ve even won a third game. Instead, the White Sox dropped three games late, two via a walk-off homer, and instead were swept. What happened?
Let’s take it game by game. In game one, Dunning struggled and the bullpen couldn’t hold on. I see this as the one game in the series the White Sox probably had no business winning. Game 2 was the walk-off by Jose Ramirez off of Jose Ruiz. Game 3 was the walk-off by Jordan Luplow off of Gio Gonzalez. Game 4 was the four-run seventh that started with Jimmy Cordero and ended with Carlos Rodon in high-leverage.
If the names I used above seem like they stick out like a sore thumb, it’s because they do. Due to an injury to Alex Colome, Matt Foster followed in Game 2. After Foster came… Ruiz? Jordan Luplow is only in the major leagues because he has a career .982 OPS against LHP. So the Sox countered with… LHP Gio Gonzalez? Finally, Cordero was one out away from leaving the bases loaded in the 7th after not allowing hard contact. The Sox then turned to… Carlos Rodon, who hasn’t pitched out of the bullpen in five years?
Sox fans – including myself – were irate. #FireRicky came back in full force. Renteria defended himself by saying he tried to use these games to test how ready certain players were for situations that could arise in the playoffs. He wanted to know who he could turn to if necessary. Sox fans largely didn’t buy it.
But you know what? Honestly, I believe him.
I’m not the world’s biggest Ricky Renteria stan, I think I’ve made that rather clear. But at the same time, I believe what he’s saying and understand the logic. Again, this logic comes about due to the playoff structure. If the Sox take two of four or three of four from the Indians last week, they’re likely the #2 seed facing off against – you guessed it – Cleveland. I don’t know about you, but I want no part of that team in a three-game playoff series. The Yankees will absolutely have their hands full. The good news for the Yankees is that they’re an incredibly talented team. However, I personally feel a first-round matchup with the Indians would’ve been the worst draw for the Sox – and I think the Sox themselves felt that way.
So, could Renteria have managed that series in a less-than-ideal fashion on purpose? I buy it. You might not, and that’s fine. But understand that the reason I buy it is that the White Sox had the ability to determine their own fate in the playoffs and chose to run out Jose Ruiz, Carlos Rodon, and Gio Gonzalez in crucial situations. You might not like Ricky, but he certainly didn’t defend his decisions by saying “they were the right move at the time.” He defended them by saying “I want to see what we’ve got.” That’s an important distinction.
These were demoralizing losses though – dropping games the way they did is not good for team morale. If the Sox did in fact manage in a less-than-ideal way on purpose, the obvious risk is taking a hit to team morale. This is a point we shall address further in the Cubs series.
For Cleveland, what happened here was mismanagement in crucial situations. This we all agree on. Where we disagree is in whether or not it was done intentionally.
The Cubs Series
Ah, the Cubs. Always a fun series on social media – not. For anyone who needs to get caught up, the Sox were blown out 10-0 in Game 1, won Game 2 by a score of 9-5, and, after being down 10-1 in Game 3, mounted a late rally to push it to just a 10-8 loss while being able to bring the tying run to the plate. What an odd series.
Dylan Cease, Dane Dunning, and Reynaldo Lopez got absolutely hammered this weekend, and no one was able to grab a firm hold of the potential Game 3 starter in the playoffs. Instead, the White Sox looked rather lifeless at times throughout the weekend. I think this is the strongest point against what I outlined above in the Cleveland series – the White Sox just weren’t playing good baseball last week. That’s going to happen to teams over the course of a season, especially over a season of just 60 games. It’s tough for the Sox to see Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, and Tim Anderson all struggle at the exact same time. Yet, at the same time, there were parts of this series that were brutal. The defense was lacking, the starting pitching was anemic, and there weren’t a ton of good at-bats until later in the series. Whereas the Sox matched up well against the Indians, they were largely outplayed by the Cubs.
