Chicago White Sox

Guy - this an absolutely insane take. Getz traded $110M for $5M? This can’t be a serious post. The team is rebuilding and only two years removed from the worst record in baseball history. Of course the payroll was going to come down. Doesn’t help that Sox also fled Comcast and started their own RSN without having a deal with carriers in place at this same exact time. That’s a Brooks Boyer & Finance issue, not a Getz one. While our spending is absolutely pathetic regardless, there is zero reason to believe it will remain at this level long-term. We have always gone cheap when rebuilding and ramped the payroll back up as the team starts winning. I think that’s a stupid approach to running a sports org, but it’s the Jerry way and has been forever. Suggesting that Getz reallocating resources to fix the broken ass foundation is somehow him running a PE strategy to drive profits for the boss is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen typed on this board in my 25 years partaking on this site. Just fucking wild someone could type this s%*#.

Very close to what I’m expecting at the moment.

I can’t imagine we only go with two catchers on our 40 man roster. The fact we DFA’ed Romo makes me feel like they are going to go with three catchers. Maybe they add someone during camp, but right now I lean Lee makes the OD roster. I think there is zero chance Baldwin isn’t on the 26 man roster. He’s easily one of our 10 best players and I don’t think the presence of Benintendi or desire to keep Mead will change that. Regarding Andrew, I think he splits time between DH & LF and primarily against RHP (I know he had reverse splits last year). I think the goal there is to keep him healthier by playing him less in the field and hoping it drives better overall production even if in a more restricted role. I do think Getz would like to keep Mead and I think he’d like to cash in on Sosa if possible. Lenyn is simply not the type of player Getz likes give his free swings ways and poor defense. I still think there is a good chance he is traded before Opening Day and Mead becomes the primary reserve infielder.

Regarding Antonacci, I think he’ll eventually be a better fit for the roster as a LH fill-in for Chase at 2B and Vargas at 3B than Sosa is. Maybe they don’t need to solve it now, but I don’t see any path to rostering both Sosa & Mead and that will force them to think a bit longer than they probably normally would. For SP, I could certainly see them adding someone on a minor league deal, but I don’t expect a big addition at this point. I think they want to leave a spot open for the TJS & AAA guys eventually (yes I know you can never have too much pitching). Agree on the LH side of the bullpen front. Don’t know how the Alberto being a PTBNL would work mechanically. Seems very unlikely to me it’s even possible.

Not being micro managed by your pass is not the same as not being given the resources needed to be successful.

To be clear, I’m not justifying the decision to promote Getz to GM. The process was terrible and involved no other candidates or interviews. And I was 100% in favor of the new GM being an outside hire at the time. I think that’s a fair stance to take when the org is completely broken. I’m just arguing that Getz shouldn’t have automatically been fired as the head of Player Development because of the function’s lack of success. No organization fires everyone when the top decision maker is replaced…that’s just not based in any form or reality. That doesn’t mean he should have been retained in that capacity either. The new GM should have done his own assessment of the org and determined who was competent and who wasn’t. That being said, we know with certainty that Getz was partially constrained on resources because he immediately invested in technology (Trajekt, Hawk-eye, etc) that would helped his previous role the second he became GM.

Oh no doubt about it. The process that led to Getz’s hire is the definition of insanity. I’m just arguing against the idea he should have automatically been fired from his past role because the function he led wasn’t productive. He may have had all the ideas in the world on how to fix it and was told no (and we know for a fact this is true to some extent) because KW & Hahn wanted to spend the money on another reliever or UT guy.

So you think we should have fired Shirley as well?

No idea what you’re referring to here, but Getz has nothing to do with setting the overall budget (that’s 100% on Brooks, Finance, & Jerry).

Couple of questions / thoughts as I look at the roster above: DFA’ing Romo makes me feel we’re carrying three catchers to start the season, which leaves only three bench spots to cover everything else. With Lee on the bench, Teel & Quero should get plenty of time at DH. It also feels like Benintendi will get some time at DH as well. The primary OF should be Acuna in CF and some combo of Hayes & Baldwin in the corners. Pereira replaces Baldwin against LHP and Benintendi fills in against RHP with Baldwin shifted over to CF when Acuna needs a day off. Based on the above, two of the three bench spots are going toward OFs, which means the last one should go to an IF. Given other SS coverage options, it feels like Sosa is a shoe-in for the role of they keep him. How does Antonacci their impact decision-making? If Getz feels he could be ready by July, do they proactively trade Sosa and give Mead the reserve IF spot? I still believe that’s a very real possibility if a market is there for Sosa. The top three of the rotation appears to be set, leaving two roles open for competition. I think Burke is the heavy favorite for the #4 spot as he got better as last year progressed and could easily be our best SP if he can get his slider back in form (which was an offseason priority for him). The final rotation spot is wide open and reflects a fairly big hole at the moment. Will they add one more SP in free agency or go with what they have? My gut tells me this is what they are going with and the #5 spot will likely come down to Newcomb vs. Cannon (and maybe Vasil). That being said, I think this spot will quickly go to Thorpe, Sandlin, or McDougal. The right side of the bullpen is mostly locked in and will occupy at least five spots and likely six. Dominguez, Hicks, Leasure, Taylor, & Vasil will all make the Opening Day roster. My guess is one of the Rule 5 guys will be that sixth guy, but Gonzalez will certainly challenge them for that last spot. The left side of the pen is a big question mark and I think anything is possible there assuming Newcomb starts the year in the rotation. Gilbert is out of options and was ok last year which should give him an edge. Hudson is also out of options, but was bad last year. However, he has survived multiple rounds of roster shuffle and I think they want to give him a legit shot to make the OD roster. I could see those being your two lefties early on with Eisert & Murphy in AAA to start the season. Borucki is also probably in the mix. Unless Paez is one of the PTBNL in the Hicks trade, there is zero chance we are able to keep both him and Alberto. Paez remains the favorite for that last spot as they obviously liked him better at the time of the Rule 5 draft and he can provide some bulk garbage innings. IMO, Alberto will have to be an absolute monster this spring to make the team given recent additions.

