If there's one thing Chicago White Sox fans can agree on, it's Jerry Reinsdorf's rein as the team's owner needs to be over. The man has been the owner of the White Sox since 1981 and after decades of failure, it's about time for things to come to an end.
As the Winter Meetings came to an end, the Chicago White Sox have failed to do anything significant. Their only move came before the event.
It was the signing of reclamation project Mike Clevinger for a 12 million dollar deal and replacement-level Victor Reyes to a minor league contract. These aren't the kind of moves this team should be making.
Meanwhile, many other organizations are opening their checkbooks and signing players to massive deals.
Aaron Judge went back to the Yankees for 360 million, Trea Turner went to the Phillies for 300 million, and Xander Bogaerts went to the Padres for 280 million. The Chicago White Sox? The best they can do is 12 million.
The Chicago White Sox are not a well run team because of their owner.
This isn't to say that White Sox fans are demanding the team sign all the mega contracts. We know the White Sox don't like signing 300-million-dollar players. They've made that clear.
But maybe they could at least try to top the Cardinals' 87.5 million dollar deal for Willson Contreras? He would have been a perfect fit for this team but no.
It's time for Jerry Reinsdorf to realize the game has passed him by. Other teams are spending massively on players for mega-contracts and that's where the game is at right now.
Reinsdorf simply cannot compete in the modern era and while he's proven he never truly cared about winning, his refusal to commit to long-term contracts in free agency will take the White Sox out of even moderate contention.
It wasn't always this way. When Reinsdorf first bought the White Sox, one of his first moves was to sign free agent (and Hall of Famer) Carlton Fisk.
In the '90s, he signed free agents like Tim Raines and Albert Belle. Reinsdorf was always cheap but he used to at least try to compete in free agency. Those days are long over.
GM Rick Hahn's strategy is to pass on free agency and sit around and wait for a trade. How did that work out at the 2022 trade deadline? Just about as bad as it's working out right now.
Nobody wants the Chicago White Sox's lazy and underachieving players. They didn't want them at the 2022 trade deadline and nobody wants them now, either.
Rick Hahn was bailed out by the Dodgers in spring training when they agreed to take on Craig Kimbrel's horrible contract (kicked in by an option that shouldn't have been picked up), allowing him to acquire an outfielder after refusing to spend in free agency last year.
He's not going to be as lucky this year and if the White Sox want to get better, they're going to have to sign someone.
Rather than trying to win, it appears the team's only objective this off-season is to cut payroll, which they've definitely succeeded at.
With A.J. Pollock and Jose Abreu leaving, and no one replacing them, the Chicago White Sox have fallen out of the top 10 MLB payrolls and are hundreds of millions behind the New York Mets' 300 million-dollar payroll.
What the Chicago White Sox needs more than anything else is for a new owner to come in, fire Rick Hahn, and get a new GM who can correctly identify the best players in the game and sign them to mega deals. When that day comes, it will be a great day to be a White Sox fan.
Despite being 86 years old (87 in February), Reinsdorf has shown little interest in selling the White Sox. It's time he does what's right by the team and puts them up for auction.
In the meantime, having fans come to games with "Sell the Team" signs is a step in the right direction. Reinsdorf has been the owner of the team for 42 years and has only won a single pennant. An average owner would have won about 3 in that time period.
Having lost the benefit of the doubt from fans, Sox fans should put as much pressure on the ownership to sell as possible.
The best thing the White Sox ownership can do to win back the respect of fans is to sell the team. That would be the best way for Jerry to get back in the public's good graces. That day can't come soon enough.