The White Sox are going to overlook the playoffs within the AL Central, which is the baseball equal of failing driver’s ed. It’s disappointing however not significantly stunning; since profitable the World Series in 2005, the Sox have made the postseason simply thrice and gained a grand whole of three video games throughout all of these journeys.
Shockingly, the White Sox have loved outstanding entrance workplace continuity over that point. For a lot of the twenty first century, the duo of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, in some mixture of titles, was working the present. I say “was” as a result of, as you properly know, Williams and Hahn had been fired on Tuesday.
There’s no structural cause the White Sox can’t achieve success. They have historical past and branding half the league would kill for. They play within the third-largest media market within the U.S., and although they share it with a richer and extra well-liked neighbor, if Houston and Philadelphia and Toronto can spend sufficient to place out a profitable workforce, so can the White Sox. Most vital, they play within the best division in baseball, the place the last-place membership within the AL East would have a good shot at profitable the division.
They’re additionally fortunate sufficient to have an proprietor, Jerry Reinsdorf, who cares whether or not the workforce wins. Not each workforce can say the identical. Unfortunately, Reinsdorf appears to care how the White Sox win.
No determine in fashionable society is a lot like a feudal lord as an MLB proprietor. They reply to nobody, besides the commissioner, who serves at their collective whim and may be dismissed if he makes an attempt to contravene their orders. The authorities doesn’t a lot care to control these groups; as a substitute, they use their place as civic establishments to extract taxpayer cash for actual property enhancements. Sometimes that generosity is rewarded with a championship, typically not. What the hell are you going to do about it anyway?
Many house owners are content material to take a seat again and let their functionaries work. They perceive that if the workforce wins, the proprietor might be well-liked even when the GM or workforce president really made all the selections. Some of them, I dare to hope, even perceive the boundaries of their very own experience.
Not Reinsdorf, who has owned the White Sox for 42 years and the NBA’s Bulls for 38. No one is aware of the shine of mirrored athletic glory higher than Reinsdorf, who had the great fortune to buy a workforce with an embryonic Michael Jordan on its books. But these successes have pale over the previous decade and a half, as chronicled by Steven Goldman in Baseball Prospectus on Thursday. I gained’t rehash a lot of that historical past right here, as a result of Steven will get it mainly proper: It gained’t matter who the White Sox put in cost so long as that individual has to reply to Reinsdorf.
Here’s the problem for whoever runs the White Sox subsequent — almost definitely incumbent assistant GM Chris Getz, who is the heavy favourite to take a seat within the large chair. The White Sox are a mid-payroll workforce. Their participant acquisition has been often glorious however typically inconsistent. Their participant growth has been a lot the identical for pitchers, however sorely missing for hitters. They have a franchise middle fielder in Luis Robert Jr., a current Cy Young finalist in Dylan Cease, who’s having a down 12 months, and some respectable complementary gamers.
It’s not the simplest GM job in baseball, nevertheless it’s doable. There are completely government candidates who might step into this job, reform the workforce’s scouting and growth buildings, and construct a profitable workforce round Robert on a price range within the subsequent couple years. Many of these individuals are additionally charismatic and savvy sufficient to handle as much as a tough and interventionist proprietor. I’d argue that Williams, who was simply 36 when Reinsdorf put him in cost in 2000, match that invoice on the time.
Unfortunately, Reinsdorf’s tastes have ossified; the present classic would by no means countenance bringing in the one form of outsider who might repair his issues. He has both struggled or refused to courtroom exterior assist. When Williams was moved upstairs to government vp in 2012, Reinsdorf promoted Hahn from inside. After the singular and combative Ozzie Guillen had run his course as supervisor, the White Sox wasted 5 forgettable seasons on the inexperienced and somnambulant Robin Ventura. When Ventura’s alternative, Rick Renteria, led the White Sox to the playoffs in 2020 — the workforce’s greatest season in over a decade — Reinsdorf responded by canning him and bringing again Tony La Russa.
La Russa had managed the White Sox briefly within the Eighties earlier than embarking on a Hall of Fame profession with the A’s and Cardinals that included six pennants and three World Series. But after he left the dugout in 2011, it was clear the sport was passing him by. In the last decade between managerial gigs, he had a pitiable run as chief baseball officer of the Diamondbacks. He replicated Renteria’s success in his first season, then went moldy and obtained fired earlier than the top of the following season. A 12 months later, Reinsdorf is bringing La Russa again as a guide.
When Reinsdorf does go exterior the group, it’s to Kansas City, from whence he pulled present supervisor Pedro Grifol. Former Royals GM Dayton Moore can be rumored to be becoming a member of the remade White Sox entrance workplace. As for Getz, he’s a former White Sox and Royals participant who labored in Moore’s Kansas City entrance workplace.
It’s an inherently self-defeating and insular construction, one which’s reportedly allowed a rotten inner tradition to fester. Hahn has been consuming his now-infamous “ask me after the parade” quote for the previous two seasons. This is a workforce that refused to spend $30 million a 12 months on Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, however had no drawback spreading the identical amount of cash round throughout three aid pitchers.
This is a home on a pleasant plot of land in a great neighborhood that’s displaying its age; it wants a brand new roof and main repairs. But as a result of it’s owned by a person in denial who gained’t brook disagreement, it’s getting a brand new kitchen backsplash as a substitute of the most important overhaul it wants.
Consider all this within the context of Reinsdorf’s different foray into the headlines: This grandee of Chicago sports is contemplating shifting the workforce as soon as its lease at Guaranteed Rate Field is up in six years. This is the ultimate transfer of the feudal proprietor, the demand for tribute in change for the continued status of internet hosting a significant league sports workforce.
The demand couldn’t be extra oddly timed. Maybe Reinsdorf will get his suitcase of money, possibly not. But I wrestle to consider something he’s completed to deserve it. The White Sox have been heading within the unsuitable route for years now, and in altering out the entrance workplace, all Reinsdorf is doing is using a brand new group of individuals to cover the maps from him.
Local and state authorities shouldn’t ship Reinsdorf a dime. Instead, they need to rent somebody to whisper in his ear, like an previous Habsburg, and inform him the test is within the mail. What works for the workforce should work for the general public.
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com