In his first offseason as White Sox GM, Chris Getz made four key trades and a series of small free agent deals as the team enters another rebuilding phase.
Major League Signings
- Erick Fedde, SP: two years, $15MM
- John Brebbia, RP: one year, $5.5MM (including buyout of 2025 mutual option)
- Martin Maldonado, C: one year, $4.25MM (including buyout of 2025 club option)
- Tim Hill, RP: one year, $1.8MM
- Paul DeJong, SS: one year, $1.75MM
- Chris Flexen, SP: one year, $1.75MM
2024 spending: $20.8MM
Total spending: $30.05MM
Options Exercised
- None
Trades and Claims
- Claimed RP Alex Speas off waivers from Rangers
- Acquired SP Mike Soroka, SP Jared Shuster, IF Nicky Lopez, IF Braden Shewmake, and SP Riley Gowens from Braves for RP Aaron Bummer
- Selected SP Shane Drohan from Red Sox in Rule 5 draft
- Acquired C Max Stassi and $6.26MM from Braves for a player to be named later
- Acquired cash from Mets for RP Yohan Ramirez
- Acquired OF Dominic Fletcher from Angels for SP Cristian Mena
- Acquired RP Prelander Berroa, OF Zach DeLoach, and 2024 Competitive Balance Round B draft pick for RP Gregory Santos
- Claimed OF Peyton Burdick off waivers from Orioles. Later claimed back by Orioles off waivers
- Acquired RP Bailey Horn from Cubs for SP Matt Thompson
- Acquired SP Drew Thorpe, SP Jairo Iriarte, OF Samuel Zavala, and RP Steven Wilson from Padres for Dylan Cease
Notable Minor League Signings
- Joe Barlow, Jesse Chavez, Brad Keller, Corey Knebel, Chad Kuhl, Dominic Leone, Bryan Shaw, Danny Mendick, Mike Moustakas, Rafael Ortega, Brett Phillips, Kevin Pillar
Extensions
- None
Notable Losses
- Dylan Cease, Tim Anderson, Mike Clevinger, Gregory Santos, Aaron Bummer, Liam Hendriks, Elvis Andrus, Yasmani Grandal, Clint Frazier, Trayce Thompson
Back in October, I was skeptical of White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf saying, “We want to get better as fast as we possibly can,” as part of the justification for hiring internal GM candidate Chris Getz without conducting outside interviews. It was just too tall of an order for a team that lacked talent and has an owner averse to big free agent contracts. Based on the moves Getz ended up making in his first offseason as GM, a quick turnaround and 2024 contention were never actually the goals.
Given Liam Hendriks’ August Tommy John surgery, the White Sox chose to decline his $15MM option for 2024, instead triggering a buyout in the same amount that will be paid out over the next decade. The club also declined their $14MM club option on Tim Anderson, paying a $1MM buyout after finding no takers via trade. This outcome was unsurprising after Anderson’s abysmal 2023. The White Sox opted for a cheap defensive-minded veteran replacement at shortstop, signing free agent Paul DeJong in November. Anderson’s eight-year White Sox career officially ended when he inked a $5MM deal with the Marlins in February.
Though Getz chose to retain manager Pedro Grifol, the Sox did turn over the coaching staff early in the offseason, bringing in Marcus Thames as hitting coach and also adding Grady Sizemore, Drew Butera, Matt Wise, and Jason Bourgeois. Getz also dropped this memorable line to the media: “I don’t like our team.”
Getz would go on to back up that statement by giving the White Sox a major makeover. The first strike happened in mid-November, with reliever Aaron Bummer getting shipped to Atlanta for a five-player package. Taking advantage of Chicago’s lack of depth, four of the five players acquired were on the 40-man roster. It was a whole lot of players the Braves didn’t need. The biggest name, Mike Soroka, may have otherwise wound up non-tendered. But as a $3MM flier for a threadbare White Sox rotation, Soroka fits. Shuster provides another backend rotation candidate; he’ll start the season at Triple-A. Given that Bummer was coming off a 6.79 ERA and rebuilding teams don’t have much need for decently-compensated relievers anyway, sending him off for depth pieces was a solid first trade for Getz.
