Chris Getz’s response to ridiculous Luisangel Acuna mistake has White Sox fans feeling worse

If you aren’t active on social media, you may have missed the hot topic in White Sox circles over the past 24 hours. The organization that misspelled the name of prized offseason acquisition Munetaka Murakami and largely excluded franchise legend Frank Thomas from a graphic honoring the team’s best black players made arguably their worst gaff to date. Video surfaced Wednesday night of White Sox GM Chris Getz referring to recent trade acquisition Luisangel Acuna –who bats right-handed– as a switch hitter four times in four separate interviews. 

Social media was set ablaze enough that Getz issued a statement Thursday morning, claiming he just got "carried away” in describing Acuna’s versatility. 

Chris Getz's explanation for his mistake doesn't make it any better

Not only does this statement explain very little about how this mistake happened, but it appears Getz is trying to laugh off something that for me is incredibly concerning. I wasn’t a fan of the Luisangel Acuna addition at the time of the trade, and Getz and the White Sox front office have spent the past month trying to sell the fanbase on his talent… only it seems like Getz doesn’t know much about him. Misspeaking once or twice isn’t a big deal and can easily be shrugged off, but specifically mentioning a fact that isn’t true in four separate interviews is more than just a slip of the tongue. 

For me, it raises a bunch of questions, and it feels like none of the possibilities are good. Was Chris Getz unaware that the player he traded for was not a switch hitter? That information is readily available simply by google searching a player, so there’s no excuse to not be aware of that. Was Getz confusing Acuna with another player? Perhaps Mets infielder Ronny Mauricio, who is a switch hitter, was a player discussed in the Robert trade conversations. If that’s the case, how can we be sure Getz didn’t mix the two players up when making the trade? It feels like the general manager of the team should have more knowledge than anyone about his players, and it’s a really bad look for fans at home to have to correct the GM multiple times. 

To cap things off, instead of providing a logical explanation for how such a mistake could’ve happened, Getz issued a statement trying to play it off as a joke as if the fanbase will just forget it happened. Not exactly inspiring me with confidence. 

I say all of this as someone who has been very positive on the processes that Chris Getz has put in place and the direction the organization is heading. I genuinely believe the White Sox are turning a corner and have hired very smart people from other organizations to help drive the ship. It just feels like this is an organization who can’t get out of their own way, and just when it feels like they finally will, something silly happens. 

Ultimately, whether Luisangel Acuna is a switch-hitter or not matters far less than the obvious display of a general manager not knowing his own players. I sincerely hope there is some reasonable explanation for this mistake and it isn’t just a demonstration of incompetence. 

There will undoubtedly be those who think this doesn’t matter and wish I’d just talk about the team on the field. To those folks I say: winning fixes all. It will be much easier to stop critiquing the White Sox organization when they begin to prove on the field that they aren’t deserving of the criticism. This is not an organization that’s earned the benefit of the doubt in recent years, and they still have a long way to go to earn back the trust of the fans. 

Hopefully, they can put the early silly mistakes behind them and begin that process in 2026.