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Been talking about these changes all year on the FutureSox podcast. The article from Fegan was really informative today. Highly recommend for all. Come on, man. You know Chris Getz sucks, the White Sox are doomed and everything is fucked.

It's worth noting how our "insiders" repeatedly told us in 2018 and 2019 how dramatically they had changed the way they scouted things with the draft from the way Williams was doing things and this was surely to bring improved success. There is a reason why people are having this response, you can only tell us things are getting fixed so many times before we don't believe it.

I guess I'm just going to repeat myself, but while those are all positives, and I'm glad Getz is taking those steps...But as a fan of the White Sox and Major League Baseball, I'm not going to be overly excited for my favorite team simply "catching up" to the rest of the league. We're celebrating something that should have been done decades ago. I'm not going to lower my expectations or hold the White Sox to a lesser standard because THEY are the ones responsible for trying to lower the bar so low.

Look man, you can mock everyone who has seen the last 45 years of ownership, complete with every lie to the fans, every broke promise to the base, every company line planted to the eager faithful parrots, and every single vow to be different, and eat it up. That's fine. You absolutely should not be surprised by those who have seen this exact same behavior in the past and who have learned a healthy skepticism from it. Some of us will wait for results before declaring everything fixed.

Awful news, Bobby is such a genuine guy. My brother and I took our sons to Spring Training in 2006 in Tucson and we saw Bobby walking out along the first base fence. The kids yelled their "hellos" and he walked over to the fence and talked with the boys for 5 or 10 minutes. He didn't have to do that. Get well Bobby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think most people that follow the Sox closely are aware Getz has been making hires and doing things behind the scenes that have advanced the Sox out of 2002. Good. I also don’t give my kids extra credit for not doing drugs. Once again, it’s not that I don’t want to give Getz a fair shake. He should absolutely not have been given the role he was given based on past performance, and it was another lazy hire in the long line of lazy hires by the Reinsdorf family. I want Getz to be successful, I just have serious doubts he will be, because Jerry Reinsdorf is very bad at this. Additionally, I don’t believe Jerry will give Getz, or any GM, the proper resources to truly be “successful” against the rest of Major League Baseball.

A 22 year old reliever in A ball is a total win? Well that explains a lot.

What kids did they not play though? Who was ready and forced the issue that didn’t get playing time? The vast majority of free agents that Getz signed were intended to be placeholders to avoid rushing legitimate prospects. I see people keep suggesting the Sox thought those additions were viable win now pieces, which is 100% not the case. The Sox knew they were going to be bad last year regardless of a handful of PR spin comments made to the media.

To somewhat support that, Colson's wRC+ (which is related to his competition) was 88 last year. It'll be interesting to see which version of Montgomery we see this year. The plus of last year plus fall is that the plate discipline is there and the power has been developing. The downside last year was obviously contact and strikeouts. What was interesting is that his called strike percentage actually went down from 2023 from 18% to 15%. His swing and miss % went up about four points however. That put him from a pretty elite tier for a guy with pop to 44th in the International league. His swing profile went from very good to slightly above average. His pitch selection and contact levels are very similar across the board to what Ian Happ did in the MLB last season. For what its worth, Happs swing and miss has actually improved from his AAA stint and throughout his years in the MLB. Happ and Montgomery have pretty similar exit velocities and LD/GB/FB percentages. Colson had a slight LD% advantage, but had a ridiculously high 26.7% Infield Flyball rate. The infield fly rate stat is really interesting as a side note. 26.7% is INSANELY high. The average in the bigs is around 7% and the highest last year was 20.7%. In 2023 Colson was at around 18 % which still poor. If people write off Colson's .281 BABIP as just unlucky, I think they'd be mistaken. Guys with high IFFB rates like Edwin Encarnacion (14.5%) tend to have really low BABIPS. Usually, guys with more IFFBs have a high fly ball rate but that's not the case with Colson. He hits plenty of line drives and grounder so I don't really think it's a launch angle issue. Most infield fly balls happen on high and inside pitches (mostly cutters and four seams). I don't have his heat map, so Im not positive that location is the issue but I think its something to look into. The Sox need to find what the issue is before opposing scouts do otherwise he is going to have even more trouble. The good thing is that I think if they can figure out what the issue is, there is a ton of room for growth. Isaac Paredes who lead the league last year was also dreadful at this in the minors (mid 20s to low 30s). He never really figured it out. I cant really find many examples of guys turning their IFFB around drastically but thats mainly out of laziness. If I were his hitting coach I would clip together every IFFB to see what his issue is. Does he need to lay off some inside pitches? Adjust himself in the batters box? Shorten up the swing? I really don't know what the fix is if there is one. Guys with high IFFB rates can still be great hitters, but mainly they need to be power guys to be stars. Their BABIPs live in the mid to upper .200s. Corbin Carroll went from 11.7% in 2023 to 20.2% in 2024 and his BABIP cratered. If he can get the rate down to the bad range (15-16%) you are looking at a really solid hitter. I'll be really interested to follow this over the year

