Five takeaways from owner Jerry Reinsdorf's statement about the Chicago White Sox's horrible season
The owner issued a statement about the current sad state of the team.
Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has changed his tune on how long things will take to turn things around.
Suddenly, he has gone from a man who wanted the sad state of the franchise to improve quickly to embracing that this rebuild will be a drawn-out process.
The owner issued a statement acknowledging this historically awful season has been frustrating. Spoiler alert: you may get even more frustrated with the owner than you already are after viewing his statement.
Reinsdorf commends the continued effort of his players and staff as their season reaches dangerously historic levelshttps://t.co/Og5p5WeJFd
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) September 11, 2024
There are five key takeaways from Reinsdorf's statement...
There is no mention of him taking accountability for how bad things have gotten.
Even Steve Cohen took some responsibility for the New York Mets falling short of the playoffs last year after he spent a fortune trying to help get them there.
The lack of the required spending it takes to turn things around quickly is a major reason the White Sox are on a collision course with breaking the 1962 New York Mets record for the most losses in a 162-game schedule.
Jerry restricted how much money the club could spend last offseason also has the team in the running to break the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics record the worst winning percentage in the modern era.
Then again, not taking accountability is the calling card of Sox leadership. It took forever to fire Pedro Grifol as the manager, and he was a master at rarely taking accountability for this awful season.
Now the Sox have general manager Chris Getz acting like he had nothing to do with putting together this historically awful roster.
Reinsdorf's comments reinforce how he wasted a golden opportunity to reset the franchise and bring in a qualified GM who is capable of pulling off a rebuild of this magnitude.
Instead, he went lazy and selfish by not interviewing any outside candidates and promoting the unqualified Getz. Even worse, former manager Tony La Russa, whose second tour of duty with the club sent the franchise into a tailspin, was brought back as an advisor, and suddenly you have a shadow GM.
He did not even take 10 minutes to follow the rumor of bringing in former Kansas City Royals front office head Dayton Moore.
While Moore would not be the best option, it would be better to have him tutor Getz instead of just giving Chris the job and watching him continue to miss moment after moment to get the team back to being competitive soon.
With how badly Getz missed to meet the critical moment at the trade deadline, the Sox probably will not be competitive until the end of the decade rather than the the middle of it.
Waiting for Kim Ng to resign from the Miami Marlines or hiring former Houston Astros James Click would have given everyone confidence that the Sox have the leader capable of pulling off a massive rebuild. Instead, it is hopes and prayers with Getz and the shadow that La Russa casts over this franchise.
He is overrating the White Sox foundation for future success.
If it comes to the team's pitching, then yes, the Sox have a good foundation. Teams also have to score runs to win games and there is not much in the pipeline when it comes to hitting in the minors or even at the big-league level.
Supposed franchise conerstones such as Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn are proving to be nothing more than role players. Robert Jr's career is in a tailspin as he continues to not hit this season. Vaughn is nothing more than a replacement-level player.
Korey Lee has cooled off so quickly that he is definitely nothing more than a career backup catcher. Dominic Fletcher lost precious big-league at-bats so Tommy Pham could be showcased to the rest of the league even though his trade value was firmly established.
At the minors, top-hitting prospect Colson Montgomery is struggling to hit consistently at Triple-A. He was projected to be a superstar. Instead, he is looking more and more every day like his ceiling is an everyday regular shortstop whose career season will be like a 1.5 fWAR.
Bryan Ramos and Edgar Quero can be superstars and George Wolkow might be a stud. However Wolkow is 18, Quero is battling a back problem, not good for a catcher, and the team is having Ramos taking fly balls because this front office is convinced Miguel Vargas can play third base.
This team not only needs a superstar player in the lineup but a couple of very good, above 1.5 fWAR players and there is just not much depth in the minors to produce that.
He is not going to say anything earth-shattering in the offseason.
Do not expect Jerry Reinsdorf to fire Chris Getz or open up his wallet. It will be more of the same excuses for why this team failed in such an epic fashion.
All Reinsdorf is gonna say at the end of the year is that he’s disappointed but still has faith in Chris Getz & he’s doing a good job (despite mounting evidence of the opposite)
— Herb Lawrence (@Ecnerwal23) September 12, 2024
They’ll be minor staff changes
They’ll be no money spent
And he’ll insult fans
Yay! https://t.co/Jj30L1hLQK
Even worse, it will be another chance for him to show how he is clinging to a time in baseball that has long past. His romanticization of the Brooklyn Dodgers keeps clouding his judgment to embrace how modern franchises are run and the money it takes to win.
Now is not the time to compliment the team for the effort when they are losing this much.
These are professional baseball players. Effort should be the minimal standard. You should not be complimenting people clearing the lowest bar.
The effort is not enough to win games. The club has lost 15 straight at home.
Baseball is the one sport where you can try as hard as you can and still fail. Hustle is nice to see after the club sleptwalk through 2022 and 2023. A lot of that was because of a few bad apples that are no longer on the team.
The team is trying, but they still blow leads, play poor defense, are terrible at running the bases, cannot hit, and still lack players who can provide value on top of the effort.
It would be nice to win a few more games on talent than extreme effort. Then again, this club would need talent and the owner did not authorize enough funding to get it.
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