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White Sox’s Jimmy Lambert To Undergo Minor Ankle Surgery

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White Sox reliever Jimmy Lambert will undergo surgery to remove a bone spur from his right ankle, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. It’ll end his 2023 campaign but isn’t expected to linger too deep into the offseason.

Lambert has pitched in each of the last four big league seasons. He had his best showing in 2022, logging a career-high 47 innings with a 3.26 ERA. He didn’t recapture that success this year, allowing 5.26 earned runs per nine over 37 2/3 frames. He struck out a decent 23.8% of batters faced but walked opponents at an alarming 11.6% clip.

It seems likely Lambert has pitched through some measure of ankle discomfort for the bulk of the season. This is his second injured list stint of the year. He first landed on the shelf with inflammation in late May, missing around three weeks of action.

Lambert entered this season with one year and 134 days of major league service. He surpassed the two-year threshold but seems likely to fall a little shy of Super Two arbitration qualification thanks to a pair of optional stints that accounted for roughly six weeks in Triple-A this summer. He’ll be out of options next season, meaning the Sox would have to keep him in the MLB bullpen or take him off the 40-man roster entirely.

White Sox GM Chris Getz Discusses Club’s Future

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Newly-minted White Sox GM Chris Getz spoke with reporters (including MLB.com’s Scott Merkin) yesterday about the team’s future with him now at the helm.

Getz has already confirmed that manager Pedro Grifol will return in 2024, but the club’s new GM elaborated on that decision yesterday, noting that the Sox’s disappointing season in 2022 put Grifol in a “tough situation” this season.

“His experience is very valuable with all the different roles he’s had in this game.” Getz said of Grifol, “He has experienced winning. He’s determined to get this right. I think that different type of support, he’ll benefit from. And I think that the leadership starting with myself could really help him do that.”

Getz added that he will need to go through an “assessment period” over the last few weeks of the season where he will spend time with Grifol, the coaching staff, and the players in order to determine what needs to happen to improve the team headed into 2024. That being said, he did indicate that his goal is to regain the “edge” that he believes the club has lost in recent years. Getz went on to suggest that he hoped to improve the club’s professionalism going forward, a goal that tracks with recent comments from former White Sox reliever Kenyan Middleton, who criticized the organization’s clubhouse culture.

In addition to reshaping the club’s culture, Getz also discussed ways he hopes to improve the team on the field headed into 2024, with an emphasis on athleticism. It’s a sensible goal for the offseason given Fielding Bible ranks Chicago 29th of MLB’s 30 teams in terms of team Defensive Runs Saved with a -46 figure, while only seven teams have stolen less bases than the White Sox this year. In pursuing that goal of increased athleticism, Getz indicates the club will “exhaust” ways to improve the team, a philosophy that extends to potentially moving players currently on the roster.

While it’s not exactly a surprise that a club flirting with a 100-loss season like the White Sox would consider dealing players from their big league roster, it’s still a noteworthy position for Getz to take. The White Sox figure to have significant space to make additions this season with a projected 2024 payroll of just under $100MM per RosterResource, though that figure doesn’t include arbitration contracts for players like Dylan Cease, Andrew Vaughn, and Michael Kopech. While that should give the club room to pursue free agents to improve the club, Getz’s plans to explore deals involving their current roster indicate a more significant retool could be possible for the south siders this offseason.

White Sox Select José Ureña

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TODAY: The Sox have officially announced Urena’s selection, and right-hander Declan Cronin was placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to September 6) in the corresponding move.  Cronin is dealing with blisters on his throwing hand.

SEPTEMBER 8: The White Sox are planning to select José Ureña’s contract from Triple-A Charlotte, allowing the veteran to start on Saturday against the Tigers, as first reported by Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Chicago has an open spot on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding transaction will not be necessary. However, the White Sox will have to make a move to open up space on the active roster.

Ureña last pitched in the majors for the Rockies in April. He signed a major league deal with Colorado during the offseason but was designated for assignment and subsequently released after just five starts. The Rockies are still on the hook for his guaranteed salary, so the White Sox will only need to pay him the prorated portion of the $720K minimum salary for as long as he stays with the MLB club.

