In retrospect, it's very funny that Rick Hahn belabored the possibility of certain White Sox prospects "forcing the issue" over the course of the 2018 season. Or at least that he treated it as a positive.
Eloy Jimenez tried doing it with his play, but since that hasn't accomplished anything, his side is pressuring Hahn and the White Sox through other channels. None of it is fun.
Last week, Jimenez played good cop with a wonderfully confident Players' Tribune cover letter. On Thursday, his agents played bad cop by going public with their gripes through Jon Heyman.
Jimenez's representatives, Nelson Montes De Oca and Paul Kinzer, aired their grievances while publicly mulling filing one. They contend that Hahn hasn't been forthcoming about anything specific:
Montes De Oca, referencing a late-July comment from ChiSox GM Rick Hahn about how both top prospects have a “checklist” they need to fulfill, said, “I don’t see what boxes he needs to check to be called up … except for service time.” [...]
Jimenez’s main agent, Montes de Oca, suggested the White Sox haven’t explained what he needs to work on to earn a call up. That follows on Hahn's comments in late July that both players were aware what they needed to work on.
This jibes with what Jimenez told Our Man in Charlotte Jonathan Lee:
https://twitter.com/followmefor3/status/1024761957809901568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1024761957809901568&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F8b83fa7fd3.nxcli.net%2F2018%2F08%2F02%2Fwhite-sox-minor-keys-aug-1-2018%2F
This all traces back to the ill-fated media scrum where Hahn dropped the "checklist" quote. When pressed for specifics, Hahn gave an answer that was uncharacteristically curt and easily debunkable:
“They know what’s on the list,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you the things players can’t do.”
It seems that he hasn't told the players things they can't do, either, which lends credence to the idea that there's nothing Jimenez needs to do. Chris Getz didn't help matters, telling WSCR-AM 670 on Aug. 5 that Jimenez is "getting really close." Jimenez has only played better since then.
Jimenez poured water all over the White Sox front office's soundboard, basically. I wouldn't say they're scrambling to fix it, because a grievance may not be all that big of a threat. Kris Bryant had a pretty clear case with his, and it's still under consideration 2½ years later. Maikel Franco's is also in the works. It's not clear that Jimenez would gain anything with a grievance, and his agents admit as such. Then again, Hahn sounded irked when Yolmer Sanchez and Avisail Garcia took the Sox to arbitration and won, so maybe unresolved disputes get under his skin.
Now, it's possible that this episode, while messy, will cause no material damage through the crucial steps of the rebuild.
Service-time/ownership advocates will point out that the White Sox are allowed or incentivized to do this under the CBA, which is true to a point. They're not allowed to act in bad faith, and Jimenez's side needs to stand its ground against what it detects to be bad actors. And even if the White Sox' actions are vindicated by a hearing -- or if it takes forever for it to be determined -- players and their agents are allowed to draw attention to cases that warrant attention during the next round of negotiations.
The Cubs have fared OK with Bryant thus far despite similar issues, which is why some fans happily point to it. Bryant probably has no plans to hang around past the initial team-control period, but then again, Scott Boras' presence made an extension for Bryant unlikely. One can't say the same about Jimenez's agents, which mucks this up more.
All in all, the inelegant way the Sox have handled this is not a great sign for my low-level fear that the White Sox will be front and center of another labor stoppage that will derail the rebuild. Jerry Reinsdorf sure hasn't changed in other ways:
https://twitter.com/CST_soxvan/status/1035297285310214146
Kopech's hair can't grow back quickly, but Jimenez's case can be more easily resolved with a September call-up. The problem is that we've seen agents get tips that a promotion is impending -- remember the false start on Willy Garcia's announcement last year -- so the fact that Jimenez's representatives have turned militant lowers the "70-30" feeling I had on Wednesday night's podcast.
If Jimenez isn't promoted, it'll be hard to defend getting too ambitious with September additions. Part of what made Michael Kopech's promotion justifiable is that the Sox couldn't have called up anybody else for extra starts or additional length. Try creating a case for Spencer Adams over Kopech. You can't.
If the Sox call up Ryan Cordell or Charlie Tilson while Jimenez sits, that will only make the grievance case stronger. After bringing up Welington Castillo as a third catcher and hoping Jose Abreu and Leury Garcia heal up, there aren't really any other ways to go.
* * * * * * * * *
Long story short, everybody's back on their bullsh-t. That includes Don Cooper, who made his annual attendance plea through Daryl Van Schouwen:
“It’s vital for us to pick up all this talent, but it’s vital to have support from our fan base,’’ Cooper said. “Players need the support. I know from the years we were winning that the fan attendance creates an electric vibe that makes the players want to elevate their focus, their commitment, their execution, their game. And it makes for a tremendous atmosphere. So the support of our fan base is critical to a team in a rebuild.
“Having crowds at our home park is the whole theory behind having a home-field advantage. There’s too many nights when there are more Boston fans, more Yankees fans, Cubs fans than our own. So we’re hoping that changes.’’
Cooper is not wrong that more home fans makes a better atmosphere, but it's like Jim Beam getting mad at whiskey drinkers for not buying Maker's Mark after it became known they were diluting it.
The White Sox organization doesn't care about me, but maybe my case is similar to others: I bypassed the New York series this year, and it was an easy call. I usually catch a game in either the Bronx or Boston, but I couldn't rationalize spending a couple hundred bucks and a full day on a product that was intentionally worse than it needed to be, especially since a shorter drive and the same amount of money can put me on a plane to Ireland.
If Cooper had a history of subtlety, perhaps you could say he's indirectly advocating for the promotion of other exciting players to get everybody charged up. Cooper doesn't, but maybe Lucas Giolito is the one working that angle:
https://twitter.com/CST_soxvan/status/1035386386264870912
