Angry, sad, shocked, disappointed—whatever you’re feeling, I’m right there with you, and so are your fellow Sox fans. The day is April 27, 2023, and the Chicago White Sox are 7-18. Their starting pitching has been suspect, their bullpen wildly unreliable, and their offense straight-up abysmal. It’s time for some cold hard truth (but stick around for a small silver lining).
Ultimately, the truth is this: no one person is at fault. Instead, everyone deserves blame. While I firmly believe that Jerry Reinsdorf’s excessive loyalty and corner-cutting trickle down and cause problems throughout the organization, fans can no longer blame just him. Once a staunch Rick Hahn supporter, I can’t continue to lobby for his employment. The same goes for Kenny Williams. But the saddest conclusion is that the players must also take the blame. No amount of organizational dysfunction excuses such levels of poor play from guys with such talent.
Part of me wants to point to the small sample size and claim that the South Siders can turn it around. But a quick look at similar teams throughout baseball history reveals that to be a nearly impossible task. That’s even more evident after a glance at the team’s advanced stats, which certify that the results can’t be chalked up to bad luck in any way.
Seriously, it’s bad. The White Sox are dead last in xwOBA at .290, while also sporting a wOBA of .294. That means their holistic offensive production has somehow been slightly LUCKY based on batted-ball outcomes, not the other way around. On the mound, they’ve surrendered a .352 xwOBA, good for third-worst in the league. So the crappy pitching is deserved, too.
With these numbers in mind, I just can’t see Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, and Liam Hendriks‘s returns changing much. Even if each of that trio plays near their ceiling, it still wouldn’t be sufficient to drag the rest of the squad to a .500 record.
The picture is bleak. So let’s assess the whole problem and dive into each entity’s culpability.
Jerry Reinsdorf
Sure, the Sox boasted MLB’s seventh-highest payroll in 2022, and are still above-average at twelfth in 2023. But let’s get a few things straight. For one, Jerry Reinsdorf’s net worth is estimated to be $1.7 billion. The fact that he operated his beloved, historic franchise well below league-average payroll levels for four decades is not erased by two years of respectable payrolls.
Second, and more importantly, Reinsdorf has failed his fans with the continued stingy approach even in the midst of this payroll increase. The budget limits in the winter of 2018-2019 prevented the Sox from landing Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, and that failed pursuit has had an enormous ripple effect on the team.
Hahn and Williams never had enough capital to seriously woo Harper. Then, when all signs pointed to Machado on the South Side, news broke that he signed with the Padres for $300 million in guaranteed money. Shockingly, that was more favorable to Machado than $250 million in guaranteed money and the difference in incentives. Let’s think through the following possibilities.
If Chicago signs Harper, they can play him in right field for years. Then, with nowhere to stick Andrew Vaughn ahead of 2021, they could’ve traded Vaughn at peak value and got a solid major league player in return. So instead of Harper plus a difference-making major league upgrade on the contending 2021 team, we had a mix of Adam Eaton, Gavin Sheets, Andrew Vaughn, and Leury Garcia. Cool.
If the Sox ink Machado, Moncada would’ve been forced to move to second base (remember, this was before Moncada’s breakout 2019 season). If he managed to play quality defense at second, then great, the infield is set! If not, the White Sox could’ve explored trading Moncada to a third-base-needing team who would pay top dollar. He compiled a fantastic 5.5 fWAR on a cheap deal in 2019 and would’ve earned a massive, massive return at the time.
Since then, Reinsdorf has still failed his organization. The hiring of Tony La Russa was a terrible move and the result of Reinsdorf’s extreme loyalty to his friends. La Russa just could not provide the right energy in 2021 and 2022, and consistently made questionable in-game decisions.
It will be interesting to see if he learns his lesson and cleans house in the front office if the team continues its poor play.
Front Office / Coaching
If anything is obvious, it’s that the White Sox are terrible at player development. How have so many highly-rated prospects come to Chicago and not taken off? Most of the original core group of prospects have been inconsistent at best, and the organizational depth needed to cover for injuries is nonexistent. Chris Getz and anyone else involved in development need to go. The South Siders have one of the worst farm systems in baseball despite trading zero big-name prospects in the name of contention recently.