The right-hander signed a minor league deal with the Nationals in May but failed to earn a promotion back to the majors, pitching to a 6.31 ERA in 15 starts at Triple-A Rochester. He was released in early August and quickly signed a new deal with the White Sox, reporting to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights. Ureña has looked much better in his four outings with the Knights than he did with the Rochester Red Wings, posting a 3.37 ERA in 21 1/3 innings. He has increased his strikeout rate while decreasing his walk rate, and he has not allowed a home run in his last three games.

His recent turnaround at Triple-A is promising, but Ureña still has a ways to go to prove he can be a capable big league starter once again. He gave up 22 runs across 18 1/3 innings with the Rockies this year, and he owns a 5.61 ERA and 5.16 SIERA over the last five seasons.

Be that as it may, the White Sox will take any help they can get in the rotation right now. Their starters rank last in baseball with a 6.26 ERA since the trade deadline. Michael Kopech, who is moving to the bullpen in favor of Ureña, has been the number one culprit, walking 26 batters and pitching to an 8.10 ERA in his last six starts. It wasn’t so long ago that manager Pedro Grifol said, “[Kopech] not being a starter is not anywhere close to what we’re thinking.” However, Kopech’s poor performance has forced the team’s hand. Grifol confirmed to reporters, including Merkin, that the White Sox still view Kopech as a starter long-term, but he will spend the rest of the 2023 season in the bullpen.

With just over three weeks remaining in the regular season, Ureña will have the chance to earn another three or four starts. If he continues to perform like he has at Triple-A Charlotte, he could pitch his way to another major league contract for 2024.

Diamondbacks Claim Seby Zavala, Designate Buddy Kennedy

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The Diamondbacks announced that have claimed catcher Seby Zavala off waivers from the White Sox. The backstop was designated for assignment by the Sox earlier this week. Infielder Buddy Kennedy was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reported on the Zavala claim prior to the official announcement.

Zavala, 30, served as the backup to Yasmani Grandal for most of this season. His defensive grades have largely been strong in his career and this year has been no exception. His seven Defensive Runs Saved puts him in the top 10 among catchers around the league this year, with most of the others around him having done so with more playing time. He’s also considered to be above-average in terms of pitch framing.

The problem this year has been at the plate, not behind it. Zavala has struck out in 38.7% of his plate appearances and walked at just a 5.7% clip this year. His .155/.207/.304 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of just 34. Among hitters with at least 170 plate appearances this year, only Austin Hedges and Brenton Doyle have worse production by measure of wRC+. Zavala spent about a month on the injured list after suffering an oblique strain in early August but the Sox designated him for assignment when he was done rehabbing instead of adding him back to the roster.

Recent struggles notwithstanding, it’s understandable why the Diamondbacks would be interested. Zavala’s glovework gives him a decent floor and his bat has been better in the past. As recently as last year, he hit .270/.347/.382 for a wRC+ of 111. His 31.2% strikeout rate was still on the high side but he also walked in 9.3% of his plate appearances.

Arizona will bring him aboard and add him to their catching mix. Zavala is out of options and will need to continually justify his active roster spot, but he can be controlled for four more seasons after this one if he does so. Gabriel Moreno is having a solid season and should continue to get the bulk of the playing time, with Zavala sliding into the backup role. Carson Kelly had that gig for a while but was released last month and signed with the Tigers. José Herrera has been in the backup role since then but he is optionable and has subpar numbers both offensively and defensively this year.

Kennedy, 24, was hitting .318/.447/.480 in Triple-A when the Diamondbacks selected his contract last month. He then hit just .167/.310/.208 in the majors and got optioned back down to Reno last week. The club will put him on waivers in the coming days. He’s still optionable and has less than a year of service time, which could appeal to other clubs around the league. But Arizona was able to pass him through outright waivers in November of last year and could do so again. If that were to happen, he would have the right to elect free agency since it would be his second career outright.

White Sox Claim Yohan Ramirez From Pirates

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The White Sox announced that they have claimed right-hander Yohan Ramirez off waivers from the Pirates. The righty will report to Triple-A Charlotte, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago’s 40-man roster count is now at 39.

