The White Sox are going to overlook the playoffs within the AL Central, which is the baseball equal of failing driver’s ed. It’s disappointing however not notably stunning; since successful the World Collection in 2005, the Sox have made the postseason simply thrice and gained a grand complete of three video games throughout all of these journeys.
Shockingly, the White Sox have loved exceptional entrance workplace continuity over that point. For a lot of the twenty first century, the duo of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, in some mixture of titles, was operating the present. I say “was” as a result of, as you properly know, Williams and Hahn have been fired on Tuesday.
There’s no structural purpose the White Sox can’t achieve success. They’ve historical past and branding half the league would kill for. They play within the third-largest media market within the U.S., and although they share it with a richer and extra well-liked neighbor, if Houston and Philadelphia and Toronto can spend sufficient to place out a successful staff, so can the White Sox. Most necessary, they play within the best division in baseball, the place the last-place membership within the AL East would have a good shot at successful the division.
They’re additionally fortunate sufficient to have an proprietor, Jerry Reinsdorf, who cares whether or not the staff wins. Not each staff can say the identical. Sadly, Reinsdorf appears to care how the White Sox win.
No determine in fashionable society is a lot like a feudal lord as an MLB proprietor. They reply to nobody, besides the commissioner, who serves at their collective whim and will be dismissed if he makes an attempt to contravene their orders. The federal government doesn’t a lot care to manage these groups; as a substitute, they use their place as civic establishments to extract taxpayer cash for actual property enhancements. Generally that generosity is rewarded with a championship, generally not. What the hell are you going to do about it anyway?
Many house owners are content material to take a seat again and let their functionaries work. They perceive that if the staff wins, the proprietor will likely be well-liked even when the GM or staff president really made all the choices. A few of them, I dare to hope, even perceive the bounds of their very own experience.
Not Reinsdorf, who has owned the White Sox for 42 years and the NBA’s Bulls for 38. Nobody is aware of the shine of mirrored athletic glory higher than Reinsdorf, who had the great fortune to buy a staff with an embryonic Michael Jordan on its books. However these successes have pale over the previous decade and a half, as chronicled by Steven Goldman in Baseball Prospectus on Thursday. I gained’t rehash a lot of that historical past right here, as a result of Steven will get it principally proper: It gained’t matter who the White Sox put in cost so long as that individual has to reply to Reinsdorf.
Right here’s the problem for whoever runs the White Sox subsequent — most probably incumbent assistant GM Chris Getz, who is the heavy favourite to take a seat within the massive chair. The White Sox are a mid-payroll staff. Their participant acquisition has been often wonderful however typically inconsistent. Their participant improvement has been a lot the identical for pitchers, however sorely missing for hitters. They’ve a franchise heart fielder in Luis Robert Jr., a latest Cy Younger finalist in Dylan Stop, who’s having a down yr, and some respectable complementary gamers.
It’s not the simplest GM job in baseball, but it surely’s doable. There are completely government candidates who might step into this job, reform the staff’s scouting and improvement constructions, and construct a successful staff round Robert on a price range within the subsequent couple years. Lots of these persons are additionally charismatic and savvy sufficient to handle as much as a troublesome and interventionist proprietor. I’d argue that Williams, who was simply 36 when Reinsdorf put him in cost in 2000, match that invoice on the time.
Sadly, Reinsdorf’s tastes have ossified; the present classic would by no means countenance bringing in the one sort of outsider who might repair his issues. He has both struggled or refused to courtroom exterior assist. When Williams was moved upstairs to government vp in 2012, Reinsdorf promoted Hahn from inside. After the singular and combative Ozzie Guillen had run his course as supervisor, the White Sox wasted 5 forgettable seasons on the inexperienced and somnambulant Robin Ventura. When Ventura’s alternative, Rick Renteria, led the White Sox to the playoffs in 2020 — the staff’s finest season in over a decade — Reinsdorf responded by canning him and bringing again Tony La Russa.
La Russa had managed the White Sox briefly within the Eighties earlier than embarking on a Corridor of Fame profession with the A’s and Cardinals that included six pennants and three World Collection. However after he left the dugout in 2011, it was clear the sport was passing him by. Within the decade between managerial gigs, he had a pitiable run as chief baseball officer of the Diamondbacks. He replicated Renteria’s success in his first season, then went moldy and bought fired earlier than the tip of the following season. A yr later, Reinsdorf is bringing La Russa again as a guide.
When Reinsdorf does go exterior the group, it’s to Kansas Metropolis, from whence he pulled present supervisor Pedro Grifol. Former Royals GM Dayton Moore can also be rumored to be becoming a member of the remade White Sox entrance workplace. As for Getz, he’s a former White Sox and Royals participant who labored in Moore’s Kansas Metropolis entrance workplace.
It’s an inherently self-defeating and insular construction, one which’s reportedly allowed a rotten inner tradition to fester. Hahn has been consuming his now-infamous “ask me after the parade” quote for the previous two seasons. This can be a staff that refused to spend $30 million a yr on Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, however had no downside spreading the identical sum of money round throughout three aid pitchers.
This can be a home on a pleasant plot of land in neighborhood that’s exhibiting its age; it wants a brand new roof and main repairs. However as a result of it’s owned by a person in denial who gained’t brook disagreement, it’s getting a brand new kitchen backsplash as a substitute of the most important overhaul it wants.
Contemplate all this within the context of Reinsdorf’s different foray into the headlines: This grandee of Chicago sports activities is contemplating shifting the staff as soon as its lease at Assured Fee Subject is up in six years. That is the ultimate transfer of the feudal proprietor, the demand for tribute in alternate for the continued status of internet hosting a serious league sports activities staff.
The demand couldn’t be extra oddly timed. Possibly Reinsdorf will get his suitcase of money, perhaps not. However I battle to consider something he’s accomplished to deserve it. The White Sox have been heading within the mistaken path for years now, and in altering out the entrance workplace, all Reinsdorf is doing is using a brand new group of individuals to cover the maps from him.
Native and state authorities shouldn’t ship Reinsdorf a dime. As an alternative, they need to rent somebody to whisper in his ear, like an outdated Habsburg, and inform him the examine is within the mail. What works for the staff should work for the general public.