PHOENIX -- At the tail end of a media session opening a spring training that's supposed to represent his vision for the White Sox a bit better than the last one, general manager Chris Getz was asked if there is an executive he tries to emulate in what is still the nascence of his tenure running a team.
For someone seeking to depict the White Sox as up-to-date and even forward-thinking, it was a moment to demur, rather than to embrace nostalgia, or reveal if he has a "What Would Roland Hemond Do?" poster in his office.
"It’s important to track and follow what other organizations are doing. You look around at our division, especially last year having three clubs make the playoffs, that’s a good place to start, seeing what they’re doing right now to put them in positions for success," Getz said. "That’s why we go out there and bring in individuals from other organizations to challenge us with different ideas and help us build the White Sox model."
In a less evasive moment, Getz might reveal that as a native Michigander, he admired how Dave Dombrowski steered the 119-loss 2003 Tigers into perennial division contenders. The 2004 Tigers won 72 games, but shelling out money for Ivan Rodríguez in free agency and trading for Carlos Guillen -- both of whom received MVP votes that year -- is not a model Getz can promise. One more one-year deal for a yeoman veteran this spring would feel like an exciting indulgence, and after their gambit of adding Brandon Eisert while Steven Wilson cleared waivers worked, Getz assured that the White Sox will remain active on the waiver wire, trying to find a contributor that roster machinations have forced more loaded teams to jettison.
"I certainly want to be standing here talking about competing for the division and having a playoff run, but right we’re focused on shaping our roster and really helping these guys to be productive major league players," Getz said. "I do think we’re going to win more games than we did last year. Unfortunately there are going to be some growing pains along the way that at times will challenge your emotions, but that’s part of the development of some of these players. But we need to be patient."
Spring training might be the forum where the White Sox can best demonstrate the value of following the organization as this juncture of their existence. Only the most avid George Wolkowheads could be disappointed at the crop of prospects who will be sprinkled into major league camp, since Braden Montgomery, Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz are all present despite their combined zero percent chance of breaking camp with the team. Beyond their outfield, Andrew Vaughn and Martín Pérez, Getz can earnestly claim the Sox "don't have a lot of positions that are set in stone," and that fans -- assuming they can watch any of the spring broadcasts this year -- can view Cactus League play as an actual tryout rather than a tease of whether Eloy Jiménez and Yoán Moncada looking good in early March really means something this time.
Whether Luis Robert Jr. looking good in March means something will have a more concrete answer, since it would just lead to him getting traded.
"The expectation is he’s going to be our Opening Day center fielder," Getz said, before making it sound like the team's timing on moving him is still just whenever a suitable offer rolls in. "The market kind of takes care of itself. There are certain needs that pop up for organizations so you have to have your ducks in a row, having conversations throughout spring training and early in the season and until the trade deadline."
Realistically, the 2025 team just needs to directly engage Murphy's Law a bit less to win 10 more games than last year's club, and league average defense and baserunning could probably push that figure to the 15-20 range. Getz has begun talking openly about how for him, 2024 was more clarifying for the team's needs than the ruination of a dream. But for a fan base that has heard a lot of bluster about preparation and culture while watching their favorite team play worse and worse since 2021, it's hard for seven weeks of practice baseball to demonstrate that anything has changed.
The mobile van in the Camelback Ranch where players were lined up to complete body composition scans seems new, and other signs of advancing tech should be visible as pitchers and catchers work out on Wednesday. There's a new daily messenger in Will Venable, who has the requisite experience to know if what he's overseeing resembles winning organizations of which he's been a part. And Getz assured that this camp -- with catching Drew Butera drawing out the practice schedule -- will be designed to reduce the deer-in-headlights look the White Sox have taken on in most every game-changing situations for the last two seasons.
"[The coaching staff] plans to put our players in higher-stake situations in our work, so when you're faced with game action, whether it be spring training or in the season, you're ready to go," Getz said. "Players --they want their arms to feel good, they want their legs to feel good, they want their swing to feel right --and obviously [that's] a phase of spring training that's really important, but you've got to go out there and execute. You've got to put these players in a position to go out there and perform with what the game gives you. And I think that's going to be one of the bigger things this spring training, so when it comes to opening day, we're ready to really act on every situation."
A GM's first day of spring briefing always reveals a host of injuries accumulated during offseason build-up, that in turn gives the public the impression that multiple players did not survive the walk from the parking lot to the locker room intact. This year was no exception, as Getz revealed that left-hander Ky Bush will undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, Drew Thorpe is set to throw off a mound soon but the amount of post-surgery soreness he's dealt with has already put him behind schedule, and Bryan Ramos' throwing elbow is sore enough that he's only cleared to hit at the moment, ahead of a spring where he was supposed to continue work in the outfield while also battling for the third base job.
The White Sox assuredly don't make their move to salvage Bush's option year last September if they could have seen this offseason development coming, but things are trending such that it's easier to see them making use of the extra option than a sixth year of control. Thorpe's difficult recovery threatens to interfere with a year that was supposed to be about seeing what he can do removed from discomfort, but a solace is that any concerns that the Sox needed more veteran stability in their rotation were true before either had issues. The roster effectively has a rotating DH situation, but Ramos putting on an outfield glove was already acknowledgement that expanding his versatility would likely be necessary to ensure regular at-bats.
"It slows it down a little bit," Getz said of Ramos' elbow and his outfield work. "Beyond Ramos, versatility is going to be a part of a lot of the players who are in camp here. We’ll have guys that play all over the infield and move around in the outfield as well. As a young player, it just provides more opportunity for you to get at-bats and gives you a smoother runway to develop as a major league player."
And while the Sox won't have a very good team this year, they are supposed to end this season with a clubhouse filled with legit major leaguers, rather than a group where it's an open question how many of them will set foot on a big league diamond ever again. For many of us, where it seems like the bulk of following the White Sox has been waiting for things to get better, it can sound like the echo and the retelling of some stuff we've heard before. But maybe that's just why it's important to make outside hires.
"A great example is just going through the hiring process and going after the best talent that we can," Getz said. "Will is a prime example of this, where, OK, we need to show individuals what our organization actually looks like and where it’s going. In professional sports, there are so many individuals who want to take on a challenge because if you get it right, it’s [probably] going to be the most rewarding experience of your career. All of us view that. To be able to overcome what we did last year in these coming years is a great opportunity for so many different people and myself included."
A source confirmed that the White Sox are signing veteran outfielder Michael A. Taylor to a contract, with Daryl Van Schouwen first reporting the terms at $1.95 million for one year of the 33-year-old services. Taylor's defensive metrics remain superlative (Statcast put his range in the 96th percentile last year) but the notion of him as a glove-first regular took a hit last season in Pittsburgh. He hit .193/.253/.290 in an even 300 trips to the plate before a late September release, and while it was always a low-OBP profile, a career-high mark for in-zone swing-and-miss saw Taylor doing less damage with mistakes than before.
Accordingly, the White Sox are viewing this addition to an increasingly older outfield mix as a spare outfielder. Taylor immediately arrives as the best outfield defender in camp, and thus can provide plus glovework on days Robert sits or DHs, and the latter seems like it could be more frequent in 2025.
"He’s had a really productive offseason and we have to find ways to keep him on the field," Getz said on Tuesday of Robert. "We know what he’s capable of doing when he’s healthy. And we look forward to handling him in a way that he can be on the opening day roster and he can be the productive player we’re accustomed to seeing."
If Robert were traded before opening day, it stands to reason that Taylor would be an easy, immediate choice for Venable to stabilize the center field position, but the Sox indicate that there is no trade lined up.
