White Sox: Are Fans Still Trusting the Process or Getting Impatient?

TORONTO, ON - APRIL 3: Tim Anderson #7 of the Chicago White Sox puts his arm around Yoan Moncada #10 during a pitching change in the eighth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on April 3, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 3: Tim Anderson #7 of the Chicago White Sox puts his arm around Yoan Moncada #10 during a pitching change in the eighth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on April 3, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

White Sox are entering just the third offseason of their current rebuild after a 100 loss season in 2018. Are Sox fans starting to get impatient already?

Year two of the White Sox rebuild has just been completed. And it feels as if the natives are getting restless.

Now, a 100 loss season can have that effect on people. However, it’s also expected when a team trades away most of their top talent.

If you look at previous rebuilds of the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs, and Kansas City Royals, you’ll see three to four seasons of horrible baseball at the major league level. These teams certainly didn’t look like future World Series champions in year two of their respective rebuilds.

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It didn’t feel good when former Sox pitcher Chris Sale pitched the last out of the Red Sox recent championship. And Yoan Moncada’s struggles this past season surely added to the frustration.

But I have three words for you Sox fans. Trust. The. Process.

That’s right. Let’s all take a step back. Relax. And remember the positive feelings most had when the team decided on this path. At the time, most fans were 100 percent behind it. However, because Moncada struggled, Michael Kopech was injured and the major league team was well below average, many fans are panicking.

“We need to trade so and so for another teams star!!!”

Trade the Sox prospects for veteran help is what I’m hearing many fans say. That certainly will be part of the process, but it’s too early now for the Sox to be trading their farm away. Patience people. This was always supposed to be a four to five-year plan on getting to a championship level. The Sox have just concluded year two.

While there is expected to be improvement this next year, it’s not quite yet the time to start making trades to fill in needs. We don’t even know where those needs are yet. With the arrival of Eloy Jimenez next April, we will get to see one more piece of the Sox future on the south side. But it’s just one piece.

Guys like Nick Madrigal, Zack Collins, Blake Rutherford, and Luis Robert are all a year or so away from making the jump to the big league ballclub. While we’re hopeful they are significant core pieces of a future championship team, we really don’t know yet. We don’t know which prospects that are under the radar are going to surprise us and become future All-Stars. Guys like Luis Gonzalez, Luis Alexander Basabe, Seby Zavala and Joel Booker made tremendous and surprising strides this past season.

Yes, the last year was painful to watch on the south side as the team lost 100 games. This next year could be even more frustrating however. As the team starts to slowly improve, many fans will want to start making trades to speed up the improvement. I say we need to remain patient and let the Sox young players develop over the next year or two. There will be a time for the Sox to use their strong farm system as trade chips to go after veterans, but that time is not now.

Should they go after Manny Machado or Bryce Harper? Absolutely!! If you can add a superstar without losing prospects, you do it.

But let’s give the youngsters some time to prove their worth. Moncada can be the superstar we all hoped he’d be. Kopech will be back in 2020. Guys like Dylan Cease, Robert, Collins, Rutherford, and Madrigal are coming.

And we all know who’s heading to Chicago next April! Eloy fever will be running rampant. Cease will be next. It’ll get here people. Just have patience. We want a perennial contender. Not a one and done.

Trust. The. Process!!!!

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