The White Sox’s biggest free agent offseason expenditure came during the Winter Meetings with the signing of Erick Fedde. The former Nationals top prospect, now 31, rejuvenated his career in South Korea in 2023. Now he’s a key part of Chicago’s rotation. The Fedde signing seems like a reasonable play for innings, with a hint of upside for a sub-4.00 ERA season. This is very much a Rotation of Opportunity in 2024. Perhaps nothing demonstrates that better than Garrett Crochet getting the Opening Day nod. As James Fegan noted at Sox Machine, Crochet has 73 big league innings to his name, “it’s his first time back in [the starting pitcher] routine since essentially his sophomore year of college, and Tommy John surgery rehab and a shoulder strain didn’t make 2023 a typical platform year from the bullpen.”
A veteran backup catcher was on Getz’s shopping list this winter, given the inexperience of Korey Lee and Edgar Quero. He found one in another deal with the Braves, who were serving as a way station for Max Stassi. The White Sox are only on the hook for $740K of Stassi’s $7MM salary this year, so he makes for a low-risk addition. Several weeks later, the White Sox inked Martin Maldonado to a one-year deal, possibly stifling an opportunity for Lee or Quero assuming Stassi sticks. Logically, if one of the young catchers seems ready this summer, one or both veterans will be traded.
In January, news came that Reinsdorf is seeking a new stadium for the White Sox in the South Loop. Everything so far has been standard: a request for over a billion dollars in public money, promises of an economic boom around a new stadium, questionable reasoning about why the current stadium won’t work, and a vague threat that the team could be moved. All of this is outside the scope of our Offseason In Review series, but the ballpark situation figures to hang over the team for the foreseeable future.
In February, Getz added Dominic Fletcher in a trade with the Diamondbacks, hopefully filling the Sox’s long-standing right field vacancy in the process. Fletcher, 26, hit well in limited action as a rookie with Arizona last year. Coming into the 2023 season, Baseball America rated Fletcher as a 40-grade prospect with a strong glove and a “line-drive swing with average bat speed.” Projection systems suggest Fletcher’s bat is not currently MLB-caliber, despite his brief success in ’23. Still, the bar is astoundingly low here, as the White Sox haven’t had their primary right fielder post a 1-WAR season since Avisail Garcia in 2017. Fletcher may have the right field job out of the gate, though minor league signing Kevin Pillar will likely be lurking as his potential platoon partner or backup.
The Fletcher addition fits with Getz’s stated goal of improving the team’s defense. Aside from Fletcher, the Sox have improved up the middle with DeJong, Nicky Lopez, and Maldonado. Groundballers like Fedde and Soroka should appreciate that, and defense is generally much cheaper on the market than offense. Of course, a tradeoff has been made, as offensive expectations for Fletcher, DeJong, Lopez, and Maldonado are quite low.
On the same day as the Fletcher trade, Getz dealt his best reliever, Gregory Santos, to the Mariners for Prelander Berroa, Zach DeLoach, and the #69 pick in this year’s draft. The two prospects project as a potential setup man and a fourth outfielder if things go well, and the draft pick will further boost organizational depth. With dim prospects in the short-term, trading away relievers for quality prospects is usually a good move. DeLoach may not have the ideal arm for right field, but as a 25-year-old who played 138 games at Triple-A last year, he could push Fletcher for playing time this year.
Of course, those departures leave the White Sox with one of the game’s shakiest-looking bullpens. New additions Steven Wilson, John Brebbia, and Tim Hill will see high-leverage work. The idea of Michael Kopech in the rotation seems to have been abandoned, and the once-highly-regarded righty will try to find success in relief.
Dylan Cease was the undercurrent of Getz’s entire offeason. With two years of control remaining, Cease was seemingly shopped all winter. Getz waited out the acquisitions of Aaron Nola, Sonny Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Lucas Giolito, Chris Sale, Shota Imanaga, Marcus Stroman, and Corbin Burnes, all pitchers who had crossover with Cease’s market. Blake Snell didn’t reach an agreement until March 18th, and as of this writing Jordan Montgomery remains available. The Dodgers, Braves, Cardinals, Reds, Yankees, Mets, Mariners, Orioles, and Rangers were linked to Cease at various points, but it was the Padres who swooped in to make a late deal on March 13th.
As I wrote in my subscriber-only mailbag last week, comparing the trade to the handful of rare precedents, I like the deal for the White Sox. Aside from Wilson, something of a throw-in, Getz acquired three prospects graded 50 or 55 for Cease. Looking at deals made for James Paxton, Joe Musgrove, and Gerrit Cole, teams generally fell short of that return.
