White Sox reportedly set on next mistakes by promoting Chris Getz, hiring Dayton Moore
While the White Sox fired Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, Jerry Reinsdorf still had to prove he had some ambition to improve the team.
According to Bob Nightengale, he doesn’t. Instead of conducting a thorough interview with experienced general managers or promising up-and-coming candidates from successful organizations, he’s choosing “neither.”
There was immediate speculation to their successors, with wild reports identifying former Cubs and Red Sox World Series champion Theo Epstein, Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo or former Milwaukee Brewers vice president David Stearns as potential candidates.
The truth is that Reinsdorf already has someone in mind.
Chris Getz, 39, who spent the past seven years overseeing the White Sox minor league operations and player development after a seven-year playing career, is expected to be named the next White Sox GM.
Dayton Moore, the Texas Rangers’ senior advisor of baseball operations who spent 16 years as the Kansas City Royals GM, could also join Getz in a key front-office position. The two close friends worked together in Kansas City where they won back-to-back pennants and the 2015 World Series championship.
Getz has overseen a farm system that consistently ranks among the worst in baseball when it’s not stocked with prospects the White Sox had to trade productive MLB players for because their rebuilds didn’t work. He was also in charge of the farm system when it hired Omar Vizquel and Wes Helms, and fired Vizquel and Helms after misconduct issues. The accusations against Vizquel are horrific, and Helms, who was an assistant coach at Birmingham, was identified in the lawsuit as somebody who laughed at the plaintiff. The lawsuit was filed in August 2021, at which time Helms had been promoted to manage Charlotte. He then opened the following season as manager, until the the Sox placed him on “indefinite leave” that May for an unrelated issue.
As for Moore, he was fired from the Royals because he couldn’t bear to trade players he was personally attached to, and he was personally attached to a lot of players. Neither could he bring himself to fire Mike Matheny, a manager who bombed out of St. Louis due to clubhouse issues, but one Moore felt compelled to redeem, and thus hired without an interview process.
But I suppose that makes them relatable to Reinsdorf, because if Nightengale is correct — and he had Tony La Russa returning to the White Sox before everybody took it seriously — the White Sox are planning on elevating an accomplishment-less Getz while sweeping stuff under the rug, and teaming him with Moore without actually conducting a search. Just like Homer Simpson and the party sub, the White Sox can’t resist former Royals no matter how sick they make them.
Speaking of La Russa, you want to see a great example of foreshadowing? Here’s Nightengale during spring training:
Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa was standing by the railing in Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s suite, keeping score, jotting down notes, and acting as if little has changed.
And here’s Nightengale now:
Grifol is scheduled to meet Wednesday night with Reinsdorf and Tony La Russa, who is back working as a White Sox consultant. La Russa resigned as manager after last season to deal with lengthy cancer treatments, but has been medically cleared to work again, and recently scouted the White Sox’s minor-league system. [Pedro] Grifol is expected to be asked what went wrong this year, how does he plan to fix it, and what personnel changes are needed.
Unfortunately, Chekov’s gun is only a metaphor, and can’t be used to relieve misery. Reinsdorf and the White Sox are instead hellbent on reliving it, and dragging everybody along for the ride.
Un. Be. Lievable.
It’s like Jim posted “White Sox Have No Internal Candidates to Lead White Sox” and Reinsdorf said, “Bob, hold my beer, and listen carefully.”
I dunno, it seems absolutely believable to me, to the point where we were pretty much predicting exactly this was gonna happen immediately after Williams and Hahn were sent packing.
James Fox spoke it into existence on Sox in the Basement podcast Tuesday night.
It’s the most believable thing that’s ever been believed.
Chris Getz: failing up like a rocket!
Tumbling into the sky!
Need to get LaRussa being an advisor into the headline, I want all the pain right up front before breaking into the article.
I’m honestly starting to think that Jerry has legitimately lost his mind. It could certainly be age related.
He didn’t make good decisons when he was younger.
He just doesn’t Getz it. Moore of the same.
Haber self an upvote.
He’s got a guy in the white house who is right there with him
hahahahahhahahaha
You need to calm down. 🙂
No sense in getting worked up with anything about this team. As long as Jerry is here they aren’t worth your emotional investment. They don’t deserve your passion.
Hey I’m more worked up that you are able to edit your posts, you must be much slower than me.
