Spare Parts: Before it Getz worse
Danny Parkins of 670 The Score reported during Wednesday afternoon’s White Sox winner that the team is set to announce Chris Getz as the “new lead baseball decision” maker today.
Anticipating that the White Sox will make some news within hours that could clarify or overrule anything I could write now, I’ll just point you to three things:
No. 1: This surprisingly effective summary from Tori Rubinstein about why the Getz hiring generates zero enthusiasm. It’s only surprising because it’s from NBC Sports Chicago, although the White Sox’s broadcast home has really dropped the gloves on the team, and not in the Tim Anderson sense.
The White Sox’ farm system fell from No. 1 in 2017 to No. 30 by 2021 after graduating a swarm of talented prospects, including Luis Robert Jr., Yoán Moncada, Eloy Jiménez, Michael Kopech, Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease. As of August 2023, MLB.com has Getz’ system ranked at No. 20 – six spots better than it was to start the season thanks to a mournful deadline sell-off.
Typically, that’s how this works. Stock the farm system with talented prospects, develop them and send them on their way to collect a paycheck. In a perfect system, an harmony of impeccable scouting and drafting would lead to a well-oiled operation that steadily churns out quality big leaguers while the major league affiliate simultaneously thrives. In a passable system, prospects are adequately groomed into major league talent, and the farm system is emptied in pursuit of a championship window.
And then there are the White Sox, who find themselves with a bottom-tier farm system and nothing to show for it.
No. 2: I appeared on WBBM Newsradio’s Looped In: Chicago podcast with Rob Hart (not together; host Jim Hanke interviewed us separately) to talk about all the White Sox dysfunction. Jim and I recorded our segment before the shooting in the bleachers, and we still had way too much to discuss.
No. 3: The Sox Machine YouTube page, because comedian and podcast pioneer Jimmy Pardo will join me and Josh at 7 p.m. CT for Sox Machine Live, and subscribing to our page will remind you when we’re on the air.
Spare Parts
- Police have still not determined how 2 fans were struck by gunfire — Chicago Sun-Times
- Woman shot at White Sox game says she didn’t sneak gun into ballpark — Block Club Chicago
The woman in question is the 42-year-old who suffered two gunshot wounds in her right leg. Her lawyer says the evidence they’ve reviewed was not self-inflicted. The mystery continues, and the ATF is getting involved.
Travis Sawchik rides along with an NBC Sports Chicago broadcast, giving a fascinating account of what Jason Benetti and Steve Stone are saying during a July White Sox-Cardinals game around their interactions with Chris Withers in the truck.
- Free Lucas Giolito. And Reynaldo López. And Matt Moore. And… — FanGraphs
- Q&A: What the heck did the Angels (and some other teams) just do? — FanGraphs
The Angels’ postseason push toppled in the other direction. Kinda like…
… so now they’ve put all of their additions on the waiver wire in hopes of falling below the $233 million competitive balance tax payroll threshold.
The latter question applies to Mike Clevinger, whom the White Sox placed on waivers with hopes of some other team having to deal with the $4 million buyout afterward.
This seems like an obvious move for teams that are out of it, but I’m curious if Major League Baseball will implement limitations. The combination of no August trades and CBT thresholds is a relatively recent development, and it may not have been fully exploited yet.
The Royals are the one team the White Sox pull from, probably because the Royals most remind the White Sox of themselves. This sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?
If it was frustrating to watch the Moore baseball ops administration fail to change with the times, it was equally frustrating to watch, in a golden opportunity, the Royals decline to bring on new talent into key positions in the front office. Instead, the Royals have elected to promote from within and maintain the same group of individuals who presided over the awful situation the club occupies. The result is this list of names of the vice presidents and/or assistant general managers on the baseball operations side of the department and, importantly, when they first joined the front office:
- Jin Wong, VP & AGM: 2000
- JJ Picollo, EVP & GM: 2006
- Scott Sharp, SVP & AGM: 2006
- Gene Watson, VP & AGM: 2006
- Rene Francisco, SVP & AGM: 2006
- Lonnie Goldberg, VP: 2011
- Daniel Mack, VP & AGM: 2013
All this losing, and yet you can see that the core leaders in the front office are entirely unchanged from the Moore administration. Indeed, four of them—Picollo, Sharp, Watson, and Francisco—were some of Moore’s very first hires. Goldberg was an old college buddy of Moore and Picollo.
Fire Chris Getz
I want to see this sign at the next home game.
Chris Getz has not done a great job in his current role.
GM and Farm Director are different enough jobs to require different skill sets.
I wish Chris the best, but do not like the process and am not giving the benefit of the doubt. (I also am not dooming him, until we see what changes come in before Opening day 2024).
Tori Rubenstein
I would only put 0-for-1 on Getz. The “stock” part was poorly done by Nick Hostetler, and seems to be improving under Mike Shirley.
I am interested in who takes over the Director of Player Development.
Presumably Getz will just promote one of his lieutenants into his old role, no? That is the problem with this entire thing. Looks like hires will be either old Royals or internal promotions. You won’t get someone from Tampa to take over development who will look at things critically and say ‘whoa, what were you doing all these years?’
