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Everyone knows the time to judge a new front office is a few months into its first offseason before you let real results influence the true reality - how it feels. But nonetheless, as someone extremely skeptical this will work, I have to at least remark that it does feel a lot different. First - I think I can say somewhat accurately that this board would have said the worst thing Getz could have done is act like they were still just a, say, RFer away and tried to patch it up. This offseason was painful, because this upcoming season is horrifying, but at least it appears to not be putting off future pain. I'd need an ethicist to tell me if it's better to take more pain in the short term or have more time to adjust future pain. Second - The trades do feel different. I would say in general Hahn got more leeway than deserved because my strong opinion is he sought out trades that got him prospects with higher "prospect handbook" grades specifically to get him a better set of reviews. The hype around the trades continued to meet an underwhelming reality, because often these rankings are outdated, and we were buying guys starting to fall off. He was like buying a car literally after it rolled off the lot for the full sale price, but still showing the sticker on the windshield to us. Posters can check me (I encourage it), but I really can't pin trades that hahn did similar to what Getz has done this offseason. He has gone for volume of some bounce back candidates/dfa candidates, and players whose age/grades seem to have undervalued them. Or...accurately valued them. But it certainly has felt like the sox own grades on these players were what drove the acquisitions. Were they right? I have no idea, but it feels like what is happening. Third - For seemingly his entire tenure, when Hahn is facing free agent position players in his "budget", he has opted for marginally more offensive upside over competency in literally every other area. If you saw a guy that had hit 95 wRC+ over the last 3 years who was slow and horrible defensively, and one who hit 90 wRC+ over the last 3 years and was good/great defensively, Hahn took the first guy 100% of the time. Fourth - Hahn's analytics seemed to always boil down to "this one weird trick will fix all woes". It seemed like they were way, way too focused on contact rate and cutting down Ks after 2019, even if it was a guy with low walk rates or horrendous power, and it came with a bunch of players with horrible zone contact who just chased every pitch for a nubber. For pitching, K-rate became everything. Some of this made sense. When your defense is horrid, getting guys that just don't allow contact made sense. But then also loving sinker-relievers in front of horrid defense made no sense ever. Fifth - he hired from the outside, albeit from the royals exclusively (jk). And even where he did not firesale his PD staff, I have to pay attention when Keith Law says this: "They did extremely well in last summer’s trade binge, they’ve hit on a couple of recent high drafts, and we’ve seen guys develop in that system to a degree that we hadn’t seen in some time." SO - maybe there were was headway. Now, what I'm not saying is different will equal success. You can make a lot of different versions of bad. But as a concern that he was promoted from within, he certainly has some different ideas. But obviously, he needs to show he can find well-rounded, elite talent from the draft, from intl, from trades, from everywhere. Different though! Go Paul DeJong!

Rick Hahn was really really really really bad at his job.

Yeah, I’m sure it wasn’t the fact they had no money to spend

Eloy's biggest impact on this team is the red batting gloves, which I find depressingly hilarious

Not the only person clearly who had internalized him as a very tall impressive man

Is this an improvement over Rick Hahn's 10,000 words to say absolutely nothing? I honestly can't tell.

Maldonado hasn’t had a .700 OPS since 126 at bats in 2014. What exactly is a resurgence for him?

Yeah, no good free agents want to come to the Sox because of their bad defense. It has nothing to do with Getz offering sub-$8 million dollar a year contracts.

The abnormally tall Paul DeJong!

Your 2024 Chicago White Sox. Get your tickets NOW, before we close the upper deck.

It also is a ridiculous comment from Getz because it’s not like he signed these defensive upgrades to long-term deals. Guys like Pillar, Maldonado and Dejong will be here for a season (at most).

That site is a clown show. They’ve run 4 articles on the new stadium - all of them negative. Sure, there are concerns, but they’re in the very early stages of this thing.

This is quite frankly one of the dumbest articles I have ever seen on a Sox blog. Good grief.

Have you SEEN the parking at Camelback! My god, you practically park at your seat! And the color of that grass in the outfield patio, it's like a shining emerald! Oh, and if you want to see actual good players, our AAAA shares the park with the world famous LA Dodgers! You can't beat that experience!

Numbers for the new guys:

Signing Tall DeLong is All DeWrong

Theoretically it would be good to have a LH bat off the bench who can pinch hit for the catchers, DeJong, & Lopez late in games. But Sheets isn’t even a good hitter against RHP at this point, so obviously a questionable fit.

I think "economic home run" is always too far, but "good idea" would be to consolidate more people closer to the loop to help ease some of this drain of commercial real estate. It at least feels like a good idea to continue to surround the loop with the clubs (river north), premier restaurants (west loop), and now a nearby stadium/riverfront/restaurant area, rather than keep it so spread out. Especially for a neighborhood that hasn't shown much desire to move off of heavily residential.

Left handed power? Sorry, I can't even type that with a straight face.

And even with no real money to spend, they still overpaid a bunch of hot garbage.

You don't want to sign Paul "please pray to Jobu" Dejong to a long term deal?

