Jerry Reinsdorf

Jerry Reinsdorf, Justin Ishbia Reach Agreement For Ishbia To Obtain Future Majority Stake In White Sox

By Steve Adams | June 5, 2025 at 11:58pm CDT

The White Sox announced Thursday that chairman and majority owner Jerry Reinsdorf and minority owner Justin Ishbia “have reached a long-term investment agreement that establishes a framework for Ishbia to obtain a future controlling interest in the White Sox.” Under the terms of the agreement, Ishbia will make “capital infusions” into the White Sox in 2025-26 that will pay down existing debt and “support ongoing team operations.”

There will be no immediate transfer of control — and none until at least 2029. The agreement gives Reinsdorf the option of selling his controlling interest to Ishbia at any point from 2029-33. After the 2034 season, Ishbia will have the option to acquire the controlling interest from Reinsdorf. If and when Ishbia does acquire the controlling stake, other minority owners will have the opportunity to sell to him as well. His brother, Mat Ishbia, the principal owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, and his father, Jeff Ishbia, will be “significant” investors under the new agreement, too.

Reinsdorf, who purchased the White Sox in 1981, made the following statement within today’s press release:

“Having the incredible opportunity to own the Chicago White Sox and be part of Major League Baseball for nearly 50 years has been a life-changing experience. I have always expressed my intent to operate the White Sox as long as I am able and remain committed to returning this franchise to the level of on-field success we all expect and desire.”

Operating the club “as long as [he is] able” is a statement of some note. Reinsdorf is 89 as of this writing. He’ll be 90 next February and will be 93 when the initial window of potential transfer opens in 2029. By the time Ishbia has the option of purchasing the majority stake outright and of his own volition, Reinsdorf would be just a few months from his 99th birthday. That’s not intended to delve too far into the macabre, but the question of Reinsdorf’s ability to oversee day-to-day operations of the club as he ages into his mid-90s is difficult to overlook.

There’s also the question of the White Sox’ location. They’ve been on Chicago’s south side more than a century — one of the eight charter MLB teams established back in 1901. Reinsdorf has previously sought to move the Sox to Central Florida in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There have been far more recent rumors and speculation about a potential relocation to Nashville, although Reinsdorf was also looking into a new stadium in Chicago’s South Loop as recently as last year. The Sox’ current lease at Guaranteed Rate Field runs through 2029 — the first year that the current agreement opens the window for Ishbia to become majority owner.

The 47-year-old Ishbia has a reported net worth of more than $5 billion. Earlier this year, he was viewed as the leading candidate to purchase the division-rival Twins from the Pohlad family, but Ishbia abandoned that pursuit when the opportunity to increase his stake in the White Sox arose.

The 180-degree turn reportedly shocked the Twins, who had previously believed there was a path to completing a sale to Ishbia prior to Opening Day. At the time, White Sox officials denied to Jon Greenberg and Dan Hayes of The Athletic that there was a path to control of the White Sox available to Ishbia, but less than four months later, the team has now publicly revealed the specifics of that path.

Reinsdorf has increasingly drawn the ire of White Sox fans amid a yearslong spell of noncompetitive clubs. The White Sox won the 2005 World Series but have reached the postseason only three times since, never advancing beyond the first round of play. Reinsdorf conceded to a rebuild in 2016 when he allowed then-GM Rick Hahn to tear the roster down to the studs and build a new core from the ground up. By 2019, the Sox had the top farm system in baseball and an emerging core built around potential stars like Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease and Lucas Giolito — among others. The plan looked to have worked when the Sox reached the playoffs in 2020 and 2021, but by 2022 the wheels had come off as that core regressed and/or fell to injury.

Viewed anywhere from loyal (to a fault) to insular, Reinsdorf brought Tony La Russa back to manage the club in 2021 — going over Hahn’s head to bring his friend back for another go-around as manager. The Sox won in year one despite some clear hiccups along the way, but reports during that 2022 season of a miserable clubhouse culture emerged.

