When will White Sox contend again? Chris Getz rebuilds as trade deadline nears

It’s been just about a month since we’ve heard from Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz.

Of course, when it comes to the state of the major league team, not too much has changed since then. They’ve kept losing. They’re still the worst team in baseball. And they’re on pace to lose 120 games.

Getz is the guy in charge of taking the South Siders from cellar-dwellers to contenders, a transformation that might seem laughable to fans in the middle of what might wind up the worst campaign in club history.

It’s Getz’s objective, though, and despite Jerry Reinsdorf’s assertions last summer that such a turnaround would come relatively quickly under Getz, the first-year GM is clearly in the early stages of another long-term rebuilding effort at 35th and Shields, a tough pill to swallow for many who watched Rick Hahn’s similarly lengthy project fail to live up to expectations of perennial contention and World Series level glory.

The White Sox are taking another crack, though, and without the sort of marquee prospects that defined the rebuilding years under Hahn’s watch, Getz is left to provide little in the way of specifics on when times might be better at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“It’s tough for me to put an exact timetable on it. These types of things are certainly fluid,” Getz said during his Tuesday media session. “There’s players that perhaps take a little bit longer to be ready to be productive at the major league level. You’ve got injuries that can happen. You’ve always got to have your thumb on (the pulse of) it, … to be able to adjust accordingly.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate or accurate enough to put a date out there in which we feel like we’re ready to compete for the division. Right now, we’re focused on getting these guys acclimated to the major leagues and positioning them well for major league success.”

That lack of specificity is likely to generate plenty of anguished groans from a frustrated fan base — and keep alive the idea that this project could take a long, long time.

But for those wondering how Getz plans to pull off a time-consuming turnaround, focus will be on what he does next to craft a more specific timetable for contention.

That involves a lot, including the future of manager Pedro Grifol, what he plans to do at the trade deadline and who he plans to build his future around. Here’s what he had to say about all of that Tuesday.

What does Chris Getz think of the job Pedro Grifol is doing as White Sox manager?

Grifol’s future as the South Side skipper has been one of the hotter topics surrounding this team as it’s skidded to worst-in-baseball status.

National reports recently painted a picture of a manager whose days are numbered but isn’t expected to depart before season’s end, with the team supposedly not believing a midseason change would make much difference and prepping for a decision come the offseason.

For Getz’s part, he didn’t offer up the most ringing endorsement when asked about the job Grifol is doing and whether Grifol is the man for the job for the remainder of the season.

“Pedro and I are still talking regularly, and we are trying to put our players in the best position we can for them not only to be successful this year, but in the coming years,” Getz said. “So there is a lot of work to be done, whether it be on our major league staff or with our front office, to take steps forward.

“I know that actually there’s a lot of speculation on who is going to be in what role in future years, and really it’s about showing up each day and figuring out how to put our players in the best position possible.”

So there’s that.

Fans, obviously, are judging Grifol based on a horrid win-loss record across a season and a half, though he hardly seems to be the main reason these White Sox have the worst record in the sport. How does Getz, who’s looking at different things than fans are, evaluate his manager under these circumstances?

“I look at the progress of our players, individually,” he said. “Obviously, a huge component is playing together as a team. But really, if we get the most out of our players at each position and every spot on a pitching staff, you are going to be in a good position to get a lot of wins.

“There’s a long list of players that are playing well. Some players haven’t played up to their standard or what we expected, and that’s part of baseball, in general. But you show up the next day and you continue to fight to get better, and we certainly believe in a lot of the players we have here. We continue to work together in trying to find ways for us to get better.”

Again, far from a ringing endorsement.

Why have the White Sox not improved fundamentally or defensively?

Though Grifol might not top the list of things wrong with the 2024 edition of the White Sox, he did forecast a team that would look and play a lot differently than it did in the mistake-filled seasons of 2022 and 2023, campaigns that ended in massive disappointment because the quality of play (along with a boatload of injuries) couldn’t produce the expected results.

That was supposed to change this season, even if the White Sox weren’t expected to win many games because of it. Grifol spent the offseason and spring talking about a team that would play a faster, more aggressive style and be far more fundamentally sound than it was previously. Getz’s low-cost offseason additions might not have focused on improving one of the least productive offenses in baseball, but the GM trumpeted expected defensive improvement.

None of that has materialized much, at least not on any sort of consistent basis, and the White Sox are the worst team in baseball because of failings in both the offensive and defensive aspects of the game, with fundamental mistakes still an undesirable hallmark of their play.

Getz is obviously frustrated with his team’s record. But how does he view how his team has played, something that was supposed to be much better and hasn’t been?

“The team as a whole, although the record is not very good, I think the intent and the energy, playing for the White Sox and for each other, I sense a lot of positives in that,” Getz said. “Have there been inconsistencies, whether it be with fundamental breakdowns or base-running or defensive side? Yeah, that has popped up more than I would have liked.”

Getz focused much of his media session on complimenting the successes achieved at the minor league level, and perhaps his work on an organization-wide overhaul is yielding better results than what fans are watching from the big league team on a nightly basis.

But if we’re judging the White Sox on what they expected to look like — a dramatically improved defensive team that cleaned up the mistakes of the past few seasons — they have not lived up to that at all.

When will Chris Getz start trading from the White Sox’ roster ahead of the trade deadline?

