The White Sox remain amidst a full rebuild on the heels of their third straight 100-plus loss season. Unsurprisingly, they don’t seem to be in for an exciting winter.
General manager Chris Getz downplayed the possibility of making any multi-year free agent pickups. “Free agency is an avenue to bring in players to help in the win total, but to go beyond this upcoming season I think would be a little premature considering the state of our club right now,” the GM told Scott Merkin of MLB.com. The Sox gave out one multi-year free agent contract over Getz’s first two offseasons — the two-year, $15MM deal to bring Erick Fedde back from Korea in 2023.
Chicago handed out six major league free agent contracts last winter. They were all one-year deals worth no more than $5MM. The long-term books are wide open. Their only commitments for 2027 are a $14.5MM salary for Andrew Benintendi to close his five-year deal and a $2MM buyout on a $20MM club option to Luis Robert Jr. The White Sox could afford to make multi-year commitments even if they’re obviously not going to be in the Kyle Tucker bidding. It appears they’re content to essentially sit out mid-tier free agency yet again.
Perhaps the Sox will find another situation like the Fedde one that leads them to at least consider a modest two-year offer. Cody Ponce, Anthony Kay and Foster Griffin all pitched in Asia this past season but could explore a return to MLB. Ponce would seemingly have the best chance of that group to land a two-year contract. A rehabbing injured pitcher like Jordan Montgomery, Griffin Canning or Nestor Cortes could pull a cheap, backloaded two-year deal.
Merkin writes in a separate column that the White Sox will keep an eye on the market for a veteran starter who can take a few innings off the plate of their in-house arms. That could simply be on a one-year deal. The Sox tried that route with a $5MM signing of Martín Pérez last winter. It didn’t really work, as Pérez was limited to 10 starts by forearm and shoulder injuries. He pitched well — probably better than the Sox expected — but wasn’t able to eat many innings or net them a lottery ticket prospect at the deadline. Candidates for that kind of contract this winter include Tyler Anderson, Patrick Corbin, Michael Lorenzen and old friend Jose Quintana.
It seems likely to be a quiet winter on the trade front as well. Getz made the biggest move of his GM tenure when he shipped out Garrett Crochet for four prospects last offseason. They don’t have anyone close to that on the trade block now. Robert is their most notable veteran player, but he’s unlikely to move until closer to the deadline. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored when the Sox exercised their option this morning, other teams are unlikely to meet Chicago’s high asking price on the center fielder coming off another inconsistent and injury-plagued season.
Robert showed enough in the second half for the White Sox to roll the dice on a $20MM salary. Getz said this evening that while the front office won’t close the door on any trade opportunities, they’re expecting him to be on the team going into next season. “We’re planning on (Robert) being in a White Sox uniform,” Getz told reporters (via Merkin). “What he did in the second half was very indicative of what he’s capable of doing and how that can impact our team. … If there are opportunities for us to strengthen the organization, we’ll have those conversations. But as it stands today, we’re very much preparing for having Luis Robert play center field.”
If not Robert, there probably won’t be any headline-grabbing White Sox trades. They have an uphill battle finding any interest in Benintendi, who is owed $31MM over the next two seasons. They could find a modest return for veteran corner outfielder Mike Tauchman, utility infielder Lenyn Sosa or third catcher Korey Lee.
Ideally … Chris Getz would declare himself a free agent.
And all Reinsdorf will do is hire another neophyte sycophant.
I think Getz has done ok as GM. With his tight budget, he’s been forced to go bargain-hunting, which naturally comes with risk. It’s no surprise then that some of his moves haven’t planned out. I’d like to see what he can do with a real budget and not just getting squeezed over and over. It’s possible that Soto alone will make about as much as the entire Sox team. I blame Jerry way more than Getz for this mess.
I don’t think anyone can really have much of an opinion on Getz. He isn’t allowed to spend, he inherited one of the worst teams to ever grace a major league field, and because of the prior he has only been able to trade away remaining assets for long term options that haven’t been called up for the most part.