La Russa was out by season’s end, at which point Hahn hired former Royals coach Pedro Grifol as La Russa’s dugout successor. A losing team and further reports of clubhouse tumult persisted, and by Aug. 2023, Hahn and longtime executive vice president Kenny Williams were dismissed. The pair had ranked among the longest-tenured executives in the entire sport. Rather than conduct an outside search for a new front office, Reinsdorf promoted assistant GM Chris Getz to general manager just days after firing Hahn and Williams.

Getz fired Grifol last year after a historically bad 28-89 start to the season. The 2024 White Sox wound up setting the modern record for futility, losing 121 games. The 2025 Rockies are on pace to make that a short-lived record, but it was nevertheless a dubious distinction that shone a spotlight on the stunningly swift nature of the White Sox’ fall from an MLB-best farm system and team-on-the-rise status to the dregs of Major League Baseball.

Getz hired former big league outfielder Will Venable — who’d been Bruce Bochy’s right-hand man in Texas — as his club’s new skipper this past offseason. The second-year GM has been tasked with the latest rebuild, again rebuilding the farm system through a series of trades and high draft picks. Chicago’s farm system is unequivocally in a better spot than it was just a few years ago, but there’s little hope of a return to competitive play on the near-term horizon — particularly in an increasingly formidable AL Central that sent three teams to the playoffs in 2024 and currently has four teams with winning records.

If and when the time comes for Getz & Co. to reenter the free agent market to supplement a new core, Reinsdorf’s frugality in free agency will again return to the forefront of conversations surrounding the Sox. Despite playing in one of the largest markets in baseball, Reinsdorf tends to run the South Siders more like a small-market operation. They did run out a $193MM Opening Day payroll in 2022 and a $181MM payroll in 2023, as noted at Cot’s Contracts, but those are clear outliers. The Sox have never had a payroll of even $130MM outside those two seasons. Even more incredibly, Andrew Benintendi’s five-year, $75MM contract remains the largest contract in White Sox history. The White Sox and A’s are the only two teams in baseball that have never given out a contract of at least $100MM.

For all these reasons, the news of a light at the end of the tunnel on Reinsdorf’s ownership tenure has been met by fans with a blend of celebratory relief and frustration that there’s not a more immediate transition of power in today’s agreement. Even if we’re at least four years from a bona fide sea change, today’s announcement is still a turning point in White Sox history — one that provides a countdown clock for the turnover long coveted by the fan base.

Jerry Reinsdorf Not Pursuing Sale Of White Sox

By Mark Polishuk | April 6, 2025 at 10:32am CDT

Reports emerged last October that longtime White Sox majority owner Jerry Reinsdorf was considering selling his controlling interest in the team, and that Reinsdorf was in talks about a possible sale to an ownership group fronted by former big league pitcher and executive Dave Stewart. There hasn’t been any news on that front in the intervening months, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote today that a sale isn’t happening whatsoever. The 89-year-old Reinsdorf “has made it perfectly clear to friends that he has zero interest in selling as long as he remains in good health,” and “he has rebuffed all of minority investor Justin Ishbia’s requests to purchase controlling interest of the team.”

The latter point is particularly noteworthy, as Ishbia and his brother Mat were viewed as the lead candidates to buy the Twins until about six weeks ago, when the Ishbias reversed course and instead looked to increase their minority share in the White Sox. Team VP of communications Scott Reifert made it clear at the time that this “has no impact on the leadership or operations of the Chicago White Sox and does not provide a path to control” for the Ishbias, and today’s report from Nightengale would seemingly further quiet the speculation that Reinsdorf is looking to move on from the team he has owned since 1981.

Reinsdorf’s long tenure is highlighted by the 2005 World Series, which marked the first Sox championship (and the first baseball title in Chicago as a whole) since 1917. Beyond that signature achievement, however, the Pale Hose have only sporadically been contenders over Reinsdorf’s four-plus decades, and the club has topped the .500 mark only six times since that World Series year. Most recently, of course, the Sox posted the worst record in modern baseball history, and one can only hope that last season’s 41-121 debacle is the low point of what looks like it’ll be another lengthy rebuild.