I was trying to be nice…whatever
and I was trying to kid with you…I guess I should take it more seriously.
fair enough….all good
This team isn’t worth even polite discussions or disagreements about. The only reasons any of us have followed them this long is that we are all partly insane, and bored out of our fucking minds.
I wish all on here well, and hope most find better stuff to do, and completely forsake this team financially as well as with attention. This team has no future. Zero.
Among all of the disappointments of the last 18 hours, three stand out. One is the obvious boot-licking by some prominent local baseball experts by promoting the qualifications of unqualified candidates like Chris Getz, just to protect their sources. Second is the mystery of why Eloy Jimenez remains on the team. Third is why the Sox continue to hire leaders from the worst organization in baseball. The official leadership tree of the Royals is a sapling.
Because they know how to work with zero budget…. Not necessarily well.
On the last point, my thought is that Jerry stopped following baseball in 2015 at which point the Royals were actually good.
It is an AL Central team that does not spend money but won in recent memory. Maybe that is enough. Or maybe all that Hawk talk about how KC plays the game affected their thinking. Obviously, if they don’t want to spend on big contracts, they should go the Tampa route, but that evidently would be a bridge too far.
Hard to even get upset with this team anymore. Just been totally checked out this season, looks like that’ll probably continue at least until the old man kicks the bucket
This was more like Chekov’s breathalyzer.
I have practice with ignoring a team until there’s an owner change with Bill Wirtz and the Hawks, if this is really what they’re doing, it looks like I’ll be doing it again.
If this is the case, then absolutely nothing has changed. Good luck to Moore and Getz at SoxFest. That should be a real doozy. I guess we really have to wait until Jerry sells or dies for any hope.
SoxFest?
I quit.
You know it’s bad when less than 24 hours after firing Kenny & Hahn, to much rejoicing, I’m already thinking, “wait, should they have kept Kenny & Hahn?”
Yep. At best, this is “not better.”
This Bedard kid looks pretty good. And that team has actually been moving in the direction of removing all of its sexual abuse enablers.
Is that you ForsterFTOG?🤣
Reinsdorf is the master of the half-measures. Must have spent too much time with Bill Wirtz.
Is it possible Jerry is running the old “major league” scam on us?
If he hires Getz and Moore, the fans will continue to be irate, the team will continue to flounder, and attendance will continue to decline.
Jerry will use that as the background to build his case for a move to a Brand New Stadium in Nashville as the best move for baseball. Once the move is secured, and substantial public funding for the stadium is locked in, he flips the team for 3 billion rather than the 2 he’d get right now.
It almost makes too much sense…
I think it’s much more Occam’s razor.
RH and KW became too toxic as the faces of the FO. Getz and Moore are new, and appear to the casual fan like change.
But they ensure that, internally, everything stays the same. So, JR’s happy.
I dont know how a team in Nashville is worth more then even a 2nd team in Chicago. Nor do i think the MLB want that move as well since they want to keep that city there to dangle for their own stadiums since Vegas looks to be off the table soon.
I’ll pack their bags. Let North Haverbrook have them.
Woof, absolutely brutal.
“Unfortunately, Chekov’s gun is only a metaphor, and can’t be used to relieve misery” is my new favorite Margalus sentence.
This continues to be one of the worst franchises in sports.
They don’t deserve fans. Any fans.
Dayton Moore is a holier-than-thou anti-porn crusader. Oh, and here’s him advocating for a child molester: This is an open Athletic article (no subscription needed):
https://theathletic.com/409033/2018/06/26/dayton-moore-is-advocating-for-luke-heimlich-but-if-the-royals-eventually-sign-him-it-will-be-ownerships-call/
Ugh. I miss Hahn already.
Hard to believe Clevinger is a model citizen compared to many associated with this dumpster fire.
Jerry and his board full of penis pump 90 something’s sure know how to bring in the fans.
Dayton Moore is maybe the worst candidate for the White Sox, along with Getz. The Fans will never accept them but Jerry doesn’t know how to get out of his own way. Lazy due diligence, lazy process, lazy results.
I could accept Dayton Moore as a PoBO if for no other reason it meant that Jerry was staying true to the “single decision maker to lead the baseball operations department” comment he made some 20 hours ago. Instead, it sounds like Moore will be the FO equivalent of Charlie Montoyo.