Exactly this. Everyone’s performance is impacted by the budget and resource they are given. The player development function was certainly bad under Getz, but is that because he had no idea what to do or is it because KW & Hahn wouldn’t let him modernize the infrastructure? Just fascinating that as soon as he took over the org, he invested in data and technology. Also interesting that despite bad outcomes in his previous area, he was able to convince Jerry he had a plan for figuring out the org. Sure feels like a dude who was held back by his leadership team. Not justifying that means Getz should have been promoted to GM, but I think it’s unfair to assume he should have been fired based on outcomes alone when we know this org was rotten to its core under KW & Hahn.

Benintendi is arguably the worst defensive outfielder since signing with the Sox. He doesn’t have the offensive ability to overcome his current defensive shortcomings. Hopefully him playing less is the field allows his legs to stay healthy and improves his overall game, because if not, he’s a DFA candidate by mid season.

Better GM than KW in the modern era where analytics and biometrics reign king. KW was a fantastic scout and great GM when scouting was the name of the game. As soon as the sport modernized, KW was completely exposed as an executive. I’m not sure how this is even debatable. The White Sox org he left behind was perhaps the most inept sports club in Big Four history.

Candidly speaking, his overall trade record is bad. Many of his early moves were garbage. I have liked most of what he has done over the past 16 months, but there have been some stinkers in there. Obviously no GM is perfect, but we need a much longer runway before we can determine if he’s good or bad at player acquisition. I do think it’s clear he’s making significant improvements to the org’s foundation, which automatically makes him an upgrade over KW & Hahn.

The process that led to Getz’s hire was garbage. And whether he’ll end up a good GM or not is too early to say. But the idea that everyone in the Sox was terrible at their job is not true. Shirley is an example of a talented employee who Getz has smartly kept. That being said, Getz has fired a fuckton of former Sox employees who he felt weren’t good at their jobs and not because of KW or Hahn. Haber gone. Paddy gone. KW Jr gone. Koenig and the former analytics group…gone. Pro scouting staff…mostly gone. The list goes on and on. Again, Getz may ultimately prove bad, but his performance as GM should not be defined by his results as our Player Development lead.

You don’t automatically fire everyone simply because they were part of the previous regime. Plenty of smart, talented people have worked for extremely poor leaders. Everything should be evaluated on a case by case basis.

What did he deserve to be fired for?

This is a pretty ridiculous take. Getz is in his third year as GM. He inherited a completely broken organization. He has been given very little resource at the major league level to work with. His amateur LatAm signings remain locked in from the previous regime. What accomplishments were you expecting exactly? I can’t tell if you’re actually judging him exclusively by farm system rankings in this post or not, but that is also an absurd thing to do. Lots of prospects lost prospect eligibility last year. The LatAm function continues to provide almost nothing, which is killing the depth of system. Having a couple decent drafts when you have only overseen two is a pretty good accomplishment and probably best thing we have to evaluate him on.

Imagine what would happen if a CEO of a major company complained that they couldn’t fix their broken product because not enough customers weren’t buying the s%*# sandwich they were selling. Dude would be fired in a minute. Meanwhile, a very small subset of Sox fans want the rest of us to believe that it’s our fault Jerry can’t build a better team because he doesn’t have money to do so due to low fan engagement. It’s called investing in your product to create demand. The fact that Jerry (and tray) don’t understand this basic business principle is truly comical.

I’m not sure why you are surprised. He has zero options left and wasn’t making the OD roster. As such, a DFA was inevitable. The Orioles are taking a $50k to $100k gamble in hopes he can sneak through waivers later. As for Hill, he very well could be the guy DFA’d for Hays. I always felt the wanted another OF in place before they considered such a decision.

He’s going to be used in a multi inning role this year with the idea of him possibly transitioning to the rotation in 2025. Whether that actually happens or not remains to be seen, but that’s what the front office is suggesting is their plan.

Fegan said the PTBNL going to the Red Sox is an org guy the Sox were likely to release, so no concern there.

I just went with him in RF due to his arm being better than Baldwin’s. I could see those two flipped flop though.

Wow, surprised by this. Not expecting much here.

Oh s%*# is it? I have a dark mode filter on so it must be because of that.