Reinsdorf’s ownership style has long faced criticism on many fronts, chiefly related to a relative unwillingness to spend despite playing in a large market. As per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Sox payroll did rank seventh in baseball as recently as the 2022 season, but that marked Chicago’s only appearance within the top 10 spenders over the last 14 years. Andrew Benintendi’s five-year, $75MM deal from the 2022-23 offseason is the largest contract the White Sox have ever given to a player, and Reinsdorf’s longstanding reputation as a hawk in labor talks has only added to the perception that the Sox aren’t willing to heavily invest in player salaries.

With both the White Sox and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls (Reinsdorf’s other team), the owner has been known to both take a heavy hand in front office business, while also employing longtime confidants in key executive roles. While keeping trusted employees in place could naturally be viewed as a sign of loyalty, the flip side of Reinsdorf’s approach is that his teams are often accused of insularity, which keeps the clubs from fully embracing newer trends or perspectives. For instance, when the White Sox were looking for a new GM in August 2023, then-assistant general manager Chris Getz was promoted into the top job after Reinsdorf seemingly had a brief or non-existent search for external candidates.

All of this to say, South Side fans may not be enthused by Nightengale’s report, given how Reinsdorf’s popularity in Chicago is probably at the lowest point of his ownership tenure. There have also been some rumblings that Reinsdorf could even be open to moving the White Sox if he can’t get his desired new ballpark project in the South Loop area launched, as the team’s lease at Rate Field is up after the 2029 season. Commissioner Rob Manfred downplayed the idea of the White Sox moving in an interview last October, but Chicago fans might not be totally comfortable until there is a firm plan in place for the team beyond 2029.

Justin Ishbia Abandons Pursuit Of Twins, Will Increase Minority Stake In White Sox

By Anthony Franco | February 21, 2025 at 10:13pm CDT

Billionaire brothers Justin and Mat Ishbia are no longer interested in purchasing the Twins from the Pohlad family, reports Jon Greenberg of The Athletic. Justin Ishbia instead intends to purchase a greater minority share of the White Sox, Greenberg writes. Kurt Badenhousen and Eben Novy-Williams at Sportico reported last month that the Ishbias had purchased a small share of the White Sox back in 2021.

In the short term, the biggest significance is that it’s a major setback in the Twins sale process. The Pohlad family announced in October that they were looking to sell the Minnesota franchise, which they’ve owned for four decades. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reported in early January that the Pohlads had received robust interest and were hoping to have the sale finalized by Opening Day. There were reportedly multiple interested parties, but the Ishbias seemed the early frontrunners.

Mat and Justin Ishbia co-own the Phoenix franchises in the NBA and WNBA. While Mat Ishbia is the majority owner of the basketball teams, Justin Ishbia would have been the control person had they purchased the Twins. It’s unclear how far down the road the Pohlads got in negotiations, but they’ll now need to turn their attention elsewhere.

Over the longer haul, this is also a potentially seismic development for the White Sox. Greenberg writes that some people familiar with the situation believe this will be a stepping stone to Justin Ishbia eventually assuming majority control of the franchise from Jerry Reinsdorf. White Sox VP of communications Scott Reifert pushed back against that notion. “White Sox limited partners have received an offer from a third party to purchase their shares in the team, providing liquidity for the limited partners on their long-term investment in the club,” he told Greenberg. “This offer to limited partners has no impact on the leadership or operations of the Chicago White Sox and does not provide a path to control.”

Reinsdorf, who turns 89 next week, has owned the White Sox since 1981. He has owned the NBA’s Bulls since the mid-80s. For more than a decade, Reinsdorf has maintained that his family should sell the White Sox after his passing. He reportedly had conversations with a Dave Stewart-led group about a sale last October. It’s not clear whether those talks made progress, though Stewart joined the A’s in a special assistant role last month.

That process also involved some speculation about relocation. The Sox’s lease at Rate Field runs through 2029. Reinsdorf lobbied for a reported $1 billion in public funding for a new stadium in Chicago’s South Loop last year. As of last October, the White Sox were continuing to pursue the South Loop project.