Who has declared everything fixed through?

Mike Shirley is actually good at his job though. Lots of others were replaced. He did draft Chris Getz though haha Being skeptical of ownership is totally warranted. Jerry is awful. It’s a very different organization right now though below ownership. I mean Rosenthal and Passan wrote entire articles on the organizational change. Merkin, DVS and others reported heavily on the research and development, international and hitting infrastructure hires. This info has been out there for anyone who was interested in being open minded. We don’t know if it’ll work because they ultimately need to develop players. However, they’ve put themselves in a much better position and situation to actually be able to develop players.

Your statements mean absolutely nothing to me, as you've proven time and again that you lack any semblance of objectivity when it comes to Chris Getz work in the White Sox front office. And your snarky little holier than thou quip is pretty laughable. I am not refuting that these things are happening behind the scenes. I am simply stating that we do not know that foundational change is happening, or has happened as the poster claimed. Nothing has proven out yet. My tangible proof is Jerry Reinsdorf's record as White Sox Chairman, and the current state of the franchise following an historic 121 loss season. 40 years of Reinsdorf ownership tells me plenty about the bounds in which a Sox GM is allowed to operate. My skepticism is backed by the org's track record of being bad.

It’s stupid at this point to be having a debate if we should take Fegan at his word, that really shouldn’t be a question at this point. He wrote a story with direct access to the team and provided fans with an update at what the FO is doing. There is a difference between believing what Fegan wrote and believing it’s going to work.

This team has a chance to be really special. Maybe 122 losses special.

For the record, I couldn’t care less who believes and who doesn’t.

Three things are true: 1) They are introducing new ideas to an organization that has notoriously been stubborn and behind the times. This is objectively a good thing. 2) Unless it yields tangible positive results, it’s just another organizational failure. 3) Time needs to pass before any of us know how this all shakes out. That’s all there is to it. Why is this even an argument?

Yeah. Sure it’s nice that they are making changes but we need to see results. The skepticism is fair.

I’m down in Nashville with my family right now, but will try to summarize when i have some down time.

Interesting

Wait, do you not believe what is happening because only Fegan wrote about it? The guy who is probably the best sports journalist in town? And to say he isn't an "actual journalist" is pretty insulting to the guy.

I went searching for these reports by multiple journalists and found more articles on the stadium name change than on what Fegan is reporting. As a matter of fact, I did not find a single article to corroborate Fegan's piece. There are plenty of older articles talking about changes the Sox are supposedly making from recent years, most before Getz assembled the worst team in modern baseball, and none from actual journalists. Which of course comes as no surprise. As unsurprising as another unsubstantiated claim from the least credible Getz defender on this site.

No, but it goes into specific technological investments we have made in player development and scouting over the past 12 months. The reason we’re in this disastrous spot today has far less to do with major league payroll allocation and moreso with core structural issues that have prevented us being good at the very basic things that the best mid & small market clubs must be good at to survive. I get that Jerry sucks as owner and he must go to truly become a great franchise, but there is significant transformation possible by just getting with the times and it appears that Getz is making some actual strides in those areas.