I just don’t like the hire because its lazy, “Oh Pedro and Getz were with the Royals under Moore, this should work better!” I’m tired of being a fan of a team that doesn’t take baseball serious and just looks for short cuts and settles for less
I don’t think it’s JR being “lazy” per se. He doesn’t do anything to ensure the best interests of winning, sure, and that’s lazy.
But this is what Jerry wants!! He wants Tony, Dayton Moore & Getz. PauliePaulie is right imo. He wants status quo. He wants nothing changed. KW and RH only gone bc he felt he had to. Who knows, maybe Tony wanted one or both of them gone?
I guess Laziness is a subjective concept, I just think if you take the easiest road because you want comfort while running a largely public sports franchise in a competitive profession, then I view it as lazy process
I could tell all of that from his haircut.
Lazy process continues to define the White Sox ownership tenure if those rumors are true. They get what they deserve if this is the path chosen
Anybody who thought something good would come out of Hahn and Williams getting the boot while Reinsdorf was still running the show was kidding themselves. As many have said and known nothing will improve till hes gone.
Guilty as charged
I was thrilled despite knowing the happiness would end. Jerry is a bad owner and doesn’t seem to understand what it takes to win in the modern league, not that he really did before but at least 05 happened. It was a night of hope and honestly I haven’t had that as a fan since Field of Dreams, but any fan who’s been around long enough knows the other shoe and all that.
So there was a movement afoot to turn the Sox into KC? That explains the hiring of Grifol. But now I wonder how much Hahn fully appreciated the direction things were taking.
He should’ve traded for Nicky Lopez when he had the chance. It cost him his job.
That Salvidor Perez trade is now all but assured to happen.
I was planning on going up to Baltimore for the Sox/O’s game next Monday. Maybe I’ll still go, but wear the O’s Hawaiian shirt I got as a giveaway at a Sox/O’s game a few years ago. Would certainly be less embarrassing than wearing Sox gear.
Renisdorf reportedly believes Hunter Biden is qualified to be VP of Baseball Operations.
Crickets
They can’t help it; the programming is too strong.
Hunter would bring the “big guy” along. Jerry ain’t sharing no 10 percent with him!!
Getz looks like an illegitimate child of Sleepy Joe himself.
Has this really become a “Hunter Biden” jokes place now? FFS…
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Bring back Kenny and Rick
Yes, can we have the good old days when Rick/Kenny/Tony were in charge. Hey, we won the division with that trio!
In many ways laughing at this team can actually be more fun than rooting for them.
That would be just so pathetic. So weak, thoughtless, uninteresting, not creative. It’s not even baseball-ish, just as a business, if you need to drastically change culture, how can you cut out the torso and simply move the legs up? And go get a good buddy. So sad
That made me laugh pretty hard. I’m imagining Cotton Hill.
But did Jerry kill fiddy men while doing it?
Fans reminiscing Rick Hahn as “the good old days” within 1 or 2 years is going to be a helluva achievement by Jerry. The Royalsfication of the White Sox is accelerating. Forget relocating to Nashville. Go to Jefferson City instead.
Fans reminiscing Rick Hahn as “the good old days” within 1 or 2
yearsdays is going to be a helluva achievement by Jerry. The Royalsfication of the White Sox is accelerating. Forget relocating to Nashville. Go to Jefferson City instead.FTFY
So does Jerry then get to move into the stadium he always wanted?
Clevinger should have been my breaking point with following this stupid ass team. This is it. Absurd. I am done.
Jerry is George Costanza. He’s got the girl (LaRussa), the Pastrami Sandwich (Getz) and is bringing the TV (Moore) into the bed.
No worries. Just think of how much experience Getz will have picked up by the time his second or third rebuild rolls around.
I’m not sure why anyone is surprised by this. As long as Reinsdorf owns the team, nothing will really change. The Getz thing I figured was inevitable, but I’m impressed with addition of Dayton Moore to the “single decision maker” chimera.
Don’t shortchange Grifol
So now I’m clinging to the hope that the report so so long ago (Monday) of Reinsdorf looking to sell the team are actually true, and Getz is the simple answer to plugging in a placeholder GM while George Lucas’s wife organizes her bid.
This crossed my mind. Not enough to hang hopes on, but more in the sense that, if he were just seeking a patch in order to move on to bigger items of business, this is what it would look like.