AL Central Notes: Warren, White Sox, Manfred, Caglianone

By Mark Polishuk | October 26, 2024 at 2:55pm CDT

The Tigers had interest in right-hander Will Warren during their trade talks with the Yankees this past summer, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports. The two clubs reportedly had a provisional agreement involving Jack Flaherty relatively close to being completed before New York backed out due to concerns over Flaherty’s medical records, though it should be noted that Heyman didn’t directly say that Warren was part of whatever trade package the Yankees were prepared to send to Detroit. Flaherty instead was dealt to the Dodgers for two position players, one of whom (Trey Sweeney) ended up playing an important role in the Tigers’ surprising late-season surge to a wild card berth.

Ironically, Warren ended up making his MLB debut on the trade deadline day of July 30, and he posted a 10.32 ERA over his first 22 2/3 innings in the big leagues. He also had a 5.91 ERA over 109 2/3 innings at Triple-A, though his minor league numbers were a little skewed by a nightmarish four-start stretch in May. Scouts and evaluators generally view Warren as a back-end starter or perhaps a long reliever at the MLB level, and while the Yankees naturally want to keep pitching depth on hand, Warren could be a relatively expendable prospect in terms of future trade possibilities (with Detroit or any other teams).

Jerry Reinsdorf Reportedly Discussing Sale Of White Sox

By Darragh McDonald | October 16, 2024 at 11:59pm CDT

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is open to selling the club and is in “active discussions” with a group led by Dave Stewart, reports Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. It’s unclear how possible a sale is or how much progress the talks have made, but it would be a seismic shift for the franchise if it comes to fruition.

Reinsdorf, now 88 years old, is one of the more controversial owners in the sport. He bought the club in 1981 for about $20MM and has since developed a reputation for being on the meddlesome side, leading to reports of tumult from within the organization. Reinsdorf only owns an estimated 19% stake in the club, according to Forbes, but is nonetheless the principal owner of the club.

The club has had some success during his tenure as owner, including winning the 2005 World Series, but the Sox are at a very low ebb right now. They didn’t make the playoffs from 2009 to 2019, finishing below .500 during the majority of that stretch. A new core seemed to emerge and helped them make the postseason in 2020 and 2021, but that quickly proved to be unsustainable. They dropped to .500 in 2022 and lost 101 games last year before things got even worse in 2024. They lost 121 games this year, setting a new record for losses in the modern era.

Amid that downward slide, plenty of changes have taken place. In August of 2023, president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn were fired after many years with the club. However, that shakeup was followed by the club promoting Chris Getz to general manager from within, seemingly not undertaking an extensive search for external candidates. Manager Pedro Grifol and some coaches were fired in August of 2024. Grady Sizemore took over as interim manager and it’s not yet clear who will be the club’s bench boss for 2025.

Those changes were arguable merited, but as the Sox were nearing their dishonorable place in history this year, Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal put the franchise under the microscope in a lengthy piece for The Athletic last month. In it, various sources traced the club’s misfortunes to Reinsdorf. His slow embrace of analytics, his refusal to invest in amenities or player payroll and his insular loyalty were among the various complaints cited in the piece.

While many of the club’s fans have been clamoring for Reinsdorf to sell the club, it’s possible their wish is being granted in monkey-paw fashion, given who the buyer could be. Stewart is well-known in the baseball world for his playing career and also his post-playing ventures as a coach, executive, agent and stint as general manager of the Diamondbacks. In recent years, he has been involved with a group that has been trying to get an MLB franchise in Nashville, Tennessee. Stewart parted ways with Music City Baseball/the Nashville Stars but told Paul Skrbina of the Nashville Tennessean in May that he still had designs on getting a team to Nashville someday. Per today’s report from Ghiroli, he is now part of a group called Smoke34, a reference to his nickname and jersey number from his playing days. Ghiroli also mentions that Stewart and partner Lonnie Murray are trying to bring a National Women’s Soccer League team to Nashville.

Back in August of 2023, Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the Sox were exploring relocating within Chicago but that moving to Nashville was also under consideration. “Ever since the article came out, I’ve been reading about I’ve been threatening to move to Nashville,” Reinsdorf said in response, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. “That article didn’t come from me. But 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 Sports Authority, which we’ll have to do soon.” In December, multiple sources (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times) reported that Reinsdorf met with Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell.