The best news for the White Sox was the fact that they posted 17 runs in two games to end the season. Luis Robert had three hits in the finale, and Yoan Moncada homered on Saturday for the first time in September. They didn’t stop playing after being down 10-1 on Sunday, and while moral victories are not nearly as important as real victories, they matter for a team that’s going through a rough stretch.
I view the Cubs series completely differently than I view the Indians series. I’m disappointed in the quality of play against the Cubs, but because I’m disappointed in the process of the Indians series, I can understand why the result of the Cubs series may have been what it was. Doesn’t mean I like it though.
At the end of the day, we’ve got to keep this all in perspective. That’s what these articles are for, anyway.
The Verdict: Bigger Goals to Focus On
Why did I even write this article in the first place? Because it was pretty clear to me that Sox Twitter was pretty upset about how this week unfolded – and this is completely understandable. I hate how the Sox looked during the Cubs series and was disappointed in the results in Cleveland. It was the Sox’ division to have, and they blew it. There’s no way around that. So, where do we as fans – as well as the Sox – go from here?
Well, it’s pretty obvious. The White Sox are still in the playoffs. Starting Tuesday, they will be playing a baseball game, the same as they would’ve had they won the division. While they won’t be playing at home, they will draw a team that doesn’t have their best player – Matt Chapman – available to them. The White Sox have a chance to very easily turn the narrative around after a week of struggling and make a run in the postseason.
You can make plenty of arguments about the fact that this is only a 60 game season and that the White Sox would be trending down normally. I would counter with the fact that Jose Ruiz and Gio Gonzalez wouldn’t have been pitching in important divisional matchups in high-leverage situations in a normal year. Additionally, every team has a rough stretch during a season. If the Sox went 2-8 in games 51-60 in a normal season and were STILL 35-25, no one would be too worried – there would still be 100 games to go, so it’s hard to get too high or too low. A 60-game season magnifies everything, good and bad. This week happened to magnify the bad. The last series against the Twins magnified the good.
We all wanted the Sox to raise a divisional champ banner. We all wanted to beat the Twins and have them respect our favorite team. At the end of the day, there’s nothing more important than lifting the trophy at the end of the season. If the White Sox made moves that they felt got them closer to that goal, and a by-product of that was botching the chance at a division crown in a year where the incentives are lower than ever, then so be it. I’ll choose to judge this decision once the season ends.
Regardless, the White Sox – expanded playoffs or not – are a playoff team with the fourth-best record in the American League. Even if the league still only had 10 playoff teams, the White Sox earned the chance to be in the playoffs. Heck, if there were only 10 playoff teams, I bet the Sox would’ve treated this week differently.
If I had told you back in July that the Sox would be 35-25 at the end of this stretch and would be in the playoffs, the reaction wouldn’t be the same as it is now – there would be a lot more optimism, something I still feel we should have as fans. I completely understand the frustration. However, I hope we can all keep it in perspective. There’s plenty of joy that can come from this season – a season that was never a guarantee in any sense of the word. If you want to only focus on the negatives, that’s completely your right. We will have to agree to disagree though.
I’m sure the White Sox learned a lot about themselves as a team over this past week. Being able to fight through the worst week of the season will be an absolute challenge for them. Oakland is a beatable team, but they’re no one to take lightly. Anything can happen in the playoffs
So, at the end of the day, enjoy this White Sox fans. Enjoy the playoff atmosphere, the start of the White Sox’ contention window, and the excitement of watching your favorite team past the regular season. I’m excited, win or lose, to not be done watching baseball after the regular season – it’s a foreign concept to me.
Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees. There’s a larger goal here. If all goes well, there will be plenty of division banners to hang in the coming years – ones that no one will try and attach an asterisk to.
Thoughts? Comments? Let me know on Twitter! @jlazowski14
Featured Photo: Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) / Twitter
Excellent article as usual. I appreciate your fairness and perspective in evaluating Rick Renteria’s ‘management’ of the bullpen this week.
