White Sox general manager Chris Getz largely dodged a question about whether he was prepared for how grisly the 2024 season could become now that he's traded Dylan Cease. Likely seeing no upside in an answer along the lines of "yeah man, buckle up," he spent much of a media session that was dedicated to trading his best starter two weeks before Opening Day mapping out the positives his current roster offers.
"We have been able to accomplish a significant amount in a short period of time," Getz said. "We certainly prioritized our defense, players that understand how to play this game. We've got impact on this roster. We think it's going to be a much cleaner style of play."
With his words aimed at talking up the direction of a franchise in a dark period, Getz's actions will have to serve as the acknowledgement of all the work that has to be done to slowly prod this organization out of its interminable current position.
Getz touted that both Drew Thorpe and even the more control-challenged Jairo Iriarte both could pitch in the majors this season, despite neither 22-year-old right-hander throwing much beyond 30 innings at Double-A last year, and noted that the polished Sharp was in consideration to break camp with the South Korea-bound Padres before the trade. Willfully seeking trades for two affordable seasons of Cease in and of itself is plenty of acknowledgment of how low the Sox have sunk. But whether it's inquiring on Michael Lorenzen or Bob Nightengale's report of a possible Mike Clevinger reunion, Getz & Co. are quietly working under the notion that the viable future rotation they are hopefully building will not be ready at the end of the month.
"We actually feel pretty good with where we're at in regards to being able to cover these innings effectively," Getz replied. "However there are some different ways that we could go about it to certainly make us more confident or improve our roster further."
With Erick Fedde, Michael Soroka and Chris Flexen being the only starters with names that can be written in ink, the door is open wider than ever for Nick Nastrini (nine strikeouts and just four baserunners allowed in seven innings) to win an Opening Day rotation spot on merit, or for Garrett Crochet to get plenty of room to continue stretching out. But even in this open office plan for securing bulk innings, Getz dropped additional news by intentionally removing the final piece of the 2017 dream for a future White Sox rotation, and moving Michael Kopech to the bullpen.
After leading the majors in walks last season and not showing meaningful improvements this spring, it's a move that Kopech's performance has earned as the team's patience with his development curve was audibly expiring. But as the quickest possible path to restoring Kopech to a usable asset that other contenders might covet, it's a move that's more thematically coherent with trading Cease than it might look at first blush.
"We know that Michael has the capabilities to get anyone out in this game, based on his stuff, and he did show that as a starter, even in his spring training outings," Getz said. "This transition, we hope the smaller bite of the apple, so to speak, in reliever outings, whether it be one or two innings, is going to be something that's easier to accomplish for Michael and be better for the White Sox."
Late-spring blockbusters of this magnitude are rare, even if it doesn't alter the team direction for either squad involved. They generally occur in the offseason when teams have ample opportunity to reorder their roster in response, or at the trade deadline where the immediacy of needs for the playoff race spikes the value of offers.
There are many reasons why this still feels like an offseason move, since multiple credible alternatives remain on the free agent markets for both the contending teams that were bidding for Cease, and the rebuilding White Sox for replacing him at lower cost. Getz also became the rare executive to talk up the importance of spring training performance, contending that Cease pitched at a level that pushed back on concerns that his mediocre 2023 season created. But in a world where the White Sox focus is so dead set on moving to building out a new core, spending any more time trying to build up the value wasn't worth the risk.
"Taking it toward the deadline, what type of return does that look like?" Getz said. "That's a risk. Were we willing to take that? Of course. I was willing to take it into the season. However there's no denying that a lot of things could happen on a baseball field throughout a season. You weigh that risk with the offer that was given to us by San Diego and we felt like that was something that was likely not to be met if we would have taken it into the season. We had a highly motivated team in the San Diego Padres that wanted to start the year out with Dylan Cease. And I understood that. It made sense for both sides."
For a Sox team where the notion of competing is just a clubhouse motivational tactic, Kopech being moved to the bullpen amid protracted control problems instantly makes him a sleeper candidate to take over the closer role, and the club's most productive 2024 starter easily could still be throwing at a private facility in between daily check-ins with their agent, a deal moving Cease made so much sense that there's hardly any time needed to mourn his departure. Last season was long enough for that, and to see Wednesday night's trade coming.
Of all the rebuild trade returns, Cease developed the most in-house, but that simply made him the biggest chip left by the old regime for this new leadership group would cash out. Success this year probably only involves uncovering some more.
"It's a little bittersweet having Dylan Cease out the door, he's a kid -- well, he was a kid when we acquired him," Getz said. "To watch him grow up, both as a person and as a player has been a joy for myself and the organization. But we felt like it was the right time to make this move to better our organization moving forward."
