An offseason that has been so much about waiting and speculating and reading tea leaves in the place of substantial rumors and progress went out on a high note.
The Twitter account of the sporting goods manufacturer Rawlings gave us something to remember the winter by.
Perfect. It's perfect that the #brands have as much to contribute to a three-month old discussion as local and national reporters, and that this, like every other Manny Machado half-rumor in 2019, made me feel mostly nothing.
The thing is, if Machado signs with the White Sox, the Sox will have opened his career with a wasted opportunity. This signing -- a landmark acquisition trumping all others in the franchise's history, and for a well-rounded potential Hall of Famer who immaculately fits the franchise's needs -- should've been fun, and it willn't've been.
The usefulness of "fun" has its limitations. While we know what it's like to see the Sox win the winter only to lose the summer, the offseason that brought in Jeff Samardzija, David Robertson and Melky Cabrera was still fun for the fascination involved.
However, fun can't be vacated. Those three months of 2014-15 are in the books as "enjoyable," like it or not.
Imagine what the winter would've been like had the Sox and Machado found a way to strike a deal in December, or even early January. You'd be hearing about surges in season ticket sales, immediate SoxFest sellouts, unfamiliar hordes on the White Sox' half of Camelback Ranch, and speculation over whether they could put a scare into an Indians team getting increasingly unimpressive by the year. Maybe that thrill would've slowly evaporated, but like the Samardzija "Shark Cage" caps, there will be proof it existed.
Those discussions seem like the product of a long-ago era. This was the third straight offseason where the White Sox didn't improve the immediate product, which is a really long time to go without specific winter enthusiasm. It's antithetical to the "hope springs eternal" rhythm of the game, and it's probably toxic, if the growing discontent over the stagnant free agent market is any indication. Pertinent to today, it's sapped excitement from pitchers and catchers reporting, because look at all the players who aren't reporting anywhere yet.
Deadspin's resident White Sox fan Tim Marchman passed along the top of the Baseball Prospectus Annual's White Sox chapter, and it isn't wrong:
If you can't read tweets where you are:
You can make a case that the White Sox embody much of what is wrong with baseball in 2018. The fire sale (Sale?), the cost-cutting, the empty stadium, the focus on acquiring those sweet, sweet bargain-value prospects even absent a cohesive plan to turn them into major-league ball players: it's all here and it's frustrating.
That might be overly pessimistic, but there's a reason that paragraph survived the editing process. The White Sox could've put an end to it -- or at least a dent in it -- and they haven't. Maybe they will, but even if Machado signs with the White Sox as soon as this week, they're already behind on getting returns from it.