Ramirez, 28, has generally combined high strikeout and ground ball tallies in his career while also giving out his fair share of walks. In 34 1/3 innings for the Pirates this year, he had a 3.67 earned run average, striking out 20% of batters faced while walking 9% and keeping the ball on the ground at a 59% clip. In 22 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level, he had a 4.43 ERA, 33% strikeout rate, 12.4% walk rate and 54.2% ground ball rate.

The Bucs designated him for assignment last week to make room on the roster for their September call-ups and the White Sox have decided to grab him. The latter club had a couple of open roster spots anyway, having recently bumped out-of-options players Seby Zavala and Brent Honeywell Jr. off their roster. They have used one of those open roster spot to grab an intriguing arm to add to their depth.

Ramirez is in his final option season, meaning the Sox can stash him at Charlotte for the rest of the year while they get a look at him, but he will be out of options next year. If he continues to hold onto his roster spot, he can be retained for four more seasons beyond the current campaign.

Luis Robert Jr. Is Delivering In His First True Full Season

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Luis Robert Jr. has seemed like a staple of the White Sox for a long time now, having debuted back in 2020. However, he wasn’t able to have a full, healthy season in any of his first three campaigns. He avoided the injured list in 2020, but played only 56 games that year due to the schedule being shortened by the pandemic to just 60 contests. He would then miss significant time due to a right hip flexor strain in 2021, getting into just 68 games that year. That was followed by a 98-game season last year, with IL trips due to COVID-19, blurred vision and a wrist sprain.

By the end of 2022, he had certainly been able to showcase his talent. He came into this year with 36 home runs in 222 games and a batting line of .289/.334/.474, which translated to a wRC+ of 122, indicating he was 22% better than league average in that time. He had also stolen 26 bases and been given strong grades for his center field defense. FanGraphs calculated him as being worth 6.7 wins above replacement in that time, a strong tally on a per-game basis but a limited output in terms of volume.

The 2023 campaign has finally allowed us to see what Robert can do over a full, healthy season. He dealt with some quad cramping over the weekend and is still out of the lineup today, but hasn’t been placed on the injured list at any point this year. He’s appeared in 128 games with almost a month still remaining on the schedule. His 5.3% walk rate and 28.4% strikeout rate are both worse than league average, but he’s doing significant damage when he connects, with 35 home runs and 33 doubles. His .272/.324/.560 batting line amounts to a 135 wRC+.

Defensively, Robert has continued to shine as well. He as 7 Defensive Runs Saved this year, a figure bested by just five center fielders around the league. Outs Above Average is even more enthused, with Robert’s tally of 12 in that category tops at his position, tied with Brenton Doyle of the Rockies. Robert also has 17 steals in 21 tries, helping him put up 5.2 fWAR on the year already. If it weren’t for the amazing two-way exploits of Shohei Ohtani, Robert would be in the American League Most Valuable Player conversation alongside players like Corey Seager, Julio Rodríguez and Bobby Witt.

It’s been a dismal season for the White Sox overall, with the club sporting a record of 53-84. Those poor results promoted a deadline selloff, with players like Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn and others getting sent out of town for prospects. That was followed by a front office shakeup that saw both president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn relieved of their duties last month.

But the shining star of Robert has been a bright spot in the otherwise-gloomy season and perhaps a key reason why the club is hopeful of a quick return to contention. Assistant general manager Chris Getz was recently promoted to general manager, with owner Jerry Reinsdorf saying that part of the reason for staying in-house was that Getz is already familiar with the organization and will perhaps be able to deliver a quick turnaround, as opposed to an outsider who might take time before making bold moves.

Though the Sox sold some players at the deadline, they were mostly limited to those nearing free agency, holding onto more controllable pieces like Robert, Dylan Cease, Eloy Jiménez and Andrew Vaughn. There are still plenty of holes to fill on the roster and it will be a challenge to patch them all in one winter, but the club has a couple of things in its favor. One of them is the incredibly weak division, where the 66-71 Guardians are still in the playoff hunt in September this year, meaning the path back to contention isn’t quite as steep as it would be elsewhere. The second thing is that core of solid players, headlined by Robert.

Robert has two more guaranteed years on his contract, followed by a pair of $20MM club options that each come with $2MM buyouts. Those look bargains right now and will certainly be triggered, even if Robert were to drop back slightly from his MVP-caliber performance.

