The Chicago White Sox are about to officially become the worst team ever. Three more defeats over the team's final eight games will set a single-season record for futility.
That does not mean there is no hope for the White Sox to become a competitive team someday.
The White Sox have the 11th-ranked prospect pool according to MLB Pipeline along with the top left-handed pitching prospect, Noah Schultz.
Plus, the team's minor league affiliates are winning. While minor league clubs winning does not matter much, it cannot hurt to have future pieces of the team's next competitive club know how to win.
The Sox Low-A team, the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, made it to the Carolina League Championship Series. Despite losing, Kannapolis had a promising season from the Sox top-10 prospect George Wolkow. Wolkow crushed 11 home runs at 18 years old. He struck out a lot, but he is one of the few hitting prospects the Sox have with the chance to be a home-run-mashing stud in the big leagues.
The White Sox's Double-A affiliate did win its playoff series and is on to the Southern League Championship.
The Birmingham Barons had a season full of roster turnover as pitchers Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush, Jake Eder, and Jairo Iriate all got promoted to the big leagues at some point this season.
Mason Adams was also part of the Barons' amazing rotation to start the season and he eventually got promoted to Triple-A.
Edgar Quero was one of Barons' best hitters, and he eventually got moved up to Triple-A. So did Tim Elko who for some reason is not considered one of the team's top 30 prospects despite being able to consistently hit the baseball.
That is the life of the minor leagues, and somehow, the Barons are going to play for a title.
Barons win and advance to play Montgomery in the Southern League Championship on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/Bix2Z3EYSe
— Birmingham Barons (@BhamBarons) September 21, 2024
Players matter more in the minors than teams, but it does speak to the improvement the Sox have made in their farm system. At one point, it decayed to the bottom of the league. Through smart some solid drafts by the team's director amateur of scouting, Mike Shirley, along with some good-bye trades made by former general manager Rick Hahn before he was fired, the Sox prospect pool is deep.
At least, the pitching is deep in the Sox farm system. The hitting still has a ways to go, but Quero, Bryan Ramos, and Brooks Baldwin have the potential to be very good players at the big-league level. They have passed through Birmingham this season.
Rikuu Nishida is an interesting prospect the Sox have with the Barons now. He has the potential to be an old-school leadoff hitter with his swing that mirrors Ichiro Suzuki.
Colson Montgomery, who probably should have started the season at Double-A, has struggled at Triple-A, but the Sox top hitting prospect has shown he can still be a power hitter in the bigs. He just might not be a superstar in the Corey Seagar mold that he was being compared with.
If the Sox are going to eventually become a competitive team, it will not be through spending. General manager Chris Getz has confirmed the team is cutting payroll this offseason and focusing on the team's prospects to get back to eventually not losing more than 100 games.
Instead, the Sox will have to invest in drafting and developing to improve their fortunes.
They are off to a good start under Getz in that area as he did bring in respected development-focused baseball minds such as Josh Barfield, Brian Bannister, and Paul Janish. He seems to have finally convinced ownership there is a nice return on investing in scouting, drafting, and developing rather than going cheap in free agency to build a competitive team.
Getz is even starting to overhaul the team's international scouting system which has fallen woefully behind.
The ironic part is the Sox farm system fell off with Getz in charge of it. He gets promoted, and suddenly things get better there. Sometimes there are benefits to falling up.