There are still plenty of unknowns with this story and the next steps will require more details to come out. The talks between Reinsdorf and Stewart could in early/exploratory stages or they could be further along. It’s also possible that Stewart’s group is just one of several that Reinsdorf has spoken with or will eventually speak with. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible that Reinsdorf is using the threat of relocation to help get a new stadium built in Chicago. As covered previously at MLBTR, the Sox have discussed plans about a new stadium in Chicago’s South Loop on a parcel of land known as “The 78.” It’s not uncommon for owners of sports franchises to dangle the threat of relocation in an attempt to extract public money for real estate investments. The Sox, who have a lease at Guaranteed Rate Field through 2029, were reportedly looking to get a billion dollars in public money for their new stadium as of February.

Exploring a sale of the club also doesn’t mean it will ultimately come to pass. In recent years, teams like the Nationals and Angels announced plans to explore the possibility of selling, only to later pull back from those declarations. This situation appears to be somewhat different, in that some discussions have already taken place. Though as mentioned, it’s unclear how extensive those talks have been.

This is the second report this month of a club considering a sale. The Twins, divisional rival of the White Sox, are also on the block. The Pohlad family announced last week that they will explore the possibility of a sale. Reinsdorf is the second-longest active owner in Major League Baseball, trailing only the Steinbrenner family, who have owned the Yankees since 1973.

AL Notes: Reinsdorf, Blue Jays, Rays, Diaz

By Mark Polishuk | September 29, 2024 at 11:06pm CDT

The White Sox won five of their last six games but couldn’t avoid history, as the 41-121 club had the most losses of any team in the modern era. In an open letter to fans today, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf described the season in such terms as “a failure,” “embarrassing,” “completely unacceptable,” and others, while noting that “as the leader of this organization, that is my ultimate responsibility. There are no excuses.”

In terms of what is next, Reinsdorf said the team is “embracing new ideas and outside perspectives” to get things on track. “This will include further development of players on our current roster, development within our system, evaluating the trade and free agent markets to improve our ballclub and new leadership for our analytics department, allowing us to elevate and improve every process within our organization with a focus for competing for championships….When named general manager in 2023, Chris Getz and his staff immediately began conducting a top-to-bottom evaluation of our existing operations. Chris is rebuilding the foundation of our baseball operations department, with key personnel changes already happening in player development, international scouting, professional scouting and analytics. Some of these changes will be apparent quickly while others will need time to produce the results we all want to see at the major-league level.”

White Sox Notes: Sizemore, Managerial Search, Crochet, Moncada

By Steve Adams | September 26, 2024 at 11:59pm CDT

When the White Sox fired manager Pedro Grifol (along with bench coach Charlie Montoyo, assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar and third base coach Eddie Rodriguez), they handed Grady Sizemore the unenviable task of steering the ship for the remainder of a historically inept season. The Sox are currently tied for the modern era record with 120 losses and figure to establish a new benchmark for futility in the coming days. At the time Sizemore was elevated to the top job in the dugout, general manager Chris Getz plainly stated that the Sox would conduct a managerial search and hire a new skipper from outside the organization after the season. It now seems that Sizemore will at least be considered for the permanent post, however.

“Grady’s in consideration,” Getz said this week (link via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). “He has a lot of traits we’re looking for.”

The Sox will still conduct an extensive search for their next skipper, Getz emphasized. Sizemore will be one of many candidates from what the GM called a “deep pool” that they’ve cultivated since Grifol’s dismissal. (It’s not clear whether that pool will include Double-A manager and former Sox reliever Sergio Santos, but he’s publicly thrown his hat into the ring and voiced a desire to manage the club.) Still, Getz noted that Sizemore’s “temperament is exactly what we needed” for the remainder of the current season and praised his rookie manager’s communication skills with the players. Van Schouwen adds that Sizemore has another year remaining on his coaching contract, so it seems likely he’ll remain with the organization beyond the ’24 season in at least some capacity.

ESPN’s Buster Olney and Jesse Rogers report that Sizemore had never voiced a desire to manage prior to being promoted to his current post, but his strong relationship with the players made him the front office’s pick. Time will tell whether that leads to a more solid appointment following the season.