The Sox just made a few small moves. Do we know who is in charge right now? Haber/Getz?
My thought is Haber has always been the guy doing the official paperwork. So he is the one filing the moves. Him and Getz probably co-leading. (Or Getz already Acting GM).
But why fire Kenny & Rick, then? Maybe the fan complaints were just too loud, but it’s not like this move will help.
Or why involve Getz at all, just go with Moore and be done with it.
Which leads to another set of questions — if the new men in charge are just window dressing to make the team more attractive to a prospective buyer, who are these possible buyers and what vision would that buyer(s) have for the future of the team? Build Comiskey Park III on the southside or move elsewhere? My head hurts.
Along those lines, it is also possible top GM candidates wouldn’t want to join an organization in flux and then also have trouble pulling in other people to work for them.
I am fast losing the will to live.
You just need to outlive Jerry…you can do it!
please be Jerry’s burner account…
I want to preface this by making it clear that I’m not making fun of you or your posts.
It is absolutely hilarious, and sad, that the White Sox are capable of illiciting this reaction from the same person, who just two hours before, wrote a long, rational, and well-reasoned post about enjoying the moment and not worrying about what the next misstep may be.
Only the Sox.
I know, but the fact that it’s Nightengale and it’s written in such near-certain terms vanquished almost all of my hope.
But how’s your TWTW doing?
They made a movie about life long Sox fans. It’s called “Grumpy Old Men”.
that movie was funny. this is a horror movie.
More like a baseball version of Groundhog Day.
More like the Tom Cruise movie “Edge of Tomorrow” (should have kept the original Japanese book title, All You Need Is Kill) where he spends the first half of the movie getting killed over and over again (before continuing to get killed over and over again)
I’ve heard that many people spend their summers going to this place with a lot of sand and vast bodies of water that they can swim in. Maybe I’ll give that a try next summer.
As a lifeless former royal with minimal social skills, do you think I can get a job in this organization?
You have way too much pizazz.
Killer instinct is not allowed
Yeah, Tekken, Street Fighter, and Dead or Alive only.
This duo wouldn’t be my first choice, but remember many Sox fans were in full support of Hahn 7 or 8 years into his tenure and long after he had proven he wasn’t a capable GM.
Who cares?
Holy fucking shit I’m buying a Cubs shirt. I’m out.
Also congrats to colintj for interviewing and then losing the transcript for the next White Sox GM all those years ago 😛
Making the jump from apathy to actively reveling in their egregious failures.
What took so long?
Getz would be a huge mistake as we all know. James Click would be awesome. I thought Tony LaGenius had heart problems, not cancer.
WTF Jerry. I guess we know now for sure that Rick and Kenny were just symptoms of the larger disease that is JR.
This is the obvious conclusion to “Project Birmingham” right? The plan where all of the prospects get to be disappointing or hurt on the same roster?
I don’t know if this is true. Why wait if the GM is going to be an internal hire plus wait till after the trade deadline to do it?
Eat at Arby’s
1:45 pm – 94 comments in – I must be missing something. Are Nightengale and Levine the only sources “announcing” a Getz promotion and a D Moore hiring ? Lots of anger and angst over two tweeters who have occasionally been wrong with their White Sox gossip. Has this been officially announced ?
I actually think promoting Getz is plausible but only on an interim basis. Only 30+ games remaining. I’m assuming that all or mostly all of external candidates are currently employed by another team. Sox would need permission to talk to them and why would they come with a month to go? Better to have Getz, who is familiar with the prospects to have a month to prepare comprehensive reports to use for the future. The day after the World Series, JR could then create a short-list of a handful of strong candidates to interview. As a courtesy, include Getz.
As long as this is interim and Nightengale’s tweets aren’t official releases, I choose to wait
Getz is likely “Acting GM” with Haber continuing to handle all official paperwork.
Minor leagues wrapping up, so Getz has a bit more free time. I assume Haber has long been handling the paperwork.
Agree, Wayne.
“Acting” = “Interim” to me.
Let’s see what happens after season ends officially
You are ruining the fun. Maybe you should be the new GM.
Is Nightingale occasionally wrong with White Sox gossip? Maybe he’s missed a FA signing or something minor, but when it comes to Sox ownership he’s usually right on the money. He’s pretty clearly JR’s line to the public and I don’t see a good reason to doubt that this is coming from straight from JR. Where else could he get this from?