That puts something of a long-term target in front of the Sox, who should be able to bank on Robert being on the team through 2027 at least. Jiménez and Vaughn can be controlled through 2026 and Cease through 2025. That gives them at least two more years with that core four, three years with the Robert-Jiménez-Vaughn triumvirate and another year of Robert after that. Time will tell whether or not they can build on that in the years to come, but Robert has shown that they have a strong foundation to work with.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

White Sox Designate Seby Zavala For Assignment

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The White Sox announced today that catcher Seby Zavala has been reinstated from the injured list and designated for assignment. He was on a rehab assignment, working his way back from an oblique strain, but the club doesn’t seem to have room for him on the roster.

Zavala, 30, has been serving as the backup catcher to Yasmani Grandal for much of this year. Defensively, he’s been quite strong, with a tally of seven Defensive Runs Saved in just 464 2/3 innings. Only six backstops are ahead of him in that category this year, and Jose Trevino is the only one of those to do so with a lighter workload. He also has a positive grade from the FanGraphs framing metric, this year and each previous season as well.

Unfortunately, he’s paired that strong defense with a terrible season on offense. He has walked in just 5.7% of his trips to the plate and struck out in 38.6% of them. His .155/.207/.304 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of just 34, indicating he’s been 66% worse than the league average hitter. Only Austin Hedges and Brenton Doyle have a lower wRC+ this year, among hitters with at least 170 plate appearances.

Zavala landed on the injured list about a month ago due to a left oblique strain. In his absence, the club has been giving some playing time to 25-year-old Korey Lee, who is also hitting poorly but in just eight games this year so far. Zavala recently began a rehab assignment but it seems the club is going to continue with Grandal and Lee getting the playing time down the stretch, as they decide how to proceed next year. Since Zavala is out of options and the club apparently didn’t want to put him back on the active roster, that left them little choice but to bump him off the 40-man.

Despite his obvious struggles with the bat, it’s a bit surprising to see the Sox cut him loose. Grandal is an impending free agent, meaning they have a question mark at the catcher position next year. They will be hoping for Lee to take the job and run with it but he is hitting just .045/.160/.045 so far this year and will need a backup even if he does get some runway to prove himself next year. Zavala has also shown better offensive results in the past, including a line of .270/.347/.382 just last year. That was fuelled by a .404 batting average on balls in play but still made him a valuable part-time player when combined with his glovework.

The Sox will now put Zavala on waivers in the coming days, where it’s possible he could garner interest as a glove-first backup, though his out-of-options status means he would need an active roster spot. He would be ineligible to join that club for the postseason since it’s after the August 31 cutoff, but if some team does put in a claim, they can control Zavala for four more seasons beyond this one. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to elect free agency due to a previous career outright.

Going forward, the Sox will perhaps be on the lookout for help behind the plate this winter. As mentioned, Grandal is set to depart for free agency, meaning Lee and Carlos Pérez will be the only backstops on the 40-man roster soon. Both of those guys will still have an option year remaining, perhaps allowing the Sox to bring a veteran into the mix. Prospect Edgar Quero has yet to reach Triple-A but is playing well at Double-A and should move into the long-term picture at some point.

Luis Robert Jr. Dealing With Right Quad Cramping

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  • White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. was scratched from yesterday’s lineup against Detroit due to cramping in his right quad. That same issue led Chicago to hold Robert out of the lineup today as well, with MLB.com indicating that Robert could return to game action as soon as tomorrow. That being said, the club plans to exercise caution regarding the health of their superstar outfielder. In a dismal season on the south side of Chicago, Robert has been a major bright spot, slashing .272/.324/.560 with 35 home runs and 17 stolen bases alongside elite defense in center field. Oscar Colas has taken over for Robert in center field while he’s been out of the lineup.

White Sox Name Chris Getz General Manager

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The White Sox announced Thursday that assistant general manager Chris Getz has been promoted to the position of senior vice president and general manager. Chicago fired longtime baseball operations executives Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams last week.

Getz, who turned 40 yesterday, will join the likes of Rangers GM Chris Young, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, Phillies GM Sam Fuld and Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes among high-ranking baseball operations executives who also played at the Major League level. (Fuld and Gomes are second on their respective organizations’ baseball operations hierarchies. Young, Dipoto and now Getz are their teams’ top baseball operations decision-makers.)