More broadly, Olney and Rogers explore the staggering levels of dysfunction that have permeated the White Sox organization this season. It’s a deep dive into the team’s many failures across virtually all levels, highlighting clubhouse rifts that date back to the 2023 season and questionable decisions from owner Jerry Reinsdorf, among many other fascinating aspects.

As has been suggested in the past, Rogers and Olney write that former general manager Rick Hahn appeared to have zeroed in on A.J. Hinch as the team’s new manager following the 2020 season when Reinsdorf went over his head and hired longtime friend and former White Sox skipper Tony La Russa. One club source told the ESPN pair that Grifol inherited “as negative a place as I’ve seen anywhere” in the game when he took over as manager. La Russa remains involved with the organization as an advisor and, notably, gave positive feedback about Getz when Reinsdorf fired longtime baseball operations leaders Hahn and Kenny Williams. That’s not to say Getz was promoted based solely on La Russa’s recommendation, but it’s a notable bit of context given that he was tabbed the new GM after just nine days and with no external search conducted.

There are countless other bits throughout the ESPN piece making it a must-read piece for fans not only of the White Sox but any club. Rogers and Olney delve into some specifics on the trade deadline, noting that the Sox targeted top Phillies prospect Andrew Painter when Philadelphia was in pursuit of Garrett Crochet — a price at which the Phillies balked. The Dodgers, per the report, believed they could make a compelling offer without including catcher Dalton Rushing, but that offer “never developed” in the end. They instead acquired Jack Flaherty from Detroit in exchange for another top catching prospect, Thayron Liranzo, and current Tigers shortstop Trey Sweeney.

Crochet stayed in Chicago, as Getz and his staff were intent on getting their price met or revisiting the trade market for Crochet this winter. That’ll surely be the case, and Crochet will enter the season as perhaps the top trade candidate in the sport. The asking price will again be astronomical, but there will also theoretically be more bidders for him — in addition to a lack of concern about his status for pitching in the postseason and/or his reported desire for a contract extension.

Crochet and Luis Robert Jr. will be the last vestiges of the core that propelled the White Sox to playoff berths in 2020 and 2021. The rest have either been traded or, like third baseman Yoan Moncada, will become free agents at season’s end. Moncada has a $25MM club option, but the Sox will pay a $5MM buyout on that option and send him into free agency for the first time in his career.

Moncada, still just 29 years old, tells Bruce Levine of 670 The Score that he plans to play winter ball this offseason in order to showcase his health for the other 29 teams in the game. He missed nearly the entire season due to an adductor strain and has scarcely played since being reinstated from the 60-day injured list earlier this month. Chicago has been committed too getting the younger Miguel Vargas — acquired at the deadline in the three-team Erick Fedde/Michael Kopech/Tommy Pham swap — regular playing time at the hot corner even as he struggles mightily at the plate.

That’s left Moncada with just one plate appearance this month, despite the fact that he was activated back on Sept. 16. He’s hitting .275/.356/.400 on the season in a tiny sample of 45 plate appearances. On the one hand, it’s confounding that the Sox would leave a talented and fairly productive veteran out of the lineup as they try to stave off their inevitable date with history. On the other, Moncada clearly isn’t in the team’s plans going forward, so there’s some sense to allocating those at-bats to younger players.

Moncada once ranked as the top prospect in the sport. He signed with the Red Sox after leaving Cuba, taking home a massive $31.5MM signing bonus (which cost Boston a 100% tax under the former international free agent system, bringing their total price to $63MM). He landed in Chicago alongside Kopech as one two headliners in the trade sending Chris Sale to Fenway Park. It took a couple years, but by 2019 Moncada looked on the cusp of stardom. He swatted 25 homers while batting .315/.367/.548 in just 559 plate appearances. That breakout contributed to Chicago extending Moncada on a five-year, $70MM deal covering the 2020-24 seasons.

The contract hasn’t aged well. Moncada gave the Sox one healthy, productive season in 2021 but has otherwise spent more time on the injured list than in the lineup. Even when healthy, he’s been below-average at the plate more often than not. He’s appeared in 404 of 703 possible games during that five-year period and slashed .244/.326/.395 along the way. That’s league-average production on the whole (101 wRC+), but the vast majority of that positive output came during the aforementioned ’21 season.