Its funny people are saying the Getz hire will be today cause i was thinking yesterday while the Sox had their weekly good game “they will probably announce the Getz hire tomorrow so they can talk about yesterday’s game when spouting the generic bullshit on how good he is at developing talent”. That Rumor of him getting the job was just floating there for several days with no other names being attached while the Sox had crappy series vs the A’s and the two blowuts vs the Orioles.
Off day press conference before home series with Tigers.
The only thing I’m excited for are the puns and cheeky headlines. Getz ready for a new era!
I look forward to hearing from Jimmy Pardo, though he has a high bar to say anything more hilarious than what Jerry Reinsdorf told Bob Nightengale in 2017.
If anyone in Brooklyn hears disturbing sounds during the Getz announcement, those will be due to me choking on my tongue with that quote tickling every synapse in my brain.
That interview is more entertaining than anything Reinsdorf’s businesses have done this calendar year. Thanks, Bob.
I am numb to watching them pour water through a strainer while they pat themselves on the back.
On the other hand, I could support a new stadium so long as they are transparent and name it Nottingham Ballpark.
The only way I will even be slightly excited about a Getz hire is if he comes out today and says there will be sweeping changes throughout the organization. Grifol must be the first to go, followed shortly thereafter by Boston and the rest of the coaching staff. Only then will it not be business as usual. If he comes in praising Grifol and saying he is safe, all is lost, and we are in for many more years of ineptitude.
I’m still holding out hope that these hirings won’t happen. BUT, if they do happen I can’t understand how Getz would be the top dog over Moore who was the GM for 2 World Series teams.
I’m with Wayne in that if it is Getz I hope he surprises us all and is good at being a GM. I know that’s insane but we gotta have hope somewhere.
I’m getting too old for this rebuild crap and there’s no doubt it’s what Getz will have to do. The Bears can turn their team around quickly. The Blackhawks are going to need 2 or 3 more seasons. The Sox could take years yet and that’s providing Getz/Moore know what they’re doing.
The most tone-deaf owner in baseball continues his reign of terror.
He had an exciting young team that was starting to generate fan interest. He took a flamethrower to all that by hiring his buddy to manage them.
He finally fires a front office that the fanbase was desperate to see go and a moment of joy erupts form the fanbase. He proceeds to kill off all joy in a span of a week by hiring a guy from within the organization that has no business getting the job.
All he had to do was hire a James Click or similar type executive and the rage directed toward the club would dial back as the fanbase got excited for the possibility of better days ahead. He couldn’t bring himself to accomplish even that relatively simple task.
It’s official. God help us.
Well, the band aid has been torn off the wound. Let us all bleed out together!
Now all we can hope for is Getz does a good job or we quit following the team. I won’t do that yet but they will get zero dollars from me in the near future.
Yes, we can hope, but that hope is almost certainly in vain. We will certainly see over the next 3 months if he follows the same wayward direction that Hahn/Kenny provided. Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised. But I highly doubt it.
Its not hyperbole to say this is one of if not the worst ran organizations in professional sport. An absolute travesty of a hire with absolutely no real process whatsoever. A falling upwards in house appointment. Just embarrassing.
Not even interviewing James Click is just world class stupidity on Jerry’s part.
Why would Click agree to be interviewed? How embarassing would it be to come in second to Chris Getz?
I’m stating a real process should have occurred not a token interview of Click.
exactly,
there are only 30 gm jobs in baseball, a lot of guys who are 2nd or 3rd fiddle in a good organization would of taken interviews… absolutely ridiculous this team to conduct themselves with so much arrogance as if they have a bunch of banners and pennants hanging
I heard Dan Bernstein talking about this yesterday, and he was right. Even though there are only 30 of these jobs, no good candidate would even consider the White Sox. The owner is 87 and is talking about selling the team, and the entire organization is a mess. You either get young and unproven or old and desperate.
I can’t believe you couldn’t get the 3rd or 4th highest ranking member of the Rays or Dodgers front office. They will not be in charge anytime soon, and this could be a stepping stone to a better GM job. But Jerry didn’t even consider that. He has got to go.
I don’t know how many guys get a second chance at one of these jobs if there aren’t successful the first time. No one wants to come in for 3 years tearing this all down and rebuilding it the right way only for a new owner to come in and can them. Then they go their whole career with the White Sox stench on them. Guys don’t mind taking on big rebuilds as long as there’s stable ownership in place. And not saying that they wouldn’t be better than Getz, but I wouldn’t exactly be fired up about getting the 4th guy in the Rays front office either. I would like my team to be able to attract top candidates.
I am in the camp that the Sox would have trouble drawing some of the best people, given their instability. But it might be possible to bring someone in to consult for a year. They should at least be going down that path in order to get away from the incestual decision-making and bring in some fresh ideas and thoughts on best practices.