Getz’s next big moment to help boost his rebuilding effort will come over the next month and a half as the trade deadline nears. He said Tuesday that he’s already doing plenty of talking with other baseball bosses across the sport.

“I get peppered regularly,” Getz said. “I would say it’s picked up even more recently. And I would expect it not to slow down, which is OK, because as we continue to want to build this organization back, one of the better avenues to doing so could be on the trade front.

“I would say there are a handful of conversations being had on a daily basis. I’ve already had some today, and I would expect probably a couple more before the end of today.”

Fans are well aware how effective trades can be in stockpiling talent. That’s what Hahn did to jumpstart his rebuilding effort, with trades of Chris Sale and Adam Eaton in 2016 and José Quintana in 2017 that brought in a fleet of prospects who became the foundation of the future. One of Hahn’s last acts as the man in charge was to deal away a bunch of players from last year’s team to acquire many of the players who are currently impressing in the minor leagues.

Getz swung his own deal of a star for youngsters when he shipped Dylan Cease to the Padres in March, and that trend is expected to continue this summer.

The White Sox have a lot to sell, considering most everyone seems to be available, be it obvious candidates like Tommy Pham and Erick Fedde or someone with more of a potential future with the team, like Garrett Crochet or Luis Robert Jr.

So it’s a matter of when the deals start coming together. Could it be soon? Or will teams wait until closer to the end of July to pull the trigger?

“It’s tough to tell,” Getz said. “The easiest way to assess the pace in which this will move will be the other side and their interest. If we felt like the offer was to the point where it’s something that we can’t really wait around on, we’ll do that.

”We’ve really had ongoing conversations since last fall (involving) a lot of our players, and if we feel it’s an opportunity to improve the health of our organization long term, we’re going to do that.”

What would it take for the White Sox to trade Garrett Crochet?

Crochet has been an overwhelming success story for a White Sox team that’s found little in the way of success this season. But could it be his days as the best starting pitcher on the South Side are numbered?

Crochet has two years of club control remaining after this year, but is that enough to warrant keeping him, rather than cashing him in for a package of prospects who would be of more use to the White Sox in the long term? Even two years could be insufficient for Crochet to contribute to a contending White Sox team.

Getz already dealt a top-of-the-rotation pitcher with club control this year, when he moved Cease. Could another move, involving Crochet, be next?

“Being that Dylan was an attractive player to so many different organizations, I do believe it gave us a head start in regards to knowing organizations, whether that applies to Garrett or anyone else,” Getz said. “Having such a valuable player like Dylan in my first offseason as a general manager has allowed me to build relationships with other general managers and get to know other organizations. So I do feel like we’re well positioned when we feel like the time is right.

“When it comes to Garrett, more than anything, we’re focused on helping him navigate this season. He’s just getting his career started as a starting pitcher, and he’s proven to baseball and the world that he’s one of the best in the game. I think I can speak to any fan out there that when they know he’s on the mound, whether it be our team or any other team, your club has a good chance to win.

“We’re continuing to figure out what’s best for the organization in regards to Garrett, but primarily we’re focused on getting his start tomorrow and continuing to map out the rest of the year.”

It’s somewhat notable that Getz brought up Crochet’s name in comparison to trading Cease without being directly asked about the big left-hander. But it doesn’t take a fly on the wall in Getz’s office to assume that other teams would be interested in Crochet or that the White Sox could stand to benefit from using Crochet to improve their farm system and their future chances, in general.

What would it take for the White Sox to trade Luis Robert Jr.?

Robert, meanwhile, has three seasons of club control past 2024 and has a better track record of being one of the most impactful players in baseball after turning in an MVP-type year in 2023.

But even though Getz described the unlikelihood of moving his center fielder when he called Robert a player to build around during the Winter Meetings in December, even a move of Robert seems somewhat possible as the White Sox try to strengthen their future at the trade deadline.

According to Getz, whether it be the team’s thinking in December or its thinking now, the likelihood of a Robert deal has less to do with a desire to move such a special athlete and more to do with the willingness of another team to meet what you’d imagine is a very steep asking price.

“The unlikeliness (of a deal) is really: Does an organization have what it takes to acquire some of the talent we have? And obviously Luis is one of those players that is such a unique talent,” Getz said. “Is there a willingness from another organization to provide what we feel like is the line or above the line for us to convert on a trade? We were just measuring the likelihood of a move, it was kind of fair to say it was going to be harder for a team to acquire a player like Luis Robert, or whether it be a Garrett Crochet or anyone else on the roster.

“Luis Robert, … he’s a game changer in so many different ways. An inquiring team would have to bring something that is pretty significant for us to move on some of these guys.”

Given the control the White Sox have on Robert, it might be surprising to some to think that he would also be available this summer. But an All Star like him — specifically with such club control — might be Getz’s best chance to boost his rebuilding effort with a massive haul of minor league talent. That is, if there’s any team out there willing to send such a haul Getz’s way.

We’ll see if Robert leaves the South Side this summer. But if he does, it could signal that the White Sox aren’t expecting to be able to use even him to compete for a divisional title anytime soon as Getz’s rebuild moves, perhaps slowly, into the future.

[MORE SOX: Reportedly sticking around, Pedro Grifol knows ‘the day you get hired, you’re on the hot seat’]