DALLAS -- Max Fried is off the market, as is Nathan Eovaldi. Corbin Burnes is soon to follow. The dominoes that would force contending teams to accept Garrett Crochet as their best available starting pitching option and face the prospect cost the White Sox are charging, are all steadily falling.
And yet...
"There's some times when you feel like you're getting somewhere, you feel a level of urgency, and then it kind of calms down," said White Sox GM Chris Getz. "That's just the nature of these types of conversations. We're staying at it, continuing to see if there's a match somewhere."
A couple of three-team trade scenarios were kicked around last week, and Getz acknowledged it as a route they're open to as they try to find the collection of position player talent that's worth losing the best pitcher on their team, but didn't endorse it as a route that is any more likely than others. He also acknowledged that moves that will undoubtedly make an already weak major league roster demonstrably worse might not be galvanizing the fan base at this time.
"For us, it's definitely big-picture," Getz said. "We do want to take a step forward for 2025. There's different ways of doing that. Obviously, what we endured last year was very difficult, difficult for our fans, difficult for the organization. We've got to take a step back and do what we've set out to do from the beginning, get our infrastructure stronger, make sound decisions and bring in and develop talent to help us at the major league level and continue to build a really competitive roster."
The White Sox are clearly putting a lot of emphasis on an improved coaching staff, stronger research and development, and a more modern organizational infrastructure providing the improvement from 2024, rather than a roster that still looks thin on paper. Bench coach Walker McKinven certainly sounds game for the challenge.
"I kind of like doing hard things," McKinven said. "You talk to all the guys that were here last year and that obviously wasn't a fun situation to go through, but we’re looking forward, too. We're all grown-ups here and everyone's excited about 2025 and beyond, so looking back is probably futile. We recognize some of the flaws that probably are to be accounted for for that, but we're kind of looking forward, too."
"One of the things that drew me to this role, just because I felt there was already so much alignment on the way we think about things and philosophies and processes that we like to use and go about doing," said new assistant hitting coach Joel McKeithan, via Zoom. "Going through the process this offseason, talked to a few teams, and this really felt like the best fit with the people who are here. The vision and the direction of the organization really aligned with where I was at. Just the group of people who are here, and Marcus [Thames], specifically, was a big draw for me; his experience and the hitters he's coached and how he goes about things."
McKinven also named Venable and the connection he felt with him through initial conversations as a big draw for him coming to the White Sox, which can feel like a conscious effort to address the elephant in the room for this staff. Venable arrives in Chicago with no established lieutenants from his previous stops across the league, but a group he will have to establish rapport with over time.
Asked about the dynamic directly, Venable admitted he had more contacts in the sport he could have called upon, but lauded the pre-existing familiarity with the roster that his current staff offers.
"It's about what's the best thing for the group," Venable said. "it just so happened that I have the advantage of having some people in place that have already had really good relationships with our players and understand the job. So I think of it as very much a positive. There's a lot of people in this league that I know can help, but I'm confident these are the right people for this group."
With no trades to discuss, conversation shifted to the needs of the 2025 White Sox roster, which we are obligated to write about on occasion.
--After Colson Montgomery's strong Arizona Fall League performance, Getz has reiterated that he could be the starting shortstop on Opening Day next year. He certainly sounds more intrigued by that possibility than adding a veteran shortstop stopgap. Montgomery's Trackman numbers from last season certainly suggest the plus raw power reports are legitimate.
--The White Sox certainly want Edgar Quero to come to spring training with the mindset that he can win a roster spot, but Getz also seems intent on adding catching depth of some kind.
--With the departure of Gavin Sheets, Getz said he's inclined to keep the DH spot open to give days off from the field for Luis Robert Jr. and other regulars. But it also could serve to be an opening for Bryan Ramos, who is continuing to work on outfield defense and will still play some third base, though it seems like the Sox prefer the hot corner as a steady spot for Miguel Vargas, provided they can resuscitate his bat.
Vargas lost significant weight in the disruption of his routine after being traded over in July and his exit velocities collapsed along with it.
"He's someone that is really focused on adding strength," Getz said. "There's some versatility in there, but we welcomed the defense he brought at third base. He's got an ability to play second base, first base, he's been in the outfield a little bit. We've talked about the DH, but it all starts with the bat."
-- Mike Tauchman's physical to make his deal official was imminent as of Tuesday afternoon, and while Getz confirmed that both he and Austin Slater are expected to mix in at all three outfield positions, he didn't directly embrace the idea that either are insurance for Robert possibly departing. It's much more clearly a shot across the bow for Dominic Fletcher needing to hit his way into any more playing time.
"We sat down many times in the season and end-of-year final thoughts heading into the offseason," Getz said of Fletcher. "He’s aware he has to make a lot of adjustments. He’s had more success in the past and although he was in the minor leagues and getting it to translate in the major leagues is easier said than done, we believe in the talent. The defense showed up, but we need more consistency with the bat."
-- Andrew Vaughn's consistently strong hard hit rates are probably more encouraging than his surface-level numbers of .274/.322/.436 over the final two months. But Getz said the way he finished 2024 drove the decision to tender him a contract arbitration. Trying once more to untap the 26-year-old's potential is a central project of director of hitting Ryan Fuller.
Venable speaks too conceptually to be the type of manager that declares in December that anyone who doesn't hustle down the baseline will be benched. But a similar energy is there once you get used to his verbiage.
"There's a lot of things in this game that are going to be tough to control," Venable said. "There's only a few that you get to really nail, and certainly effort down the line, backing up bases, covering bases for pitchers, those are kind of things that we're going to have really high expectations for executing for sure."
Does that mean a return of Sox players getting benched for jogging to first? Perhaps, but Venable spoke to the truth that such a reaction probably would have a lot of preceding offenses.
"The progression to the point where someone is getting taken out of the game, there's probably a lot of things that happened before that behind the scenes," Venable said. "For me it's, one, just setting really clear expectations on what it's supposed to look like, and that's verbally and visually just showing guys what it is that they're expected to do. Then just having honest conversations about it, which in my experience is a really good place to start. Then beyond that, if you have to take a guy out of the game, you have to, but I think that there's a lot of steps that will probably lead up to that."