Any hope that we had for change was quickly dashed by Jerry. There cannot be a worse-run organization in all of professional sports. I can’t wait to hear Getz praise Pedro Grifol as the man to lead this team going forward. Well, I guess next summer will be open for me now. I can’t imagine following this putrid team next year.
Currently scanning this graphic for any “Mike Rizzo” silhouettes.
Is that James Click’s signature in the corner?
Chris impressed Jerry so much he got 2 titles.
Is that the actual construction of the front office for KC? How many assistant GMs and VPs does a baseball team need? Sounds A) very top heavy and 2) like these guys are lining their pockets with nice salaries and fancy titles without really being responsible for anything. ( We’ve all seen that happen in the business world.)
We saw this happen with the Hahn – Kenny – Renisdorf trifecta of stupidity. Hahn was able to reap the praises when he hit big, and diffuse blame when it all fell apart. It’s the perfect setup to avoid all accountability and keep your jobs for a decade+ without actually showing any results
I must have missed the part where Hahn “hit big”. I guess trading your 3 top players on team-friendly contracts for a bunch of prospects who have pretty much disappointed at the big league level is Hahn “hitting it big”.
Sure, but at the time Moncada, Eloy, etc. were highly touted and Hahn was praised for landing them. Despite a toddler also being able to trade away generation talent on team friendly contracts for lottery tickets
“Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and experience within our organization to this role,” said White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in a statement. “Most importantly, he knows our players, both at the major league level and in our system, knows our staff and is familiar with all aspects of our baseball operations department.
“Chris has impressed me greatly over the past seven years. In our conversations together this season, I have become energized by his vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again. With his existing knowledge of the organization, top to bottom, I believe his leadership will provide us with the quickest path forward to our goal, a consistently successful baseball team that competes and plays the game the right way. He will re-energize this organization.”
So that sounds good- I would then assume Grifol gets fired this afternoon. Because if Jerry believes this part- “I have become energized by his vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again“, then it’s obvious that Grifol will be fired. Otherwise, Getz doesn’t have a clue about what this organization needs to become competitive again. But Jerry doesn’t either, which is why he thinks Getz is the man for the job. What a joke.
That’s a lot of words for “He’s already here and I’m not doing a search”
I’m forced to hope that now that the shackles of Kenny Hahn are off, Getz will be the hero we need. I don’t expect that, but that sort of thing does happen occasionally.
The problem is he didn’t get any seasoning in a quality front office. He basically has to figure out the job on the fly because he wasn’t an understudy of any successful front office executive. That is a tall task.
Nothing he’s done suggests he has what it takes.
It’s possible to learn by observing dysfunction and reacting to it. Let’s hope that’s the case. I don’t like the “prcoess” or its conclusion, but here we are. I wish him great success.
Are only hope is that we’re all wrong on this one.
I’m totally amped about this hire. You need only look at the impressive stats Getz compiled in his long, distinguished major league playing career, and the tremendous success the White Sox farm system has enjoyed under his direction in drafting, signing, and developing winning ball players, to know that he is the right man in the right place for the right job.
There are no quality people anywhere in the organization, and they keep trying to find answers “within”. This all but ensures that another decade will pass without anything worthwhile happening for this team.
It’s hopeless, pointless, and utterly absurd at this point to be a fan. Goodbye Jerry, go F yourself.
I wouldn’t got that far that there are no quality people anywhere in the organization. There are only 30 teams to try to get a job from. Though I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of those quality people quietly resign after this hire is announced.
Sad day for the White Sox. Not that Chris Getz is a bad dude or anything, but this hire is just a sham process that will lead to more of the same in results. Getz had his chance to help the team and failed. I’m sure the excuse train of “well look who he was working with?” will become common, but if he couldn’t overcome adversity to get the most out of player development during a contention window, I simply don’t see how he will help aside from the excuse shield being force fed down fans throats as a way to gain benefit of the doubt, which won’t happen because many fans will tune out. I dont care what he has to say, he didnt earn this job and is just doing Jerry’s bidding. Thanks Jim and company for listening to the words he uses today since itll probably be filled with non sense is my guess.
Is there a press conference scheduled to introduce Getz?
After years of being mired in mediocrity, it just feels good not to be a mediocre organization anymore.
I don’t know, I’d take mired in mediocrity over being a 5-alarm dumpster fire.
Getz post is up.
https://soxmachine.com/2023/08/white-sox-announce-chris-getz-as-gm-because-they-already-know-him/
Man you all messed up passing on Mike Shirley he’s one of the best baseball minds around dude has had so many players get better under him like Colson Montgomery and Max Clark this year.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think the director of amateur scouting would have anything to do with the development of minor league players. If you provide your email I could send you an organizational depth chart.
He’s had them at a place called the Barn where he lives a ton happens behind the scenes
Thanks for clearing that up Mike. Why don’t you bring Kath and Kelley to your rape shack?
JR: So Mike, why should I hire you to run my baseball operations?
MS: Well, I have this barn…
The email address traces back to an individual from Indiana. So, Mike Shirley’s friends/family advocating for HIM to be the General Manager on an independent white sox blog is the second nuttiest thing I’ve seen happen to the White Sox today.