A fourth-round pick of the White Sox back in 2005, Getz played in parts of seven Major League seasons between the White Sox, Royals and Blue Jays. In 459 big league games and 1574 plate appearances, he posted a .250/.309/.307 batting line and swiped 89 bases in 117 tries. Getz was the White Sox’ primary second baseman in 2009 before being traded to the Royals as part of a package to acquire infielder/outfielder Mark Teahen, and he served as Kansas City’s primary second baseman from 2010-11.

Getz announced his retirement as a player in May 2014, and spent the next two years as a baseball operations and player development assistant with the Royals. The White Sox hired him in October 2016 to take over as the team’s new director of player development — a role he held from 2017-20 before being promoted to his most recent title of assistant general manager. Throughout his time with the Sox, Getz has overseen day-to-day operation of the minor league system and the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic. He’s also contributed to player evaluation and contract negotiations.

“Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and experience within our organization to this role,” owner Jerry Reinsdorf said Thursday in a statement within the press release announcing Getz’s promotion. “Most importantly, he knows our players, both at the major league level and in our system, knows our staff and is familiar with all aspects of our baseball operations department. Chris has impressed me greatly over the past seven years. In our conversations together this season, I have become energized by his vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again. With his existing knowledge of the organization, top to bottom, I believe his leadership will provide us with the quickest path forward to our goal, a consistently successful baseball team that competes and plays the game the right way. He will re-energize this organization.”

Since the dismissal of Hahn and Williams, most reports out of Chicago have indicated that Reinsdorf was likely to go with an in-house hire — many tabbing Getz as the favorite. While Getz has clearly put in time with the organization and risen through the ranks since his playing days, it’s still a move that’s likely to be unpopular among Chicago fans, who were hoping for an outside hire to shake up what has been labeled by multiple former Sox players as a chaotic organizational culture. Reinsdorf, however, has a reputation as perhaps the most fiercely loyal owner in all of sports — which is what made the firing of Hahn and Williams so surprising. Even prior efforts to turn the organization around have included the return of old faces, such as the 2021 hiring of Tony La Russa as a second stint managing the team.

Getz now has nearly a decade of experience working in player development and baseball operations, and he’ll take the knowledge he’s accrued over that time and attempt to win over a fan base that has grown frustrated with the lack of results from the team’s lengthy rebuilding effort. The Sox tore things down back in 2016, trading names like Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Adam Eaton, David Robertson and Todd Frazier and taking a hyper-aggressive approach to international free agency — which led to the signings of Jose Abreu and Luis Robert Jr.

The White Sox’ farm system was regarded as one of the best in the sport as prospects like Robert, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson and others began to graduate to the Majors, and things looked to be on track when the Sox went 35-25 in the shortened 2020 season and then steamrolled the AL Central with a 93-69 showing in 2021 — winning the division by 13 games.

However, the Sox fell flat in 2022, and the 2023 season has been an unmitigated disaster. The Sox opened the season 7-19 with a -58 run differential through their first 26 games, and it looked as though their season was lost before the end of April. That’s proven to be the case, as the Sox never really recovered from that opening swoon and spent deadline season trading away the likes of Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Kendall Graveman, Lance Lynn, Jake Burger and Keynan Middleton in an attempt to restock the farm.

With Getz now at the helm, the broader questions will surround precisely what Reinsdorf meant when referencing the newly minted GM’s “vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again.” The Sox eschewed trades of controllable talents like Jimenez, Kopech, Robert, Dylan Cease and Andrew Vaughn. If the Sox opt for another aggressive rebuild, any combination of that group could be on the trade market this offseason. On the other hand, that’s a talented core to try to surround with talent, and Chicago has more than $100MM coming off the books this winter — in addition to some new players in the upper levels of the system following the deadline sell-off of shorter-term pieces.

Time will tell which direction the team chooses, but Getz faces an uphill battle both in restoring the White Sox to prominence and in winning over a fanbase that had been pining for broader-reaching changes.

