White Sox’s slashed payroll reflects harsh new reality

The White Sox reached contracts with their four remaining arbitration-eligible players on Thursday. Every 2025 salary came in under their MLB Trade Rumors projections, as though everybody was docked a certain percentage for being a member of the 2024 White Sox.

That even includes Penn Murfee, a waiver claim who wasn't actually part of the 2024 White Sox. He was acquired by the White Sox in 2024, though, and apparently that's his cross to bear.

White Sox arbitration-eligible salaries

Based on the modest figures involved, there weren't going to be any payroll-defining swings, but the White Sox financial picture becomes considerably more precise now. When filling in all pre-arb salaries with $800,000, and with Martín Pérez's still-unofficial deal included, Spotrac has the White Sox coming in with a total payroll of $60.33 million, and $52.33 million if you only limit it to the 26-man roster.

That's good -- or bad -- for a bottom-three payroll by either metric:

Bottom 5 MLB payrolls

Perhaps the White Sox are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the World Series winners by returning to those spending levels, although that $75 million payroll in 2005 would be the equivalent of $124 million or so in today's dollars. Reverse the equation, and a $60.3 million payroll in 2025 is roughly equal to a $37.2 million payroll 20 years ago, which would've been bottom-three back then, too.

Given dismal attendance projections and an inauspicious beginning to the CHSN era -- hell, even the ballpark's name is taking a haircut -- this is probably the White Sox's harsh new reality. Guys like Austin Slater are only a "top target" under very restrictive circumstances. Chris Getz has been able to push the spending incrementally higher over the winter as he methodically checks off positions of need -- $3.5 million for Josh Rojas, $3.5 million with additional deferred money for Pérez -- but they're all products from the same deep-discount aisle.

There won't be a foreseeable acquisition that jolts them out of this territory between now and Opening Day. Barring some kind of major league deal for a veteran reliever who can sop up save opportunities or a shortstop with major league experience, you're looking at minor-league deals* and non-roster invitees providing the roster insulation from here on out.

(*The White Sox announced a minor-league deal with old friend Omar Narvaez on Friday, who is both reunited with the White Sox and Walker McKinven, under whom Narvaez's framing made leaps and bounds with the Brewers. He probably won't factor into any plans because he hasn't hit in three years, but if Korey Lee or Matt Thaiss get injured in spring training, he might theoretically be able to spare Kyle Teel or Edgar Quero a premature call-up. You may remember the White Sox releasing Jonathan Lucroy at the end of spring training 2021 after a little bit of early intrigue, and if everybody's healthy, that could very well be the end result here, too.)

There's also no genuine way to talk about a silver lining or consolation prize for the White Sox's major league product, but Chris Getz keeps plugging along with his rhetorical tack. Talking to Ryan McGuffey and David Kaplan on the White Sox ReKAP podcast, he's trying to present himself as a duck on water. All you can see is fowl that can't sign any free agents of consequence, but under the surface, he's paddling furiously to restructure the organization.

He says that there will come a time where leveling-up moves in free agency come back into play -- and when McGuffey asked him if they will spend $100 million on a player under his leadership, Getz said "I believe so" -- but during this period where the major league roster is abysmal, he's stressing the infrastructural work above all else, which is a departure from the Rick Hahn/Kenny Williams approach of "let us get a top farm system and it'll sort itself out."

He also seems to harbor no illusions about ever relying on a top payroll. He said it's in his interest to pay closer attention to what the Guardians, Twins, Tigers and Royals are doing to improve, versus fixating on the team that's challenging the luxury tax threshold. That's certainly a shift from the way Getz came into the job talking about the division. It's also deeply disappointing, because Jerry Reinsdorf spent decades squandering every advantage the Chicago market could naturally foster, and now complains that the market -- and the favorable stadium lease terms that come with it -- isn't enough.

But having seen Hahn build a strong enough depth chart to warrant a finishing piece -- and then seeing Reinsdorf deny him the resources for the sort of finishing piece he had long proclaimed was possible -- it's healthier for everybody to set sights lower. There's the benefit of setting fan expectations properly, sure, but it also provides the motivation to keep generating talent.

Hahn's reliance on early-career extensions built a false sense of security, thinking the youthful nature of the MLB talent could give the minor-league depth years to recover as graduations sent the system's ranking from the top five to the bottom five. We've learned a lot this decade about how easily a just-in-time supply chain can break down, and at least Getz seems to have heeded the lesson to move more of the manufacturing in-house. Alas, the White Sox don't have the luxury of posting an "under construction" Geocities GIF on their roster page and temporarily closing until their production side is up and running. The games count the same, and the pain of a third consecutive miserable summer will take an even greater toll on the shrinking portion of the fan base that is capable of feeling.