The Chicago White Sox were going to be terrible this season regardless of who was named general manager or would fans would have preferred for three seasons...
The toxic clubhouse culture and the franchise dysfunction limited what the Sox could do in free agency.
The White Sox rightfully earned the reputation for being dysfunctional. The clubhouse culture became very toxic in 2023 that it forced Getz to realize he had to improve that area above anything else.
He had to do it because no player worth his salt was going to sign up to play on the Southside.
A players survey conducted earlier this year listed the Sox as one of the worst franchises in baseball. When the team is viewed that poorly, the players needed to turn things around quickly were not going to sign on the dotted line.
That meant Getz was going to have to shop at the scrap heap in the free-agent market. The mistake he made was he signed way too many former Royals players, especially of either the bad variety (Brad Keller) or over-the-hill case (Mike Moustakas). He showed that he was not shrewd enough like say Click would have been to hit on those types of signings.
Ownership was not going to authorize the necessary spending to things around quickly.
One way to make up for the poor reputation is to outbid other teams for players in the free-agent market. That was never going to happen with how much Jerry Reinsdorf disdains over spending. The team still has not signed a player to a contract over $100 million--the going rate for good to elite talent.
The lack of spending to put the team over the top was the reason the franchise decayed so quickly after winning the 2021 AL Central. For example, instead of spending big to get a second baseman and a right fielder after that postseason appearance, the club signed Josh Harrison to a cheap one-year deal. Then followed it up next season by bringing back Elvis Andrus.
Getz was going to need a major spending increase to turn things around quickly. Instead, payroll got slashed.
Theo Epstein was not going to be able to put together a winning club with spending restrictions. Heck, Jerry's hero, Branch Rickey, would have found it hard to put together a good baseball team with the limited financial resources given.
The White Sox were going to be terrible no matter who the GM was. The only thing up for debate would be if a more experienced or more qualified person could construct a roster that would not turn out to be historically awful.