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We can talk about wasting Trout's prime, and never winning with two all time greats, but Moreno has spent serious money trying to win. Meanwhile Jerry had a team in first place, coming off an AL West title and an ALCS berth, with the regining AL MVP in the prime of his HOF career, the reigning Cy Young winner, with a legit shot at reaching the World Series, and he shut it all down over money. Winning doesn't matter if it costs too much.

This might be the post of the year on this site!

Just know that whoever we hire will be the greatest ever... at least until they are fired.

Yeah no thanks

Agree! Lee certainly fell out of favor with Ozzie for not hustling (or at least giving the appearance of not hustling) but Maggs left the organization because he happened to get injured in his contract year. Didn't Maggs only have like 200 or 300 ABs in 2004? (I guess I could look that up) The White Sox (JR) are way too afraid to commit to a guy that was injured in the way Maggs was. It took Maggs a couple of seasons to get back to the guy we loved watching play. JR wasn't going to pay for a season or two of that. Just glad it worked out for the White Sox in 2005...for Maggs too (DET paid him well$$$)!

Since 1980 NBA has had 15 different franchises win the championship out of 30 and they have a salary cap The NFL with the most hardened cap over the same period has had 17 of 32 win the Super Bowl. MLB with no cap has had 23 different franchises win since 1980. The richest team in baseball has not won since 2009, the Mets with NY revenues have not won since 1986, the Dodgers themselves have only won twice (maybe a 3rd this year). Chicago in the 3rd largest revenue market have had just 1 for each of their teams. Kansas City has 2. Same with the Marlins. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/article/haters-whine-dodgers-payroll-la-100814444.html

Expos offense was worse but their pitching was better. Cleveland had worse pitching, but they had Lofton on pace for over 10 WAR and the beginning of that murderer's row lineup. They were also only one game back and had played the Sox pretty evenly all year from what I remember. Would've been a good race but no guarantee the Sox finish in first. Yankees had worse pitching but scored over 100 more runs than the Sox during the season. Regardless, if the window didn't slam shut after '94 this wouldn't be such a big "what if".

Interesting speculation. To me the difference was the White Sox pitching. The starters: Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Wilson Alvarez, Jason Bere, Scott Sanderson. The bullpen: Roberto Hernandez, Paul Assenmacher, Dennis Cook, Jose DeLeon, Kirk McCaskill That's pretty hard to beat.

Which I personally believe is one of the main issues they need to solve, among a few others. There is not going to be one solution to baseball's problems, because it isn't that simple, but I believe most of this falls on the current group of owners in the sport. There have already been articles written about the Brewers possibly shopping Freddy Peralta because of his incredibly team friendly deal, as well as the Tigers considering the market for Tarik Skubal, a year before he hits free agency. Both teams made the playoffs in 2025 and have a solid foundation, and both Peralta and Skubal are huge parts of their teams, respectively. Both players are in the primes of their career, but Milwuakee and Detroit believe they don't have a good chance to keep either, so why not get some prospects? We've seen it for a long time, and it's simply not good for baseball. The Crochet deal was slightly different, but certainly in the same ballpark of moves that shouldn't happen on regular basis. The problem isn't the Dodgers or Mets. The problem is the White Sox and Pirates. The sport has evolved and you have owners with deep pockets that view their organizations more than an incredible investment. On the other hand you have someone like Jerry who literally laughed with reporters during Ohtani's free agency tour, that the White Sox wouldn't be making an offer. Yet they all play in the same league, competing against each other. Some teams have tried to keep up, while others are seemingly content to keep trotting out payrolls that look like they are from 2004. And history has shown us small market teams can be ultra competitive, even with lower payrolls. If owners don't want to keep up with 2025 prices, then get out of the game. Sell your team, make billions in profit, and go home.

Exactly. He’s allowed the GM to spend money to try to compete. The deals haven’t worked out. Does that fall more on the guy building the team?