What service does Sheets really provide for this team? Play against some tough RHPs? He's beyond bad.

They could have gone with marquee offseason signing Chris Flexen

Yeah, that's kind of weird right? Edit: Kopech as the pitcher selected for the graphic is depressing.

It would be sweet if some of these schmucks could bounce back and recoup some value this season. Maybe flip them at the deadline for pieces that will be a part of the next competitive team.

@ron883 sensing this thread

Such a terrible disease. So happy for Mongo and his family. LONG overdue.

If KC held for the 4th down, they’d still have to drive 60 + yards for the FG. I don’t think it would’ve made a difference with how SF’s defense was looking the second half, but that’s why you’re there - to win the trophy. Put some pressure on KC to score a TD

It hasn't even been one offseason, but if his vision for the team is "all defense, no offense," then we are in for a rough Getz tenure. Kenny was all about catching lightning in a bottle, getting his guy, and using the farm to supplement the MLB roster. Honestly, if they had expanded playoffs during Kenny's tenure, this might have worked. Rick was all about trying to build a star offensive-focused core with power pitchers in the rotation, locking them up to team friendly deals, and supplement them with an expensive bullpen (where he could conceivably outbid teams) and other players he traded for (but he got starstruck by prospect rankings / could not develop). Getz, well, we know his hands are tied with the budget. But the Mena deal feels like a KW "use the farm to supplement the MLB roster" move where they sacrifice youth for an immediate fix. He talks about trying to make the team attractive for pitchers— with his 1-year signings of mediocre vets who are good defensively, but are aging. There's also a part of me that feels insane because JR waxed poetic about Getz "teaching" players in the minors to field baseballs. But for some reason that hasn't been the case at all during Getz's tenure, so if he's going to be like KW and Rick Hahn where he relies on going outside of the system — like Mena for Fletcher — to build his vision, then that's a problem. I've also been extreme blunt that I'm judging Getz on a curve because his hiring process was a joke.

Oh goodie, more spring fluff articles...

It appears that Getz does not want to rush young players to the big leagues. And I hope he prefers to have real outfielders play in the outfield. Another losing season is ahead but maybe it won't be as bad. Of course, anything would be an improvement over 2023. The 101 losses does not even begin to describe that nightmare.

Yea I've gotten the same vibe. Good summary. It's fairly obvious that Getz' team building tactics are very different than Hahn's. Getz puts much more importance on the edges of the roster and looks to create value in building that depth on the squad at every level. A lot of the moves he's made so far are stuff that were if we ever do hit on some superstars again, winning with them will be much more sustainable as the 2 WAR 2B or RF or C will be somewhere around, and won't require an overpay in FA necessarily. I've said it a few times, so far so good with his strategy. Importantly he took one look at this roster and said "rebuild". Hahn would have sold JR on "retool".

Oh he has a plan. It's just not one he is going to say out loud. He is clearing deadweight and payroll while filling in with minimalist players, while hoping to maximize a young talent pool.

Scott Merlin is a sycophantic orifice. Gertz can't figure out what he is doing. Just acquiring 4A guys and see if they stick around. Maybe next year he will have a plan.

Paul DeLong

You can say all you want about the third team possessing the ball having a guaranteed shot to win the game outright…but that discounts all the permutations of deal with Mahomes knowing exactly what he needs to do (like going on 4th and 1 deep in own territory, or setting every drive up with punting never an option)…not to mention Greenlaw was out by that point, and how huge he was for their defense. And then how much the Chiefs possessed the ball in the second half and finally started to wear down the SF defense. And it’s Patrick Mahomes, lol. The lead specifically mad a rule to thwart him, Tyreek Hill and Kelce because they were so deadly automatic.

He doesn’t deserve the a minor league salary.

There isn't enough HGH and clear/cream that can salvage Yas. Unless he goes full bionic!

Exactly. A penny pincher burning a couple mill on this guy is weird.

Because their owner is a penny pincher who doesn’t give a rats ass, just like JR.

Come on SF....keep your boot on their throat and when you get Mahomes in a pile punch him in the dick.

Here's a good line in that story, lol. " Nobody really does believe in the Sox coming off a 61-101 season. They went into rebuild mode without calling it that — adding no high-impact players to a reduced payroll this offseason — traded their most valued relief pitchers and put their staff ace on the block. According to Baseball Prospectus’ widely respected PECOTA projections, the Sox are one of three teams with a 0.0% chance of making the postseason, along with the Rockies and Nationals.

If you told me that Adam Hackenberg or Carlos Perez had the best spring training of all the catchers, I would not bat an eye.

They did this because they didn't want a photo of Lane Ramsey standing next to Fletcher

Loyal fan since 1970, I have finally reached the point where my interest in the Sox is equal to the Sox interest in me.

I heard a guy whose boss told him what to think, and he did.

Sounds like the same BS as last year. Remember how he was going to mold last year’s team into a winner and then after the season when he was a proven loser, he backtracked and said he didn’t like the team? Now he’s saying he loves the team again, that Getz put together. Guy is full of it.

Does anyone buy anything that ever comes out of Pedro's mouth?