Presumably, Getz is already fulfilling the role you say here. Nightengale is talking about the next Sox GM. And Nightengale’s source (aka Reinsdorf) makes it sound like the decision is made.
I seem to recall recent tweets from BN hinting that Madrigal will be returning to southside, Yas Grandal will get released before the trade deadline, and Lance Lynn is headed to the Rays…among others. I’m not saying he’s wrong, I just want to hear an official release…otherwise point is moot
He said the Sox were willing to “give away” Grandal at the deadline and said Rays/Sox were in “serious talks” on Lynn—both of which were probably true. Either way, I’m sure he’s missed on some things (like I said above), but he’s been on the money with larger, ownership-level decisions. He’s been JR’s mouthpiece.
I suppose the train of logic is: (1) does Nightengale have a source? (2) if so, who? (3) why did the source leak it?
The answers to 1 and 2 seem very obvious to me: yes, and Jerry Reinsdorf. I don’t see how he publishes the story otherwise. So why did JR leak it? It’s either true or a test balloon. Neither are good options and both deserve this reaction.
If it’s a test balloon, it deserves to be shot down with extreme prejudice. In that case, (over)reacting is useful.
Most of my junior high teachers would vehemently disagree with you on the last part.
The way this is being leaked out gives me serious “let’s float TLR as manager” vibes. Everyone thought that was too ridiculous to be true, even for the White Sox.
Kopech just left with a sore arm. When will this season ever end?
He should in the bullpen. I think he has a good chance to be a lights out closer.
I think he has a chance to be a lights out middle reliever who gets his name mispronounced at 27 of 30 MLB parks.
Seriously. I’m half expecting Pedro to slip on a banana peel the next time he leaves the dugout.
We should be so lucky.
Nah, we’ve got Bummer luck. Our managers live forever and return decades later.
But I chose hemlock! Hemlocckkkkk
There are more comments in this thread than there are customers in the stands this afternoon.
So we are about to see the 1st win of the Getz era?
Ouch.
:whack Thank you sir, may I have another.
Your naïveté is so refreshing.
I must still be a little buzzed from yesterday.
What? They’re still playing games?
All the stories about organizational dysfunction that have surfaced in the last 24 hours have almost made me feel sorry for Hahn.
I don’t feel bad for anyone part of it, but the stuff coming out is confirmation bias in the worst way….honestly hoped that the dysfunction we fans have speculated about was overblown but nope, just as bad as suspected lol
It may be worse than I expected. Not that I feel sorry for Rick Hahn. He stayed in one baseball organization for over 20 years. He knew what he was involved with. He could have ran when he was the “Hot GM Candidate”. He stayed for the security. The dysfunction came with it.
When I see a White Sox pitcher with “Navarro” on his back I get PTSD.
Sadly, I believe the 4 year, $20 million contract they gave Jamie Navarro is still like in the top 15 of highest contracts given out by the White Sox in franchise history.
Probably. I think LaRoche’s 2/25 only just got pushed out of the top-10 after the Benintendi signing.
Now we have Grifol gushing about Getz: https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-options-for-next-general-manager
I was listening to Bernstein and Holmes with Leila Rahimi, and they were saying Grifol is adept at ass-kissing. Now I get it.
Pedro is adept at something! Let’s celebrate.
Circling the wagons.
He’d better gush. Getz and Moore are probably the only 2 candidates who would keep Grifol employed.
Stone said almost the exact same thing. I read that as he is limited and don’t ask him to do more than that or you’ll find his limit.
Of course, the follow up question to that would be is Grifol happy with the defensive development of his players? If he says yes he should be fired on the spot.
Stone is 100% a company man first.
I was thinking that it was a directive sent out to all employees that if asked about Getz’s qualifications, to respond “He’s well-equipped to do what he’s been asked to do”.
I know about Stone, I like to say that if he gave me a dollar every time he said “These guys are going to hit” and they didn’t, I would have an awful lot of Steve’s money.
That and I’m still waiting for Tim’s 24 HR season that Stone has promised several times. I suspect at this point if it happens at all it will be for another team.
Funny thing is, being bad at his current job does not mean he is not well-equipped to be a sole decision maker. Not saying he will be a good head of baseball operations. Just I am not sure his player development job is an accurate reflection of what he can do in a new role.
Thank you JR for turning me into this guy.