GLENDALE, Ariz. — After stumbling, bumbling and crumbling to a major league modern-record 121 losses in 2024, the White Sox simply have to be better this season.
It’s imperative. And, frankly, it would be essentially impossible not to be. New manager Will Venable could start a fire hydrant at third base, a giant Beggars Pizza slice at second and Southpaw the mascot at first and still have a decent shot at winning more than 41 games.
But if you’re general manager Chris Getz, the man in charge of this Sox rebuild, you’d better field a team that will at least allow Sox fans to take the paper bags off their heads. Another go-round as the worst team on the planet and some might begin to suspect Getz isn’t part of a top-tier organization.
“Every year is important,” Getz said Tuesday, a day before the official opening of Sox spring training. “Obviously, going through a year like we did last year, there was a lot to learn. There were a lot of painful moments that you had to endure that I think is only going to make us stronger. To be out here in spring training is exciting. It really is.”
Is it, though?
Camelback Ranch is a fascinating place. On one side of the shared complex, you have the world champion Dodgers, a colossus of an organization that takes whatever it wants, destroys everything in its path, spends insatiably on its roster and seemingly exists for the sole purpose of winning. On the other side, you have the barely relevant Sox, who are every bit as terrible as the Dodgers are great.
The Dodgers are filthy with superstars and were, as ever, the center of the baseball universe on Tuesday, with an army of media — including dozens from Japan — transmitting stories both inside the team facility and outside in the parking lot under a sprawling overflow tent. Meanwhile, on the Sox side, half a dozen lonely scribes spoke with arguably the least-well-known GM in the league about his who’s-who of “Who?” of a team. If only there’d been a tumbleweed in sight to complete the picture.
And Getz really isn’t doing anything to make the Sox’ picture more inspiring, at least not with what he says. Some top executives are larger than life. Others are carnival barkers. Getz is neither and seems to be of the belief that the fewer details he imparts, the better.
Remember what Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said about building a winning team when he promoted Getz after having fired Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams late in the 2023 season? Reinsdorf said Getz was his man because an outsider wouldn’t know his way around the organization and hiring such a person would delay the timeline to winning by a year.
So where are Getz and the Sox on that very timeline? How about putting some meat on the bone for a demoralized, alienated fan base by giving them a sense of what to look forward to? Last decade, Cubs and Astros executives spirited those teams’ supporters through periods of tanking by clearly articulating “five-year plans.” Getz, though, opted for vagueness.
“Time will tell,” he said. “All I know is from an infrastructure standpoint, from a talent standpoint, we’re in a much better place.
“Player performance will dictate a lot of the timeline of where we’re more competitive on our major league club. With that being said, you can’t get too far in front of yourself.”
Getz had little interest in entertaining the topic of how great it would be to pull off a successful rebuild and, sometime in the foreseeable future, have a team that can look across the way at the Dodgers and say, “We’re pretty damn good over here, too.”
“Eventually we’ll get to that point,” he said, “but right now we’re focused on the group here and putting together a 26-man roster.”
Getz was asked if he has a list of specific goals for this season, or even a good motto, but revealed nothing beyond “winning more games.” Is that really all these Sox are shooting for? Because if it is, that’s not very ambitious. We already mentioned the fire hydrant.
He wouldn’t guarantee more wins, either. Another bridge too far.
“It’s tough to be precise or definitive on anything other than the fact we have more talent than a year ago,” he said. “We have an infrastructure that is much stronger.”
“Infrastructure” — now there’s an exciting word.
Are we having fun yet?