Otherwise, he really hasn’t had the autonomy to do anything we can judge him on.
Quit saying he “inherited” the team–HE had been the player development director the five years before being elevated.
He didn’t “inherit” it — he created it.
Mike – exactly correct.
Only the GM creates it. Too many people blame or credit the GM because of the owner, which is just a copout for fans that like or dislike the GM. Saying that the WS farm wasn’t the GMs fault makes no sense to me.
The 2015-2019 drafts didn’t produce one regular.
That’s more on KW/RH poor drafting than on Getz itself. Both KW and RH are terrible at drafting. Getz seems to be ok to fine at drafting so far.
The drafts do well at producing pitching tho.
When the current GM was the development guy in the same org that produced so little in said Minor league system, they are the issue. Though to be fair, the last time the Sox had any semblance of a good minor league system was back around the turn of the century…
Reinsdorf pays bottom dollar that includes his management and minor league system, and you get what you pay for.
Getz only got the job because he was the last guy in the room and ‘The Chairman’ can control him.. not really good qualifications for a GM if you are trying to win.
Yeah, but Getz did not do that, Its the one oddity on the White Sox minor league system through out the years: cannot draft a position player to save their lives (Montgomery possibly excluded).
But like you said they find a way to develop their pitchers… too bad its developing them for other teams most times.
Tim Anderson too
Edit: possibly yes to Colson and to a lesser extent Quero.
However, Quero was not a home grown prospect, he was a highly touted Angels farm system guy, but had to work on his catching (and still does to an extent). and Anderson had about 3 good seasons before his performance fell on its face. To me, good players last for 10 seasons (at least)
It’s fine if our opinions differ but TA was an all star from 2019-2022 excluding 2020 along with a couple of batting titles so I do count that as a rare position player development win. He fell flat completely on his own.
He fell flat largely because he was blessed with skills that dont age well- see lot of speed guys whose quick twitch and athleticism are imperiled by injuries. A shame as he was fun to watch during those 4 years. Meantime, Kyle Schwarber keeps marching on, despite never able to obtain a long term contract (as of yet)..
Hyrax: Same with 2024 train wreck as well.
He didn’t fumble his biggest test so far in the Crochet trade. Found some rule 5 value and the farm looks way better. His deadline deals 2 seasons ago also weren’t as bad as they looked at the time with guys like Vargas. I fail to see where Getz has gone wrong in his tenure.
I think he’s done a good job. The WS bashing is where the Athletics bashing was a couple of years back. I assume that there isn’t a single WS that realizes that the WS outscored their opponents in the second half last year.
They actually have 8 hitters that *might* be real players. Two outstanding RPs. They can sign three #3 type SPs and win a lot of games and still not come close to breaking open the piggy bank.
The A’s at least try and have good scouting. Good systems should get you MLB players in later rounds, at least one or two each draft, or even via FA. The White Sox hit on only their first round picks most times,that’s why they stink year in and year out.. Then they trade a pitcher who should be making them competitive to briefly fill their system, and typically most prospect fail (and really lets see these guys up now take a next step as they all need to be far more consistent with the bat). The Sox had not been competitive since about 08, then mediocre until ’20 and now mediocre again cause the last rebuild failed .I admit I have a bit more faith in Getz, but lets be real, Vargas is not a good player. He has moments, then the league catches up to him. Same with the other guys coming in. Quero came back down to earth, Teel looks like a keeper, Montgomery has pop but needs to be able to hit a single once a while. Braden Montgomery looks promising, but is not here yet. and that is it though (in terms of position players), Smith is good, same with Vasil, but again lets see what a league does when they have all off season to prepare to hit and pitch against this team. I mean where is the Minor league development?!
I hope cautious hope for this team but it also means being far better than than 60 wins next season.