Reinsdorf: No Intention To Sell White Sox

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The White Sox stayed in-house with their new front office, finalizing the hire of Chris Getz as their general manager this morning. Rumors that the Sox would turn to their AGM began almost immediately after ownership dismissed team president Ken Williams and GM Rick Hahn last week.

Promoting from within is nothing new. Jerry Reinsdorf has developed a reputation as one of the most loyal owners to his top employees. That willingness to stay the course has led to increasing levels of frustration from a good chunk of the fanbase, as the team has made the playoffs on just three occasions since its 2005 World Series win.

That has led to some clamoring for Reinsdorf to sell the team, but he made clear in a chat with reporters this afternoon he has no intention of doing so. “I’m going to couch this so nobody writes that I thought of selling,” Reinsdorf said (links via Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune and Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). “Friends of mine have said: ‘Why don’t you sell? Why don’t you get out?’ My answer always has been: ‘I like what I’m doing, as bad as it is, and what else would I do?’ I’m a boring guy. I don’t play golf. I don’t play bridge. And I want to make it better before I go.”

Reinsdorf went on to downplay speculation about the franchise’s long-term home. Earlier this month, Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business wrote that Sox ownership had considered the possibility of leaving Guaranteed Rate Field when the club’s lease expired after the 2029 season. Hinz wrote that a relocation to Nashville was among the possibilities and suggested there was “some chatter among team insiders” that the 87-year-old Reinsdorf could look to sell the club.

This afternoon, Reinsdorf addressed Hinz’s report. “Ever since the article came out, I’ve been reading that I’ve been threatening to move to Nashville. That article didn’t come from me. But it’s obvious, if we have six years left … we’ve got to decide what’s the future going to be? We’ll get to it, but I never threatened to move out. We haven’t even begun to have discussions with the (Illinois) Sports Authority, which we’ll have to do soon.”

Over the weekend, Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote that the Sox were considering three possibilities if they did decide to leave Guaranteed Rate Field: near the United Center, Soldier Field or Arlington Heights. There’ll presumably be more information on the stadium outlook in the coming months, but it’s not the most pressing issue for Reinsdorf or his new GM.

Turning to the on-field product, Reinsdorf called this “absolutely the worst season” of his 43-year ownership tenure. He expressed hope for a rather quick turnaround, pointing to Getz’s familiarity with the organization as a reason for hiring him so quickly after firing Williams and Hahn. That continuity will carry over to the dugout, as Getz confirmed that manager Pedro Grifol will get a second season at the helm (via Jesse Rogers of ESPN).

As for the roster, Reinsdorf expressed broad optimism in the existing core (second Sullivan link). He pushed back against the need for a huge overhaul and indicated the much-maligned organizational culture had already improved. Reinsdorf implied that some external acquisitions — presumably players who have since been traded — “contributed” to their clubhouse discord. While Getz suggested no one on the roster was truly untouchable, Reinsdorf didn’t sound like an owner eager to sign off on another rebuild.

In some respects, that’s an understandable course of action. The AL Central likely projects as one of the league’s weakest divisions yet again. The Sox decided against trading Dylan Cease, Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jiménez or Andrew Vaughn at the deadline. They generally targeted upper minors help in the deals they did make. There should also be plenty of payroll space going into the offseason.

If the Sox buy out their options on Liam Hendriks and Tim Anderson, they’d enter the winter with roughly $84.5MM in guaranteed commitments. An arbitration class headlined by Cease, Vaughn and Michael Kopech could add around $20MM. Bringing Anderson back would tack on $13MM (the difference between the $14MM option value and a $1MM buyout). The Sox opened this season with a player payroll north of $180MM, so there should be a decent amount of room to add from the middle tiers of free agency.

At the same time, Getz and his front office will face an uphill battle in fixing what is currently a 53-81 roster. They dealt away a good chunk of their bullpen at the deadline. The rotation behind Cease is full of questions. Korey Lee is unestablished as an MLB catcher. The Sox would need at least one starting middle infielder and would have to address both spots if they move on from Anderson. They’d have a hard time finding a taker for Yoán Moncada but need better production out of third base.

It’s a lot to address even before considering the clubhouse dynamics which Reinsdorf minimized. Getz should have a fair bit of flexibility during his first offseason at the helm, but it’ll be difficult to fix all the weaknesses in one winter.

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