A healthy showing in winter ball would surely help Moncada’s stock this offseason. He’s likely looking at a low-cost one-year contract with incentives baked in to potentially boost his guarantee. There’s clearly a talented player beneath all the recent health troubles. Moncada has had seasons worth five wins above replacement (2019) and four WAR (2021). He’s still on the right side of 30. It wouldn’t be a total shock to see him return to form in ’25 — almost assuredly with a new club — and then cash in on a multi-year deal the following offseason.

White Sox Hire David Keller To Oversee International Scouting

By Nick Deeds | September 22, 2024 at 2:21pm CDT

The White Sox have hired David Keller to run their international scouting department, according to a report by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. The report was later elaborated on by James Fegan of SoxMachine, who noted that Keller’s title with Chicago will be special assistant to the GM. Francys Romero also chimed in to note that the club’s international scouting department is being restructured and that the club is expected to hire a director for the department in the coming months. Prior to joining the Sox, Keller had been a scout with the Mets since 2009.

While front office members and scouts changing organizations is a fairly common occurrence in the final months of the season and the first months of the offseason, Chicago’s decision to hire external for a high-level position is especially noteworthy as a potential sign that the club has begun to look for outside voices amid what appears likely to wind up as the worst season any organization has put together in the modern era by almost any metric.

The Sox tied the the 2003 Detroit Tigers for the most losses in AL history with a loss to the Padres last night, and the club would have to win each of their final seven games in order to avoid at least tying the 120-loss 1962 Mets for the most losses in the modern era. Meanwhile, the club’s current .232 winning percentage is already the worst of the modern era, and they’d need to win at least three of their remaining games to surpass the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, who went 36-117 for a winning percentage of .235. If they don’t win another game this year, Chicago’s 36 wins would tie the aforementioned 1916 Athletics club as well as the 1919 club for the fewest wins in a modern MLB season.

A disastrous season of this magnitude is bound to inspire reflection both inside and outside the organization, so it was no surprise when The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal published a lengthy article looking at the club’s failings. MLBTR readers are encouraged to read the report in full for a look at quotes from a wide-ranging group of sources regarding the state of the White Sox organization. In Ghiroli and Rosenthal’s findings, much of the blame for the South Siders’ struggles falls onto the shoulders of owner and chairperson Jerry Reinsdorf. The article notes that while Reinsdorf has a genuine passion for baseball and a desire to see the White Sox succeed, his old-school mentality and unwillingness to invest fully in advanced analytics and technology has held the team back in recent years.

Another concern the article points out regarding Reinsdorf’s ownership style is his extreme loyalty to his employees, which has helped to foster an insular culture within the organization that prevented the club from adapting to the current era’s norms and strategies in areas ranging from game planning for pitchers to defensive positioning. It’s also prompted Reinsdorf at times to go against what others in the organization think is best, such as when he promoted Chris Getz to run baseball operations rather than seek an outside hire or when he overrode then-GM Rick Hahn in the search for a manager to replace Rick Renteria following the 2020 season.

Hahn had his eye on former Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who had won a World Series championship with an organization that was widely-regarded as one of the league’s most forward-thinking, and according to Ghiroli and Rosenthal had begun looking into places to live in Chicago with an interview for the managerial gig scheduled. Instead, Reinsdorf stepped in and hired longtime Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who managed for the White Sox from 1979 to 1986 but had previously retired following the 2011 season, his final year in St. Louis. That left Hinch to sign with the Tigers, a club that was mired in mediocrity at the time but has emerged as a surprise contender for a playoff spot this year with a strong second half.

Considering the organization’s history under Reinsdorf, the hiring of Keller could be seen as the latest step towards accepting outside voices into the fold as they look to move past a brutal 2024 season. Previously, Chicago went outside the organization to hire then-Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol to replace La Russa after he vacated the managerial chair due to health issues, and Getz suggested when they fired Grifol earlier this year that they plan to hire another outside voice to replace Grifol headed into 2025, though Grady Sizemore has been acting as interim manager for the time being.

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