White Sox still stripping away on-field talent, but gaining respect behind the scenes

As has been pointed out by a number of people, (thanks,) Rob among them, the Garrett Crochet trade wasn't the first time the White Sox dealt a freakishly talented left-handed starter to the Boston Red Sox for four prospects at the winter meetings shortly after Donald Trump was elected president.

And I was at both of those meetings. Kinda.

The first time, I merely hung around a lobby in the Gaylord National Resort. I was in Washington for an unrelated reason and had a few hours to take the ferry across the Potomac to see whether I could be at the site of the Chris Sale trade when it happened. I ended up missing it by a day, but even if my cameo overlapped, I wouldn't have been able to spin that experience into anything beyond a boring anecdote that you'd be now be scrolling past if I started mining it for a more profound point.

This time around, I was in the Rule 5 draft room of the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, waiting for Josh to arrive and witness the selection of Shane Smith with the first overall pick. Just as he reached the table, James texted both of us saying Garrett Crochet had been traded to Boston, and Josh turned right back around to help with the bigger news.

I still covered the selection of Smith, because James was already on "Getz Sez" duties for the close of the meetings, so he started writing up the Crochet trade and polling his sources for the quality of the return. And then we both hit Chris Getz's scrum (pictured above) before heading to the airport.

Thanks to those who subscribe to Sox Machine, and fund our ability to send all three of us down there to be in two places at once, because covering these meetings required it. If the White Sox's 2025 season unfolds as feared, the three most important days might have already taken place, just like the winter meetings in 2016 loomed larger than the next 162 games that followed. It was great to be there, and an honor to be there on the support of readers who still somehow want to know what this franchise is doing on a daily basis.

That coverage, if you missed any of it:

One extra winter meetings takeaway

Even if the White Sox waited a week to trade Crochet -- and we thank Getz for the added value to our trip -- it still would've been worthwhile to man the Hilton this week simply because of all the new coaches and front-office personnel the White Sox have added, particularly since the firing of Pedro Grifol.

Will Venable had multiple availabilities to incrementally build out his managerial identity, as well as talk about the coaching staff the White Sox officially unveiled. The finality to that formality also allowed new bench coach Walker McKinven to explain his unusual job titles, because he was in the building as well. And since every MLB manager has a dedicated 20-minute press conference with whoever wants to attend them, we also had the ability to ask their former bosses about what the White Sox are getting.

Along with all the recorded, transcribed, on-the-record exchanges, there were all sorts of spontaneous, unrecorded interactions with baseball people -- the kind I'm not routinely privy to due to location (Nashville) and lifestyle (watching a toddler). Between the two, the thing that kept coming up was how many great hires the White Sox are making.

Some of this was probably reflexive standard-issue small-world flattery, but it was a noticeable change from the other times I've introduced myself in a mixed baseball setting as somebody who covers the White Sox. That reaction usually took some form of "What the [h/f] are they doing?"

Make of that what you will -- and "nothing" is a valid response as long as Jerry Reinsdorf is around -- but personally, it helped me better understand why Getz's ability to compartmentalize his behind-the-scenes work from the staggering on-field failures could be something more than a coping mechanism. He's apparently been able to sell qualified newcomers on a vision despite all the losses, and perhaps such hires are only possible because Reinsdorf had to be sufficiently embarrassed by the wreckage. If so, that's a trade he'd be required to make every time.

Still, he could stand to be less blithe about putting forth the losingest roster in modern MLB history, because that's something literally anybody could do. White Sox fans aren't paying to watch Getz play MLB The Show: LinkedIn Edition. They're exchanging money for the ability to watch the actual product, and as long as he's still in the stage of trading good players for worse ones, it'll continue to suck in all three tenses.