Without Cease, the White Sox rotation has the potential to be awful. RosterResource currently projects Crochet, Fedde, Soroka, Chris Flexen, and Nick Nastrini as the starting five. Drew Thorpe, perhaps the key piece in the Cease trade, has a great opportunity here, but did not help his short-term chances with yesterday’s spring training outing. The projected White Sox rotation has produced exactly two good Major League seasons to date: Soroka’s 4-WAR effort in 2019, and Flexen’s 3-WAR 2021.
Trading Cease is something of a concession the White Sox are not going to be good in 2024 or 2025. They’re projected to win 66 games this year, and it’s hard to see them leaping into contention in ’25. Luis Robert may be at peak value coming off a healthy 5-WAR season, and he’s controlled through 2027. A case could be made that if his performance is largely irrelevant on bad teams in ’24 and ’25, and the team might just be turning the corner in ’26, the optimal move is to cash him in now for the maximum return. But the White Sox probably don’t see their timeline that way, and keeping Robert simply as a reason to watch the team is defensible.
Should the White Sox be taking advantage of their low payroll this year to try to add prospect capital? In a mailbag earlier this month, I explored the concept of sign-and-flips by non-contending teams, and we found success stories to be pretty rare in practice. As Anthony Franco put it, “If the guy was any good, he wasn’t signing a low-base MLB deal with a non-contender.” So you might suggest the White Sox should’ve landed one-year free agents like Teoscar Hernandez or Luis Severino with a mind toward flipping them, but those players might not have been interested.
Overall, this was a good first offseason for Getz, who traded three of his more marketable players aside from Robert and got respectable returns. It’s likely he’ll continue to listen on Eloy Jimenez and would trade Yoan Moncada if he has any kind of resurgence. As far as the season ahead, it’s going to be ugly.
Getz also dropped this memorable line to the media: “I don’t like our team.”
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Credit for honesty.
He’s not wrong.
Yeah, the team he was most responsible for developing as the head of the minor league system.
He may have not had input on who came in or out but his responsibility was to oversee their development which to date the Sox rate as one of the worst in baseball for all the years he led it.
“This was a good first offseason for Getz”
Why are people voting F? Do people know what a rebuild is?
Probably because it seems like we are at about year 12 of the same rebuild. I can’t be a rebuild if it never was really built in the first place.
I mean, Cease and Bummer were part of what they “buolt”, misguided or not, and they turned both into a load of assets.
Misspelled or not?
You misspelled “load of asses”.
More like year 1 2.0.
Rebuild? Rebuild!?! F. Only because I can’t go lower. Ahahaha!
I gave a D, bad team that didn’t try and improve. Not a F due to getting some prospects
The Benetti departure. Now I won’t even be able to enjoy listening to them while multitasking
It just shows the organizational culture is dysfunctional and have no idea how dumb they are
Benetti was a clown.. so glad he’s gone. He can take the prize shelf and tiger math to Detroit and never return.
Benetti, Stone, Kasper, and DJ were the only members of this clown college organization who did their jobs consistently well. Leave it to Reinsdorf’s stupid ass to think that having a guy with national recognition in the broadcast booth was a BAD thing because he missed a few games to do national work.
The sense of self-importance this ownership group has in itself is staggering when you consider that the largest-ever free-agent contract in franchise history is the small-potatoes 5/$75 contract they just gave noodle bat Benintendi.
This is a dreadful take that very few serious fans would agree with
So I can’t be a serious fan because I didn’t like Bennetti? I guess you decide who the serious fans are. Bennetti thought he was the star of the show with his childish humorand lame brain ideas. He wore out his welcome quickly. My guess is he won’t last long in detroit. Give me Hawk any day of the week.
Oh no, you’re gonna miss the 50% baseball talk along with the 50% grab ass comedy he tried to always start with Steve Stone?!
We were deprived of so much baseball analysis from the golden trap of a mind Steve Stone has b/c he was busy engaging Bonetti on BS for laughs sake.
Bonetti always was a non athlete who had no personal stories so he resorts to being the class clown to garnish attention and love.
Kids do the the same thing in grammar school.
It also does not help that the rebuild is as such due to the nimrod owner who had to meddle. Why nothing is absolute I have a feeling the Sox would have been in much better shape if Renteria was not stabbed in the back.
Compare this to the A’s dumps in recent years, and you can’t give this anything lower than an A.
IMO, the biggest offseason news was when Reinsdorf, the well known skinflint owner, laid the groundwork for a $2 Billion shakedown of taxpayers.
No reason to cover the lowly White Sox. Everyone can build the assumption they wont be competitive for over a decade or so.
