4 hopes for the Chicago White Sox once Justin Ishbia becomes the controlling owner

Chicago White Sox fans, we have a light at the end of the tunnel. It may take five years, but Jerry Reinsdorf's reign of terror is coming to an end.

The White Sox organization announced on Thursday that Reinsdorf has a long-term investment agreement in place with local billionaire Justin Ishbia to purchase a controlling interest of the team. No change will happen until 2029 and it could take as long as 2034, but change is coming.

Until then, Ishbia is going to kick in annual payments to Reinsdorf to fund team operations. It's just nice to have a succession plan laid out after months of Reinsdorf being reportedly resistant to one.

I have to wonder how much the Chicago Fire's announcement of building a new stadium at The 78, the land Jerry wanted to build his new ballpark on, played a role in this announcement. One day after this major news of the Fire literally calling dibs on the South Loop, Reinsdorf is willing to announce he will eventually sell to Ishbia despite reports that he had been telling him no for years?

Neither party is saying much when it comes to what motivated this announcement. All Reinsdorf and Ishbia have said publicly is the expected PR world salad you get with this type of major news.

Regardless of what motivated Reinsdorf to make this deal and announce it to the fanbase, I now have four hopes for the organization once Justin Ishbia becomes the controlling owner.

1. Be a rich hobbyist owner

Forbes estimates Ishbia's net worth to be over $4 billion. His brother Mat, who will also be involved in the ownership group, is estimated to have a net worth of over $7 billion. Some estimates believe their bank accounts are even larger.

Either way, the Ishbia's will be some of the wealthiest controlling owners in baseball when they take over.

Ideally, the Ishbia's would both understood that owning a baseball team is like owning a nice yacht and not something to help their investment portfolios. It's a toy to have some fun with, much like Steve Cohen is doing with the New York Mets. Too many times, owners act like they will go broke if they spend on free agents or have a high-end payroll.

You do not win the World Series with the best balance sheet. You win with the best talent. Hopefully, the Ishbia's are willing to spend what it takes to win. Despite the record not showing it, the Ishbia's have shown a willingness to splurge on marquee talent with the Phoenix Suns. I want to see them do the same in Chicago.

It's also much easier to buy your wins in baseball. With a salary cap in the NFL and NBA, it's hard to spend your way into being competitive. The Top 5 payrolls in Major League Baseball all made the playoffs in 2024.

At the very least, I hope Justin Ishbia pays good, homegrown players to stay on the South Side rather than trade them away. Reinsdorf is allergic to dishing out a a contract over $100 million, which is why Dylan Cease, Garret Crochet, and Chris Sale were all traded.

2. View scouting and development not as a cost, but rather as a way to produce an exciting product

Analytics is a necessity in today's game. It is a great way to construct winning rosters, position the defense correctly, identify pitching trends to allow hitters to have a plan at the plate, and identify where a player's flaws are.

The problem with analytics is that it gives teams an excuse to go cheap on scouting departments because you can always plug player data into a computer and spit out projections. It's not about the sabermetrics vs. old school scouting debate. It's about blending both and sparing no expense to get the best data possible.

Deploy an army of scouts, especially at the high school level and internationally, to identify talent. Then have the numbers guys help back up or refute what the eye test is saying to produce the best draft analysis possible.

Even New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, with all the billions he is worth, has realized that having a strong farm system helps produce winners. Strong prospect pools not only yield cheaper talent, but players who are normally in their peak performance years. Plus, prospects can be used to acquire impact players in trades.

Employ plenty of scouts to discover those players and the best coaches to develop them, along with the technology to assist those players to become the best versions of themselves on the field.

3. Foot the bill for a new stadium

If Justin Ishbia can afford to build a massive compound in Winnetka to live in, he should be able to invest in a new ballpark.

Maybe the Sox should just stay at Rate Field and develop the parking lots around the park. Build an entertainment disctict around the ballpark and call it "Comiskeyville." The new rage for sports owners is to have a stadium surrounded by bars, restaurants, hotels, and condos all owned by the team. It's a new source of revenue that teams are pursuing to make up for the loss of television dollars with the decay of regional sports networks.

The crosstown rival Cubs have done an excellent job with Gallagher Way.

Maybe the White Sox should just build a new multi-purpose stadium. Either way, the Sox do have to resolve their stadium issue with the current lease set to expire after the 2029 season.

The team is going to find it hard to get public money, especially after Fire owner Joe Mansueto said he would be covering the entire $650 million cost of the Fire's new stadium. The Chicago Bears are also in stadium purgatory at the moment, which doesn't help the White Sox.

Since the Fire have pretty much taken away Jerry's leverage to get taxpayer dollars, it's a good thing he is handing over the franchise to a guy like Ishbia, who can easily pick up the tab on building a new stadium if he so chooses.

4. Hire outside the organization if Chris Getz is still faltering

GM Chris Getz deserves some credit for upgrading the team's front office in recent years, but that's the easy part of his job.

Honestly, I think anyone could have convinced Reinsdorf to modernize how things were run at 35th and Shields after the team's insular nature produced a historic losing season in 2024.

A good GM earns their stripes by constructing an effective bullpen, finding players off the scrap heap, and putting a winning product on the field. Getz has consistently come up short in those areas so far.

The White Sox are building towards something and it is still a complete unknown who will be on the roster in five years when Ishbia can theoretically take over. Things could be going great by then, but I find it hard to see Getz being on the same level as Andrew Friedman.

If things are not better, I hope Ishbia thinks big and brings in a baseball leader on the same level as Theo Epstein or Brian Cashman. I want to see the White Sox go outside the organization and get a home run hire as President of Baseball Operations.

Find a brilliant baseball mind with an eye for talent that can make this organization competitive again. Turn this sleeping giant of a franchise into a monster winner.