White Sox’s slashed payroll reflects harsh new reality

Andrew Vaughn (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)

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
PlayerProjectedActualDifference
Andrew Vaughn$6.4M$5.85M$550K
Steven Wilson$1M$950K$50K
Justin Anderson$1.1M$900K$200K
Penn Murfee$800K$780K$20K
Total$9.3M$8.48M$820K

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 Martรญn Pรฉrez’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
TeamTotal26-man
Pirates$64.3M$63.1M
Rays$61.6M$51.1M
WHITE SOX$60.3M$52.3M
Athletics$44.2M$44.2M
Marlins$42.8M$28.6M

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 Pรฉrez — 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.

Author

  • Jim Margalus

    Writing about the White Sox for a 16th season, first here, then at South Side Sox, and now here again. Letโ€™s talk curling.

    View all posts
Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
Become a patron at Patreon!
61 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
ForsterFTOG

He said itโ€™s in his interest to pay closer attention to what the Guardians, Twins, Tigers and Royals are doing to improve…

Like drafting and developing talent?
You know Chris, your old job.
Genius.

Last edited 1 month ago by ForsterFTOG
Wayne

Yes, he was unable to do good work in that spot under Hahn.

I do want to point out, it has been said Getz was long in favor of more development coaches in the system. Now that he has taken over as GM, every affiliate got another uniformed coach. And the Brian Bannister and Ryan Fuller jobs have been created to work throughout the org.

(I know this feels like the Hahn was handcuffed by KW talk, but we have seen some action with the change from RH to CG. The process was broken that led to Getz. But I still hope he does a good job draggin this organization from the 1990s into 2020 at least.

Jeffrey

Paul DeJong is still out there, ready to be the stopgap until Colson Montgomery is ready for the second straight year. Boy, a lot is riding on Montgomery.

John

On the Montgomery’s, yes; on Colson specifically, a fair bit less. The Sox are thin at pretty much all positions other than pitcher, and we all know the adage about never having enough of that. But they’re particularly thin in the OF, and Braden is quite possibly their most dynamic position player prospect. And I’d say more is riding on Schultz and Smith. They have true ToR talent and it’s rare to have two such pitchers coming up as prospects.

StockroomSnail

…i think I’d be happier with the dollar.

bfl5916

I assume with all this cutting and slashing, ticket prices, parking, food and whatever else is part of the visit to the ballpark will also be reduced accordingly. I used to pay $4.00 for a box seat some years ago. Of course much better teams. I guess the Sox have a overall team plan. If its to kill fan interest, they are doing pretty well. If its to get a new stadium, I don’t think this is the way to do it. But what do I know, I’m just a fan! As far as slashing the stadium name. It’s always been White Sox Park to me. Done with all the other name nonsense. 20th World Series celebration idea! Bring as many of the team back as possible, along with all that are left of my favorite team, the 1959 GO GO WHITE SOX. Finally winners on the field. Not going to see that for a while! Thinking more about it I doubt any of the 59 team is around anymore. That 66 years ago. I’d like to slash away some of those years.

ForsterFTOG

Luis Aparicio, JC Martin, Ken McBride and Claude Raymond all still with us.

HoytWilhelm

J.C. was the only one who could ever catch my knuckler.

dongutteridge

Any predictions on Sox attendance numbers for 2025?

Last edited 1 month ago by dongutteridge
As Cirensica

I’ll take the under.

ForsterFTOG

Under 2025 per game sounds about right.

Willardmarshall

White Sox stealth metric: wins per dollar….

PauliePaulie

Who pays for stadium upkeep? I ask because I’m wondering if the Sox will actually “need” a new stadium, due to New Comiskey being old and falling apart, or if this is just JR wanting a shiny new thing for his stale uninspiring product.

StockroomSnail

The white sox, with a brand new free stadium, would be worth a lot more and Jerry plans on selling and dying relatively soon, i think.

Lonchair

I like the fact that Getz is trying to rebuild bottom to top. The system was/is so fucked compared to real Major League teams. From what I can tell, heโ€™s trying to get the organizationโ€™s basic resources at least up to par. Maybe, just maybe, the zenith of this effort coincides with new ownership.

John

I agree with this. It takes longer, but Getz seems to realize that getting top players only matters if you can develop them properly and that the Sox’ processes for scouting and development were woefully lacking. Getting the right decision-makers should lead to better decisions and processes. It takes longer, but this house was rotten to the foundation and Getz is tearing it down as much as he’s allowed. I may not think much of his baseball acumen, but I do respect most of the hires he’s made.

vince

I finally cut the cord on cable because the only reason I had it was to watch sports, and every Chicago sports team is terrible. I’m not inclined to replace it with any of the limited streaming options because the White Sox aren’t giving me a reason to.