I’m not going to touch Pedro Grifol in this article — he’s found himself in a ridiculous situation, and blaming a first-year manager in his first month for anything is absurd. I wouldn’t be worshipping him if the Sox were 18-7, the sample size is just too small for his career. However, Ethan Katz should be on a short leash. Lucas Giolito, his former high school player, has regressed since Katz was hired. Michael Kopech has not taken a step forward, and Lance Lynn doesn’t seem to have any answers right now.
Then, obviously, there’s Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams. The moves at the beginning of the rebuild made a lot of sense, and their players and player development staff have certainly let them down with those prospect acquisitions. I will proudly defend the rebuild-starting moves. What can’t be defended, though, is the contention-oriented moves. Basically, most of the deals since that same 2018-2019 offseason.
Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel, Nomar Mazara, Lance Lynn, Liam Hendriks, Craig Kimbrel, Ryan Tepera, Kendall Graveman, Leury Garcia, A.J. Pollock, Joe Kelly, Elvis Andrus, Mike Clevinger, Andrew Benintendi — the major signings and trade deals since then. Some of these players have been worth the money, some not. Whatever the case, the value added by these players has not brought the team close enough to a championship.
Most of these deals made sense at the time they were made. But at some point, you can’t keep pointing to hindsight as an excuse—if the general manager’s decisions aren’t resulting in wins on the field, he has to be held responsible. We are staring down the barrel of a fourth year of contention yielding no AL Championship appearance. It’s just too much of a failure to justify.
Accountability means firing Rick Hahn, Kenny Williams, Chris Getz, and anyone heavily involved in player development.
Players
There’s not much to say here, the reality is simple. Regardless of how bad your general manager or coach is, there’s no excuse for this level of play. The level of ineptitude is so high that you can’t excuse it all.
Luis Robert refuses to learn his lesson at the plate and continues to swing at any outside slider. Andrew Benintendi worked all offseason on hitting for power and can only muster singles. Andrew Vaughn worked on the same and has one home run to date. Yoan Moncada hasn’t looked the same since 2019. Lucas Giolito doesn’t throw fast anymore. Aaron Bummer lost his confidence. Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa have looked mystified by big-league pitchers.
Coaching won’t fix any of these problems.
Silver Lining
I’m a big believer that the Internet is extremely over-angry all the time. Hateful and provocative content is pushed to the top of our social media feeds constantly, and I don’t want to be a part of that problem. As cathartic as this article was to write, I don’t want it to further anger or sadden White Sox fans, so here’s a small positive idea.
There really isn’t a silver lining for the White Sox, sorry for the clickbait! But how about this—for as much as the South Siders make us sad or upset, what if each of us took a step back, remembered that baseball is just a game…and put an equal amount of positivity back into the world towards things that matter?
Call your mom. Hug your kids. Donate to a charity. Compliment a friend. Whatever it may be, it truly is refreshing to remember that sports are just sports, and life has so much more to offer.
The White Sox will make us happy one day, even if that day is not today. Cheers to then.
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Featured Image: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
I was White Sox when the team had players named Ferris Fain, Virgil Trucks, Chico Carrasquel, Sherm Lollar along with Paul Richards as Mgr. and Frank Lane as GM. I was White Sox when the team was known as the Go Go White Sox of ’59 and the South Side Hitmen of ’77. I was a Jeff Torborg and Ozzie Guillen fan. My ship, the USS Long Beach, was drydocked at Mare Island Naval Shipyard late 1970. I attended the first and only opening day doubleheader in MLB history at the Oakland Colosseum April 7, 1971. The White Sox won the twin bill. I last attended the Colosseum in 1973, but here it is five decades later, and I learn the Oakland A’s will join me in Las Vegas. In less than a decade the Vegas Golden Knights, the Las Vegas Raiders and in the year 2027, the A’s. How sweet it is. I have attended in person the Golden Knights and the Raiders and at age 80 I will attend the A’s home opener. If luck goes my way, I am hoping that opening day 2027 will be against the White Sox. I am frustrated with the Sox owner, its front office and the product on the field. If no improvement in the Sox, I will become an A’s fan because the White Sox are what they are: pretenders.
I don’t think it is a stretch to say that this team could end up worse than the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119), or the 1962 New York Mets (40-120). It is almost like the team has completely given up! We could hit June without the team having won 20 games! There needs to be a complete organizational overhaul from top to bottom, and even then it could take years to clean up this mess!