Major League Baseball's awards season came and went without any real relevance for the White Sox. Garrett Crochet did win American League Comeback Player of the Year, but it's not one that's voted on by the same electorate that determines MVP, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, etc., which is why it's not part of the big BBWAA announcements.
Of all the major awards, the National League Cy Young voting results fascinate for the way they account for several ghosts of White Sox past. Chris Sale was the near-unanimous winner after winning pitching's triple crown by going 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts over 177⅔ innings, and while it was his first Cy, it seemed like it could've been his second or third if only the American League leaderboards broke slightly differently. Instead, he had to settle for seven consecutive top-six finishes, including four with the White Sox, and a mid-30s rejuvenation that hasn't been seen in decades.
Sale was followed by Zack Wheeler took the other first-place votes, and he of course spurned what would still stand as easily a franchise-record contract from the White Sox to sign a slightly lesser deal with the Phillies. Dylan Cease returned to the Cy conversation with a fourth-place finish, validating the spring training trade on San Diego's side (the White Sox's side remains open-ended). Even Reynaldo López even snagged a single fifth-place vote, which was hard to imagine even when things were going well in Chicago.
The White Sox haven't lacked for great players or good ideas the last 10 years. It's just that a disproportionate amount of them have been on the pitching side, and those didn't overlap in a way that maximized the talent. Alas, all the White Sox have to show for Sale finally reaching the pinnacle of his professional is the latest addition to Saturday's Sporcle.
Spare Parts
- Like county, St. Petersburg City Council votes to delay Rays stadium bonds -- Tampa Bay Times
- St. Pete council votes to start Trop repairs, then changes its mind -- Tampa Bay Times
Like the roof of Tropicana Field after Hurricane Milton, the plans for a new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays has disintegrated. The Rays say they can't afford delayed deadlines, while some city officials are wary of selling city land to an entity that could abandon the area, and the threat of the Rays abandoning the area makes some council members loath to even repair the roof. The future of baseball in Tampa Bay looks pretty murky.
- MLB plans new national TV packages for 2028; changes to revenue sharing, CBA crucial -- The Athletic
2028 marks a major broadcast reckoning for Major League Baseball, as that's when the lucrative national television deals with ESPN, Fox and Turner expire. The league is attempting to pivot by collecting as many teams' broadcast rights as possible, and the future Rob Manfred envisioned makes one wonder whether a new regional sports network like CHSN even has a future.
“There’s a variety of different things that could happen. It may just produce content that becomes part of a 30-club digital offering. … To the extent that you want to keep a linear property alive — we haven’t decided exactly which one of these is going to happen — but you could imagine a world where people who stay in the bundle go to the MLB Network and they get (pre- and post-game) programming all day long, until the team in their market plays.
“And at that point in time, you get the in-market game, and then you go back to (pre- and post-game) programming. And later in the evening, you get a kind of national, outside-the-market broadcast.”
The Royals and Reds made a fun little trade involving former first-round picks out of the University of Florida, both of whom can help their respective teams if their flaws are managed.
Jay Jaffe thoroughly examines the Hall of Fame case for the Negro League legend and White Sox scout, and comes out in favor of his receiving one of four votes in a competitive ballot of eight.
Every 15 to 20 years, Wilbur Wood's freakish workload inspires a nice piece of baseball writing. In it, Patrick Dubuque also covers why knuckleballers don't really have a path anymore. It takes early commitment to make it work, and when there are so many resources available to coaxing 95 mph out of even an average arm, there's not much point in either pitchers or teams entertaining the long odds.
The knuckleball isn’t a tinkerer’s pitch. As Wilhelm told Wood in 1966, as the younger pitcher struggled to gain confidence with it, you either throw it all the time or not at all. You had to specialize, but that specialization wasn’t like the kind that marks modern training. It isn’t pushing for a fraction more, an extra wrinkle. You have to cut yourself off from all other futures, long before you can ever know what they hold, and settle on this one. Today a 25-year-old can barely be expected to settle on a profession.