There have been dour periods in my White Sox fandom before, but I am struggling to remember a time when every team in town was this bad simultaneously.

John

I’ve been a fan of the Sox, Cubs, and Bears for over 30 years and was a fan of the Bulls until about 5 years ago. I remember some bad years, but nothing like this. Even in those other bad seasons, it at least felt like a team was on the rise. Now, our biggest hope for that is, what, the Bears? Better OL, real coach, and maybe there’s something there, but I feel the Bulls, Sox, and Cubs are in for another year of largely floundering.

vince

The Bears being the biggest hope is dire.

StockroomSnail

The owners have a lot to do with it for sure.

ForsterFTOG

Jerry is the scorpion and we’re all the frog.

#3 for HOF

Except while we die as fans, Jerry will make it across the river with a sh!t eating grin.

Alfornia Jones

2025 will be their lowest payroll since 2002 or 2003. they were bottom 10 those years too. too bizarre.

perry

Sox finished over .500 in 2002 and 2003.

Alfornia Jones

the 2002 payroll of $60 mil is worth $105 mil in 2025. the 2025 payroll of $60 mil is worth $35mil in 2002.

that 2002 team was an allstar team compared to this one because they spent roughly twice as much as this one.

Shingos Cheeseburgers

The 2025 White Sox: We Know That You Know That Weโ€™re Finally Accepting What Everyone Has Known For A While Now

The 2025 white sox: still bad, but cheaper!

Last edited 1 month ago by StockroomSnail
LW

The 2025 White Sox: We Can’t Be Relegated!

StockroomSnail

They’ll never stop the white sox
Have no fears, we’ve got ways to lose for years

Adam

I have confidence we can defeat the Marlins in actual payroll spent in 2025. The plan is to at least trade Luis Robert, Josh Rojas, and Martin Perez roughly halfway through. That gets us 10 mil closer. A good half from Benny and Vaughn, we can get under 40 mil spent. White Sox goals – 1 mil per win.

King Joffrey

Charles Dickensโ€™ 2025 White Sox prognostication would more likely be entitled โ€˜Hard Timesโ€™ than โ€˜Great Expectationsโ€™.

GrinnellSteve

Bleak House.

StockroomSnail

Perhaps ol Jerry has similarities to Martin Chuzzlewit?

JimMargalusBiggestFan

White Sox hired Tim Bryan as a Data Engineer in the Baseball Operations department.

Tim competed in the NFL Big Data Bowl and finished in second place. His teamโ€™s submission is linked below:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/timothy-bryan-384360118_each-year-the-national-football-league-activity-7150561828052287488-NJ1m

Jerry loves finishing in second place.

thank you, the versatility of the 2nd place joke has no limits.

Silver medal joke

Warren Z

With Comcast still not carrying the Chicago Sports Network, the Sox will be unable to get anything close to the local media-rights fees they used to generate.

Such fees in the AL Central’s largest market helped them have the largest payroll in the division, but those days might be gone for good.

If we had Tampa Bay’s front office, then I think we would have a decent chance of turning things around in this division, despite not having a payroll advantage anymore.

However, we have Getz in charge, and it’s difficult to count on the GM who just put together the worst team in MLB history to all of a sudden start doing things right.

I do not expect the single-season loss record to be broken again this year, because this past season featured a perfect storm of unfortunate occurrences, but I would not be surprised if we fail to develop most or all of our top prospects and are unable to make consequential progress toward respectability.

Wayne

Problem is that the “low revenue” teams get additional perks in international money, draft capital, etc. Chicago doesn’t get that. (On top of the no 2 top 10 picks in a row thing).

asinwreck

Itโ€™s also deeply disappointing, because Jerry Reinsdorf spent decades squandering every advantage the Chicago market could naturally foster, and now complains that the market โ€” and the favorable stadium lease terms that come with it โ€” isnโ€™t enough.

One of the depressing things about moving to New York 13 years ago was watching Fred and Jeff Wilpon run the Mets in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal. Budgets were tight, and the men in charge had some noxious personnel practices.
 
Seeing that up close was depressing for me because even with all that mismanagement, the Wilpons were better stewards of their team than Jerry Reinsdorf is of his. And they had the decency to get out and sell to someone actually interested in running a Major League Baseball team like a major-league operation. Sox fans wait for the same as the franchise stumbles through its ownerโ€™s dotage.