I can see them competing around 2026 at minimum. The farm system would be good enough by then.
C+? The signings and roster are rough, but that’s more on ownership than management. I thought Getz timed the Cease trade well.
I know this is controversial but I’d give them a B. I like a lot of the moves they made. Lots of bounce back candidates acquired that can hopefully net them nice returns at the deadline along with a great return for Cease and the strategy for trading him working out.
I voted A for the same reasons. As mentioned above the Sox have built poorly in the past. But this is a great off-season in a rebuilding context.
B from me also.
B, myself too. I’ll probably get slammed but I think the best move they made was acquiring Catcher Korey Lee. When he starts getting consistent time behind the plate he’ll be the best catcher they’ve had since Carlton Fisk. The kid will be a huge part of the Sox offense
I agree with a B. I liked the moved they made almost all of them. That Bummer deal was terrific for a team like the White Sox with so little depth. I think they should have traded more guys like Jiminez, Robert and Moncada otherwise I would have given them an A.
I understand keeping Jimenez and Moncada because they probably don’t have a lot of value but Robert probably has a lot of value that really won’t increase much if at all.
Dump whatever salary you can for those guys and use it when the team is ready to compete again. It doesn’t benefit the White Sox in any way to have them around at tue moment. Robert is a little different but they could have gotten a haul for him of he was dealt.
Moncada wouldn’t net anything and they’d have to cover a large chunk of that contract. If he was blocking a prospect I’d say move him. Jimenez could maybe be dumped but he’d net nothing in return. Both however could net them a good return if they perform good by the deadline. Everything is evaluated based on risk/reward.
Robert only had 1 good season which was last season tbh.
B for me as well. There is something to said for accepting the reality that your last rebuild failed and it’s time to move on.
There was no realistic way to raise this team’s ceiling so they did the smart thing by raising the floor through depth and defense. I think bringing Clevinger back would still be smart.
This team is better positioned than the last time they hit reset. Getz seems like a better baseball guy than Hahn or Williams.
Sure the ALC is weak but they did the smart thing as you said. White Sox need 1 more inning eater guy, Lorenzen and Clevinger on a cheap deal would complete their rotation. Neither will be ready by OD.
Jimenez, Robert are what 24-26 years old? That’s crazy to trade them now or next year. Straight up would be stupid
So I guess we won’t see Mendick and Burdick batting in the 3/4 slots?
They are gonna finish ahead of the overrated royals
Dude they weren’t trying to improve. It’s a rebuild they traded away present talent for future assets.
Dude they weren’t trying to improve the rebuild just started. They got lots of prospects and young players that hopefully will help them compete down the road.
New management. Give Getz a break.
A rebuild could have been done around players like Cease and Robert. Both had/have 2and 3 years of control left but they chose to dump Cease just like they did with 30+ HR hitter Jake Burger, who is controlled through 2027. No excuse for that one. But don’t be fooled by the word “rebuild”. That’s not what this is. This is a teardown, with anyone making more than $10m (or, in Cease’ case, someone who will soon reach that mark). It’s a salary dump. jr could care less about his team. He pocketed all the money he’s saving by hiring an unqualified GM who does jr’s bidding with barely a budget that’s resulted in a team that is no longer fun to watch, except for the laughing that comes from a bunch of players that make the Keystone Kops look organized. I feel bad for Robert, Eloy and Moncada. They haven’t yet escaped this mess the way Cease and Burger have, but that’s only a matter of time. In the meantime jr will keep pushing for a new shrine to himself which isn’t needed since he’d be lucky to see 10,000 fans show up in his perfectly suitable park. He’s a freakin’ billionaire. If he wants a new stadium he should pay for it himself.
The Burger trade likely got Kenny Williams fired. I miss Burger, but getting rid of Kenny is a good thing. If Jimenez and Moncada can stay healthy and hit, both will be traded for prospects. Sox may have to eat a big part of Moncada’s contract.
Don’t blame Getz for the previous years of futility. If they are still struggleng in 2027, then yes, blame him.
No, he’s been poison in the Sox org for years. Now he has the reins.
Fingers crossed Eloy hits a bunch of HRs to get 1 decent (not great) prospect at deadline.
Moncada rebound would just be maximizing cash dump amount for JR.
These 2 are the posterboys of the overhyped failed rebuild.
Off to a good start clearing out vets. Hope the attention to player development improves at all levels (esp’ly minors) with Barfield and Bannister insights outside the WSox/KC bubble.