I happen to be one of the few White Sox fans who is also an ardent supporter of Renteria. As a rare lifelong White Sox and Cubs fan since the early 1960’s I appreciate his contribution to two teams in Chicago that underwent painstaking rebuilds.
Following the 2014 Cubs season, their final rebuild year, the front office replaced Renteria. It was not because they felt he couldn’t manage them properly as they entered their next phase of becoming perennial contenders. Rather it was because they had a rare opportunity to sign Joe Maddon who had a short window to exercise an option that allowed him to seek another managerial job when his former GM Andrew Friedman also left the Rays to join the Dodgers. It’s hard to blame Maddon for wanting to join a major market franchise like the Cubs after spending so many year in Tampa managing a low spending small market team like the Rays who couldn’t compete financially with the likes of the Yankees and Red Sox.
When Theo Epstein announced the Maddon signing he also tried to retain Renteria but clearly that was a tough choice for the latter to make after doing a very credible job in his one season as the Cubs skipper in replacing Dale Sveum who had done a poor job in developing the first wave of Cubs prospects including Anthony Rizzo in 2013. Rizzo had a major rebound in 2014 under Renteria as did young veteran SS Starlin Castro. Renteria also had an opportunity to manage a couple more prospects who made their MLB debuts in 2014, Javier Baez and Jorge Soler. Unfortunately for Renteria, he missed out on the chance to manage the final wave of talented Cubs hitters including 2015 Rookie of the Year 3B Kris Bryant, C Willson Contreras, SS Addison Russell and OF’s Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ and Albert Almora.
Maddon was the one who benefited from having all of the Cubs top young talent together including a strong pitching staff. He rewarded the faithful with a postseason appearance in 2015 and a championship the following year. Unfortunately, Maddon couldn’t repeat that success after nearly blowing the World Series for the Cubs with some head scratching managerial moves in the 2016 postseason that included poor decisions with his pitching staff and a lack of communication with veteran catcher Miguel Montero over his demotion as their #1 catcher. You might recall Montero actually helped bail Maddon out with a pinch-hit grand slam in the NLCS versus the Dodgers along with driving in decisive run in the 10th inning of their game 7 victory over the Indians.
No one will ever know if Renteria could have accomplished what Maddon did in 2015 and 2016. We’ll also never know if Renteria could have done a better long term job with all that Cubs young talent, most of whom seemed to regress during the last few years.
We will all find out if Renteria can take the White Sox to the promised land. In my opinion he’s off to a good start after being instrumental in developing the bulk of their young core since assuming the managerial reigns from Robin Ventura in 2017, after serving as his bench coach in 2016. I predicted earlier this year that Reneria would be the 2020 AL manager of the Year and expect that award to be confirmed later this offseason. Like Maddon did with the Cubs, Renteria was able to manage the White Sox to a postseason berth in their first year of becoming a viable playoff contender. We’ll all find out shortly if the White Sox can advance to the league championship round and a World Series title in the next two years. That would be a tall order but I am convinced that Renteria will do a better job over the next 5 years than what Maddon ultimately accomplished on the northside in his half decade. Most White Sox fans also know that Renteria will have that opportunity with a front office and owner who have shown greater loyalty, albeit sometimes to a fault, than what the Cubs brass have shown throughout their history. I firmly believe that their loyalty toward Renteria will pay off in spades, for the White Sox and their fans over the next 5-10 years.
Thanks for the comment Aaron! I think you make some great points about both Maddon and Renteria. And thanks for the support as well. I too believe Renteria has earned the chance to manage a roster with some legitimate talent. This will be an interesting test for him and the rest of the White Sox roster. No matter what, having baseball past the regular season is a welcome sight for the first time in a long time. Go Sox!
Encarnacion and Fry need to be left off the playoff roster. Encarnacion was a drag on this team all season. Watching him with the Yankees in 2019, one could see he was an easy out and only hit homers when it mattered very little. The “Parrot’s” is an over the hill player and it really showed this season.