We don't actually know this though. At least not in any quantifiable manner yet, or with any tangible permanence. JR still holds the reins, and there will always be a limit to what change any GM can bring about. Getz's hires look good on paper, but this is also the same GM who put the worst team in modern baseball on the field. It is fair to question his competence across the board after his disastrous first year on the job. Getz was never a qualified hire and has yet to prove otherwise IMO. Our skeptical criticism is fair, and to say his actions are backed by legitimate foundational change is woefully premature.

For those who still don’t believe that Getz is at least trying to make meaningful change, go read the latest Fegan piece over at SoxMachine. Lots of specific tangible actions that have been implemented over the last 12 months that prove he’s actually doing something to bring us out of the dark ages. Like holy s%*#, the Sox were the only club not using the Cloud last year to store their data…like we are talking about unprecedented levels of incompetence. And by no means am I suggesting Getz will work out (I literally just ripped his trade record in another thread), but we are already at the point where his GM speak is backed by legitimate foundational changes whereas Hahn’s lawyer talk was nothing but smoke & mirrors.

He has 900 plate appearances in AAA and an .837 OPS. Sending him back down does no good. He’s 27. Time to sink or swim.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/02/cubs-chris-flexen-agree-to-minor-league-deal.html Cubs sign Chris Flexen...terms pending Padres signed Yuli Gurriel...looks like no guaranteed money, but they still need a 1B/DH bat...Gain Sheets in the mix as well. Waiting for JD Martinez to come down in price?

This is a Rosenthal article that excoriates JR for his micro-managing, and talks about what Getz had modernized up til September of 24. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5773947/2024/09/19/white-sox-failure-worst-season-history/ This article on SportsMockery also gathers some of the reporting from September/24 White Sox Launch Front Office Overhaul As Getz Looks to Correct Years of Missteps

Would you be willing to link to some of these articles or let me know where I can find them? I'd like to read up on them. I enjoyed listening to Keith Law talk about the state of the Sox on Sox Machine's latest podcast. It's good to hear outsiders' thoughts on the team, and it was refreshing to hear him say positive things about what the Sox are doing and who they are bringing in. He even went as far to say (paraphrasing) that he doesn't believe Jerry is micro-managing the team into oblivion like Arte Moreno is with the Angels. He seems to think there is legitimate hope.

Many prayers going to Bobby.

You completely misread my statement. I'm not attacking Fegan, he is legit and one of the better credentialed writers to cover this sorry ass team. I'm debunking @WestEddy's unsubstantiated claims used in an attempt to dunk on me for questioning his almighty holiness Chris Getz. I will continue to stand by my statement that it is premature to state unequivocally that Getz has brought about foundational change in the front office. We don't and can't know this yet. Yet. We need actual evidence that Getz's efforts to change the White Sox FO modus operandi is working, and it's too soon to know either way.

Numerous comments that he was light on experience for the role. And then he was light on experience yet again when JR promoted him to GM.

This is nice to hear, but podcasting and writing for our respective blogs don't equate to multiple journalists reporting on said front office change as a specific poster claimed. This isn't a shot across anyone's bow. I have nothing but respect for those out there hustling to get truthful information from an insular org, or who care enough to write/blog/pod about a sorry-ass franchise in our spare time.

Looks like most got this hire right.

Thank God the Orioles fired him, so the White Sox now have a hitting guru. All you need for more bat speed is a better coach. If Getz selects coaches and front office staff like he does players, they might not be .500 until JR is gone.

MLB Pipeline hasn't ranked systems yet but Fangraphs released their top 100 today with 6 White Sox and Grant Taylor checking in at #94. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2025-top-100-prospects/

We never got the "system overhaul" message that we're getting now although guys like Getz were brought in. But there's one particular insider who insisted specifically that the drafting strategy was much improved, and we've seen how garbage that turned out to be. I'll leave you to do the search yourself.

Do you mind sharing the receipts? Like I outlined in a post a few weeks ago that the core lieutenants in Hahn’s front office were all White Sox lifers and not anything like Getz’s crew. And now, we actually have real evidence of investment in the core under Chris, something I don’t ever recall seeing under Rick. Again, doesn’t mean everything is suddenly fixed, but it’s nice to see tangible actions taking place instead of a bunch of lawyer speak.

Until they really want change, and that would have included an exhaustive search to find the best GM, catch up is all they will ever play.