All is true, the majority of their talent is in AA which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They also have seemly an ♾️ amount of pitching arms and a surplus of infielders not named Vargas or C Monty. Also skipping AAA as a pitcher isn’t impossible (Grant Taylor and Drew Thorpe).
AAA actually is the level you skip, save for a cup of coffee. AAA is for organizational depth and reclamation projects, and the odd injury rehab
To all White Sox fans: Don’t worry. We will continue to be irrelevant for the foreseeable future.
They will not be in the playoffs again while JR is controlling owner.
Eh 2029 isn’t dreadfully far away. 2029 is likely when JR sells his controlling stake to J Ishbia.
And tbf, Sox now are essentially on par with the Twins-Royals. Tiggers are the class with their young pipeline and the Guards keep cranking out pitching.
‘Bottom Dollar Jerry’.. busy squeezing nickels in the vice until they squeal.
The organization was a mess before Getz was in charge. Now he’s just bailing water until he can get the boat repaired. It won’t be an easy process.
Problem is if Jerry refuses to spend for the rest of his tenure as owner (and then justify the lack of spending by pointing to consistent bad records without considering more spending would have fixed that), then Getz will get let go as soon as Ishbia takes over. Probably won’t get a job elsewhere, either, because of a lack of success here. I know he bombed as the Player Development Director, but he’s gotten a raw deal as GM.
He helped make the bed he is laying in now. Getz seems to be hitting on guys, but really lets see those guys get better and take a next step and not regress. Ill give him some props then.
It also seems he is back to his old tricks hiring more guys from a failing Royals system.
Yeah seriously stop w the Royal boy crush, its like hes putting together a cabinet full of aged N’Sync and Backstreet Boys not realizing Kpop is a different beast. It’s like Moneyball where the protagonist goes and hires all the dead end scouts noone wanted.
The way it stands right now, the only payroll liabilities for the 2027 roster will be Benintendi, a few arbitration guys, and about 20 guys making the league minimum. Reinsdorf is not about to allow Getz to add any liabilities beyond 2026 and increase his cash outflow during the coming lockout.
You might have hit the nail on the head as to why about 20 teams aren’t really spending right now.
Yeah, forgot that the Billionaires fighting against the Millionaires is coming up… We will see if they really want to put another nail in the coffin of MLB popularity by having another lockout/strike.
Free agency is an avenue to winning! So I guess we will continue to lose 100 games!
The lockout will likely happen after the 2026 season.
If they all want Baseball to have another nail in its coffin, a lockout/Strike happens.
Baseball has likely plateaued in terms of earnings and now is starting a downward spiral. Now it will be buzzards picking at a carcass.
Leave it to Manfred, the owners and the players to collectively mess up a good thing. At a time when the NFL has cornered the market on days of the week (only missing Tuesday on their bingo card?) and both the NBA and the EPL-Champions League are achieving global expansion, baseball finally managed to do the imaginable in spite of the clowns at ESPN, come out of nowhere with a World Series for the Ages and capture the imagination of pop culture. A work stoppage when the country is reeling from a stagnating economy would be the height of stupidity, and something a post strike HR chase wouldn’t cure.
So he’s saying they won’t be competitive for a few years, and they spend $20 M picking up Robert’s option, when they could not trade him for squat the past two years, as if they’re going to get $20M in prospects for him. They’ll be lucky to get 50 bucks worth of prospects for a 20 million dollar investment, heading into another 95-110 loss season. Morons.
I think the Sox are also hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, that is their prospects all get better, Pitchers get better, and Robert finds an MVP type year and they somehow buck the odds and get good quick..
Not saying is a sane way to look at things, but look at this org.
