Entering the 2019 season, despite the Manny Machado/Bryce Harper nonsense, the Chicago White Sox were one of the most exciting young teams in baseball.
Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, and Lucas Giolito were ready to help this team take the next step. With young studs like Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, and Dylan Cease waiting to be called to make an impact, things seemed very good.
Here we are in 2023 and we now know that the rebuild executed during that time is one of the great failures in the history of professional baseball.
Most of those young prospects are always hurt or inconsistent. There have been flashes of elite talent but nothing sustained from year to year.
The Chicago White Sox have done everything but succeed in this rebuild
Now, it seems like they are going to be moving off some of those guys and it hasn't even been five full years. They should be multiple division championships and a few deep playoff runs into this thing by now.
Instead, they have two playoff appearances, one division title, and two lousy playoff wins to go with tons of disappointment. There are too many people at fault to list them off.
On Monday, a horrifying report from Bob Nightengale came out that suggested that lots of White Sox veterans would welcome a trade. He also confirmed that nobody has officially asked for one yet.
This is bad. There are players on this team that would be totally fine with leaving. That means they are cool with accomplishing nothing with this team and moving on.
Who can blame them? Nobody. It is still sad. This team was supposed to compete for a decade or more. Instead, they have half a decade of "what ifs".
Nightengale is not the end-all-be-all by any means but he is pretty well connected in the White Sox organization, whether people want to believe it or not.
With the way that the White Sox have gone this season, these guys who want to be gone might end up being gone. That is the right choice but it doesn't make it any less sad. Hopefully, regardless of what happens, the change necessary for a brighter future is made.