Who is saying you should lower your standard? But any new GM coming in would have had to go through this part of the process…the point is that an unqualified, insular hire is at least doing some of the right things. I know I was terrified that Getz could have been just more of the same and this is somewhat of a relief to see, but perhaps you were more optimistic on him as GM than I was.

Unbelievable that he is dealing with cancer and the loss of his home and possessions in the California wildfires as well. I don't know how anyone could deal with that mentally. Pray for Bobby and his family to find strength if you believe in prayer.

He obviously has to continue to do it against better pitching but it's an exciting start to the spring for Houston who is a lock to stay at SS.

His time to sink or swim was last year. We had massive holes across the OF and he completely drowned as 26 year old. He failed spectacularly with all elements of offense. And beyond his pure production, go look at some of his Statcast metrics. We’re talking about a 5’ 6” tweener OF with below average speed and bat speed that would rank in the bottom 5% of major leaguers. He lacks the speed to be a legitimate CF and lacks the power to be a corner OF. I don’t know what anyone saw in him last year to say this dude deserves to be handed an opportunity. He looked horrible with the bat and totally incapable of impacting a baseball despite squaring up on the ball at a near elite level. Again, you want to look at Reno stats without any sort of context to say this guy deserves another opportunity, but go look at how other have performed there. I pointed this out when we first acquired him so not going to track down those figures again, but his numbers were very ordinary given Reno is the most offensive friendly park in all of minor baseball. Playing in that type of environment can make all the difference in skewing power numbers for a little guy who is actually good at squaring up on the ball. Personally, if it came down to it, I’d rather cut bait on him altogether than hand him a starting spot. Unlike many here, I was a huge critic of Fletcher’s from day 1 and how he performed last year in both Chicago & Charlotte only reaffirmed my opinion. The reality is the kid is going to be 27 on Opening Day and turn 28 by the end of the season. He lacks both ceiling and an extended runway. I’m just not sure what the end goal Is here. A solid 4th OF for a couple years if it all clicks? Not sure how that actually moves the needle for us. However, given the complete lack of OF talent in the upper minors, we might as well send him to AAA this season and see if he shows anything there. If performs at all, even in just April, then I’d be willing to call up him…but dude needs to earn his way.

Fletcher needs to prove something in AAA before I give him another major league opportunity. He hit well in the minors but has always been on the older side and his numbers in Reno weren’t that good when you consider what actual productive major leaguers have done there (see Eaton). Unfortunately he’s a 27 year old tweener OF who was a questionable addition from the get go and who has since regressed. I wouldn’t 100% write him off, but he blew a golden opportunity and now must earn his way IMO. We can always cut Taylor or even Slater if Fletcher proves himself worthy in Charlotte to start the year.

Michael A. Taylor was a turd last year. In fact, pretty much all the free agents the White Sox signed last year were turds. It was the reason they were signed. I’d rather give Fletcher, who has hit everywhere until last year, a bigger shot. If he fails, he fails, so what? If he does hit, Westeddy can bow to his Chris Getz shrine. All these other guys are 1 year or under, most probably under, and if you think they will command a decent prospect at the deadline…….

Under no circumstance can I justify a roster for what will likely be a 105 to 110 loss team having five veteran OFs. If there was a good chance we were going to keep Robert and Benintendi but also wanted a legitimate backup CF, then we should have prioritized Taylor over Slater at the time. It’s simply bad roster design to have this many veterans without positional flexibility and any trade upside. Again, I am pretty confident they will trade Robert this spring and as such this move makes more sense as a CF placeholder.

JR learning that the most loyal fanbase in the NBA is getting tired of his s%*# It's amazing because Sox fans and especially Bulls fans print money if they have contenders. Dude is the most short sighted owner in sports.

Sigh. d**n Gordon Beckham. My brain immediately thought of Beckham's scrawl in the dirt as soon as I saw his name. It literally was "where do I know Chris Getz? Oh Right, Getz is ___, he was our 2b for a bit". In that order.

Wat.

This franchise is such a joke. Ex-White Sox player? You're hired!

Deep sigh. I don't mean to be prejudiced against Chris, but I have little regard for the performances in baseball operations so far from our former players