My D was for the whole organization, not just for Getz. As long as Reinsdorf is owner, the White Sox will have great difficulty building a winning organization and team.
Heck! the Royals mite win this poor division…
no. they won’t come close
Ubaldo jimenez is the decider of what a liberal is
Trayce Thompson is not a noteable loss. Especially the 2nd time around
White Sox are one of the worst run teams in baseball, pathetic. Ownership on down is a disgrace, I vote contraction.
The issue is the quality of prospects. Getting prospects that are 4th outfielders as the upside is just stupid. Over and over and over they went for quantity over quality. That is stupid. It leaves you with an upside of being 500 in a few years.
Well they need depth so they had no choice but to go quantity over quality.
Solid 50 win team
Solid 64-67 win team.
I’ll predict 72-90 or better for Sox. Soroka & Feddie will have great season. +35 HR for both Eloy & Robert, 25+ HR for both Vaughn & Dejong. Moncada 18+ HR, Pretty damn good Defense across the board. Eloy & Vaughn will both come into their on this year. Call me crazy but look me up after the season
Bold move that’s for sure. I can see Soroka and Fedde having average seasons. Sox turn bad pitchers into average for the most part. 25HR+ on virtually everyone(minus Robert) would be tough to accomplish in one season.
“+35 HR for both Eloy….”
Didn’t even need to wait until the end of the first series of the year.
I think it’s time for sports media to collectively push hard on Reinsdorf. If he says he wants a quick turnaround to contention and also wants a new stadium then he has to start putting a quality product out there.
I feel that Getz, like him or not did a decent job this off season with what he had. It seems he was tasked with reducing payroll and being creative with trades and coaching staff changes. It’ll be interesting to see how it develops throughout the season. I’m not sure how free agency looks next off season but we’ll see if they spend and how wisely they’ll spend it.
Getz hasn’t been terrible in my opinion. I like that he was active in the off-season. Can’t say the same for RH/KW.
I like what they did, bring in guys who “play the game the right way” along with some guys who’ve promised great potential but haven’t delivered yet, to establish a new culture. Model for the prospects. I see a 82-80 team, in fourth place behind 3 other bad teams tied at
oops: 83-79. Gotta love the ALCentral.
It’s a long shot for the Sox ever in a weak division. I like your optimism. If they were over .500 they would be fun to watch. The Reds came out of nowhere last season.
I give the org a C-, but Getz a B+. It feels like giving Grifol another shot came from Jerry and the low budget certainly did.
For those saying this is just another year of rebuild, I’d say it’s a new one. Once you make the playoffs, especially in consecutive seasons, it’s no longer a rebuild. It wasn’t a successful rebuild, but it was done. Now it has to be redone. And with the constraints he was given, I think Getz did well stocking the team with prospects and trade chips, though I wish he’d gotten back Snelling or Lesko in the Cease deal.
For those saying they didn’t improve, it’s true if you’re only looking at 2024, but it’s difficult to improve when you slash payroll by $50M. This off-season was about hitting the reset button. Getz fulfilled his promise of improving the defense and every position is now manned by someone capable of playing it. They will be awful this year, but any strong individual performances make that player trade bait and will set this team up better in the future.
The only decision that I don’t like for Getz so far is retaining Grifol. I could see them winning 64-67 games with improved defense and fundamentals, still last in the ALC but Getz turned the future into bad to not terrible.
Sell the team j.r. how Nashville look. Bad brand of baseball top to bottom.
This off season was trading McDonald’s for Burger King, not even an upgrade to Wendy’s. The billionaire owner talks like he can’t afford Five Guys, but won’t even pop for Portillos.
It takes stones for a guy to destroy his own rebuild, then strip his team down to save a buck, then complain that he needs 2B to get his new stadium built.
F is being nice, as it canot go lower at this point. Getz is more of the same in that he is cut from the same cloth from the failed regime (and he could not even do his last job in the org well ). Additionally Girfol and Katz are still here, Grifol did not even know there was a leadership vacuum in the clubhouse until the dirty laundry was aired by an outgoing player. (and Katz has not been very effective in his run as clipboard starer.. errr ‘pitching coach’….
At the very very ‘best’ its an ‘incomplete’ as many of these moves will not see results for a few years as most of the players they got need to develop but given what we know currently Im not hopeful..
I don’t think Getz is trying to be more of the “same”. I understand what you’re saying. Sure Grifol and Katz are still there, I rather keep Katz than Grifol tbh. I would give Getz’s first off-season a C at best.