The tricky thing about the White Sox being a position where they have to earn back trust is that earning back trust is pretty darn difficult.
There's no better example than Rick Hahn, who said it in November ...
“Frankly, none of this really matters until we win ballgames and we deliver on that. But it is a little bit about setting the tone in our front office right now. People know that, yeah, we got a lot of faith in some of these guys being healthier, and some of these guys returning to the level of performance that they previously were. But we can't rest on that.”
... and said it again in December ...
“We’re still going to have to earn that faith,” he said. “And that’s only going to happen once we’re on the field and we’re showing what this team is about and what they’re capable of doing and in the end, winning ballgames."
... and then emphasized the theme when dealing with the Mike Clevinger mess at the start of spring training:
“I regret the fact that we’re sitting here today talking about this. I understand why we’re doing it, obviously we have to. But this is a year in which we have high expectations. We have a new staff that’s trying to hit the ground running to help us fulfill those expectations. And we’ve got a heckuva lot of players in that clubhouse right now who feel like they have something to prove.”
Smash-cut to today, with one-tenth of the season in the books, when the team has instead hit the ground pooping, and the only thing anybody's proven is that the fears were valid.
There's time to prevent those fears from being fully realized, but obviously the White Sox have not put any sort of dent in the faith and trust deficit. Hahn knows this because he himself said it involves winning ballgames, and the 2023 White Sox have only proven capable of winning ballgame. At least today's doubleheader means the Sox don't have to wait two days to enjoy consecutive victories for the first time this season.
That's why I couldn't help but laugh when Hahn resorted to condescension on Friday, just a couple weeks into the season, when the Sox were below .500 and about to open another series they'd end up losing to fall even further below the surface, because nothing makes Hahn snippier than remembering things he said.
But it's easy to understand why Hahn would abandon the plan to wait for wins, because there's really nothing can be said while the same struggles continue, and it's a miserable time for everybody involved.
Consider the White Sox bullpen.
[A thousand mouse cursors drift toward the "X" icon]
Not like that! We just considered them that way on Tuesday, shortly after the White Sox announced the postponement of their series opener against the Phillies.
No, consider the White Sox bullpen because James Fegan also wrote about the subject on Tuesday, and the quotes all have so little to offer. All the meat is found in the paragraphs between them, like this point:
This was a problem last year, when Sox posted the eighth-highest walk rate in MLB. But this is the sort of ailment that places every other element of the 6-10 team under a constant stress test, where every other shortcoming is magnified.
And this point:
It’s unclear what the strength of this White Sox team will end up being, but the high draft picks, functional starter depth and unmatched levels of free-agent dollars thrown to the bullpen were supposed to preserve whatever marginal advantages this team was able to secure elsewhere.
Instead, just throwing strikes is the pressing hurdle right now.
Which isn't to say that coaches and pitchers shouldn't be asked, and their quotes shouldn't be relayed. Even if "We have to do better" continues to be insufficient for solving the problem, the emptiness properly reflects the situation.
But it's really all they can say, because the results aren't there and they know it. If Aaron Bummer tried to deflect criticism about strike-throwing by trashing the quality of ceremonial first pitches, it'd be just as off-putting as Hahn's fan-shaming.
(It'd also be way funnier. Imagine some Humanitarian of the Year throwing a three-hopper to Lance Lynn before the game and Bummer roasting her for it afterward because he didn't want to talk about the two inherited runners that he walked home. But still, we probably shouldn't encourage him.)
Pablo López signs extension
After years of trying to solve their rotation woes on the cheap, the Twins ponied up by acquiring Pablo López from the Miami Marlins, even if it cost them a batting champ in Luis Arraez.
They're now committing to López further by signing him to a four-year, $73.5 million extension. That doesn't sound like much until you realize that the Twins haven't committed more than $20 million to a pitcher in the Derek Falvey era.
The details of the contract have yet to be released because it's pending a physical, but a standard four-year extension would cover López's last year of arbitration eligibility in 2024, then his first three free-agent years. López has a 1.73 ERA with 33 strikeouts against 23 baserunners over 26 innings, and the first time the White Sox saw him, López retired the last 23 batters he faced. He's the most serious pitching acquisition the Twins have made under their current leadership administration, and they seem to be reaping the benefits.
Nick Madrigal still makes poor decisions
The Cubs beat the Athletics 10-1 on Tuesday, but because Oakland's ownership is so committed to flushing itself down a toilet and resurfacing in Las Vegas, the score was more or less an afterthought, and the leading takeaway was more baffling baserunning from Madrigal.
To say Madrigal ran through Willie Harris' stop sign isn't sufficient. Harris positioned himself as though he absolutely expected Madrigal to ignore him. He did everything he could to make himself seen. His body language suggested he considered tackling Madrigal, and regretted not doing so.
And yet:
The thing is, Madrigal's not having a bad start. He's hitting .292/.320/.375. He's only struck out once in 25 plate appearances. He'd reached second base with a bloop two-bagger on the kind of two-strike pitch that earned him the "Nicky Two Strikes" moniker.
But in order to make .292/.320/.375 anything more than a second-division starter, you have to do everything else well just about all of the time. If any area starts slipping, the entire project can crumble.
When you realize that, you understand the answer to the question of what the White Sox saw when they drafted him fourth overall in 2017. They saw themselves.