Last edited 1 month ago by asinwreck
King Joffrey

The Mets bigwig who is most reminiscent of JR to me is the former minority owner and Chairman M. Donald Grant. It was said he believed โ€˜players should be seen, and not paidโ€™. His treatment of Tom Seaver was borderline criminal. Personally, watching Seaver get his 300th win as a White Sox at the Big Ball Park felt vaguely voyeuristic.

asinwreck

Since Grant lived into his mid-90s, I am going to take that comparison as a reason to drink in the mid-afternoon.

Philip

Time to do someone a solid….bring back Tim Anderson as a utility man.

BillyKochFanClub

Itโ€™s really sad that a $100 million contract seems like some impossible threshold, when 28 other teams have cleared it and is standard business in 2025.

Now that Getz said yes after some hemming and hawing, I fully expect them to sign some closer to exactly $100 million at some point in the distant future. Getz and the Sox mouthpieces will praise Jerry for his generosity and his commitment to spending whatever it takes to win.

The closer will be traded at the following deadline.

StockroomSnail

Shultz signs a 25 year, $100 million extension after some trickery.

LW

And all but the minimum salary will be deferred until after 2050.

perry

Getz is doing great again. The last 2 years were attributable to. Grifols.

Foulkelore

I appreciate Sox Machine listening to David Kaplan so we don’t have to.

GoGoSOX

I’ll continue to support Sox Machine and read the fine articles by the staff but like last year will not go to the ballpark to watch a terrible baseball team.

StockroomSnail

I don’t see any silver linings here but good on you Jim.

The white sox have given up. They will be ignored unless they stop giving up, as they should be.

knoxfire30

Im sure there will be a separate post but the zips projection sneak peak is out and boy o boy, its as bad as you would think….mercy!

South Side Hit Men

โ€œHereโ€™s something I donโ€™t think Iโ€™ve ever seen from ZiPS before: There isnโ€™t a single pitcher on the White Sox, including those who are still listed with the team but are actually free agents, who is projected to have at least a league-average ERA. Thatโ€™s pretty shocking โ€” most teams, even the absolutely horrific ones, will usually have some random middling reliever who just barely sneaks into adequacy.โ€

โ€œThe bullpen projectsโ€ฆ worse. Indeed, this is the worst unit that ZiPS has ever projectedโ€

โ€œI have very little faith that theyโ€™ve done anywhere near enough to put themselves in a position to be a good team in the future. I almost wonder if they need another record-breaking season to really turn around how the franchise is run.โ€

knoxfire30

ive fallen into this line of thinking too… but whats incredible is the assumption 2025 cant be as bad as 2024 because its baseball and its just impossible to lose 121 games more then once…yet you put the names on paper and look at the team you have and you cant make a statistical / fact based point on why the 2025 whitesox will win more games then in 2024… their eggs are in a basket full of prospects coming up and being good, outlier seasons for veterans, and a new manager being better then the old manager

JazznFunk

Thinking more losing would cause this organization to turn around how it is run shows a lack of understanding of this organization.

StockroomSnail

If shaming rich people worked, the world would be much better than it is.

StockroomSnail

I laughed so hard at it, this roster is the banana duct taped to the wall of art.

Wayne

The Patreon people got to submit questions for when they have Dan on. Should be great.

South Side Hit Men

Past is prologue.

Lead up to the 1991 New Stadium (Free to Jerry, not so free for taxpayers)

https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/payroll_year/1988/

1988 – $5,906,952 (26th of 26)
1989 – $7,595,561 (26th of 26)
1990 – $9,496,238 (26th of 26)

New Ballpark
1991 – $16,830,437 (23rd of 26)

Last edited 1 month ago by South Side Hit Men
Wayne

Hey, it jumped to 17th out of 26 after the new stadium revenue. /s

(Then it jumped to 13th in 1993 and 8th in 1994; and JR lead the fight against the players and canceled the 1994 World Series.)

John

More than anything else he’s done, that move shows what he really values. He’s hammered it home a thousand times since, but that ’94 team had the unanimous AL MVP having literally a Ruthian season (212 OPS+, OPS of 1.217, both higher than Ruth’s career marks, with the OPS higher than any Ohtani, Judge, Mays, or Juan Soto year) and was primed for a deep playoff run. Their best chance at a WS until 2005. And he kills it to make a point.

MikeAndrews2

โ€œthe 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.โ€ Jim is so right. The current ownership seems content on doing nothing to prevent the current โ€œdoom loopโ€ that envelops the team. It is a shameful stance. If you are unwilling to make the economic commitment necessary to own and operate an MLB franchise, then please step aside before the team is ruined and the fan base dispersed, At least the Pohlads in MSP came to this conclusion and did the right thing.