Nah, they did the right thing by their organization, Robert, and their fans. $20 mil is nothing when the team has few long term commitments on the books, and hes universally popular in the clubhouse and when healthy (*big if admittedly), solidifies a critical position up the middle. Much different if he were an Adam Dunn-Cody Bellinger type. Would have been malpractice if they let him walk for nada and he had an Vaughn type Renaissance
White Sox are in a position where they could take on a bad contract, eat up as much as possible to get some prospects back. But that’s not happening with Jerry, so the best thing is to hope Robert has a good first few months and trade him as soon as a decent offer is made.
They may be convinced to eat bad money for 2026 only, then hope that the bad money is less bad at the trade deadline than it was over the offseason. However, Reinsdorf, will not allow any bad money past 2026 to be added to the books.
I’m sure the Rangers would like to shed Joc Pederson’s $18.5 million and put that money to a more useful purpose.
Not surprised since the lockout is in 13 months
Didn’t Jerry take on some deep pocketed partners, and would they not have a say on whether to remain a joke on the lake? Getz has not stood out in either of his jobs with the Sox. His return for Crochet was middling IMO, & now depends upon him turning his two-headed catcher depth into something… The rotation is a weak link, defence is poor & offence has but a few true diamonds. He gave away Vaughn and Milwaukee benefited. Robert’s value is sliding and there are few white knight talents on the horizon (Schultz)…
Yes. Jerry and Justin Ishbia agreed this past June that J Ishbia will take over as future majority owner at minimum 2029. The SP was average at best last season. LRJ isn’t blocking anyone at CF despite injury history. Getz said on the record that catching is gold. Teel could slide to 1B/LF if he flames out as a catcher. Having two good catchers is a good problem to have.
To me, the Brewers barely benefited., and its just as likely he falls back to his normal when the league catches up to him. That said, they did give him up for nothing, should have at least got some fringe A ball prospect as well.
However, As much as I dislike Getz, the Return for Crochet was ‘middling’? Right now the Sox have gotten three position players who could be with the Sox for a while (including Teel as a potential leader on this roster) for Crochet, who at the time could not be easily traded due to his past injuries and inning limitations, and bad blood, with the White Sox. Yeah, Crochet could help the BoSox win a WS and would skew things pretty well to them winning the Trade, but given the circumstances the White Sox faired pretty well, unlike the last trade (Sale) with the Red Sox..
The Crochet trade would be miles better if B Monty hits but as of now this is probably Getz’s best trade by a mile.
Maybe if you spent some money this team would excite the fans and you could move up in attendance. 27th is embarrassing for a BIG MARKET TEAM,
Getz never said he wouldn’t improve the team in some capacity. I would like to see someone in LF(Austin Hays?) over Beni and slide him into DH along with a high leverage/closer like Devin Williams or Liam Hendriks(maybe?).
Unfortunately, Liam is done, though I suspect someone out there will give him another shot. Williams, I don’t know. Good with the Brewers, bad with the Yankees.
The WS have two topo-tier closer options. Leasure only gave up runs in one of his 12 September appearances, and Taylor’s September FIP was -0.24. A negative FIP is an accomplishment.
Grant Taylor was borderline unlucky and I expect positive regression if he stays in the pen. Leasure isn’t really a closer he’s more of a setup/medium leverage reliever.
Negative FIP over a month split is hardly notable. It’s happened hundreds of times.
Taylor profiles as a starter long term. Jumped in the pen as he was rebuilding arm strength, a la Crochet and Sale
Yeah I I know there were rumblings about Taylor being a starter some time soon.
He’ll probably get good enough to be traded away, like Crochet and Sale.
Welp, Getz never said he wouldn’t improve the team this offseason. Guessing they’ll add an inning eater or two plus a high leverage/closer type guy. Shifting Beni to DH and possibly sign Austin Hays or Rhys Hoskins to play 1B and LF respectively?
Move Robert to LF or DH like the Yankees did with Judge
and the Dodgers Ohtani
Why would you move a gold glove CF to LF?
… I’m not even going to address the DH thing
That would be a terrible move.
“I think would be a little premature considering the state of our owner right now”