After 71-loss first half, second-half changes await rebuilding White Sox

No one is even attempting to sugarcoat the Chicago White Sox’ first half.

“You can’t hide what everybody can see,” Luis Robert Jr. said through team interpreter Billy Russo on Saturday. “It’s been what it has been.”

Boy, has it.

What it’s been is arguably one of the worst first halves in baseball history. No, the White Sox didn’t set a new mark for futility in terms of pre All-Star Game winning percentage, but they did become the first major league team ever to lose 70 times before the Midsummer Classic. Seventy one times, actually.

The modern record for losses in a single season is still well within reach — they’d need to go a hideous 15-49 after the All-Star break to match the 1962 Mets’ 120 defeats — and that is a perfect summation of just how bad things have been.

“This is not something we planned for,” Pedro Grifol said Sunday, “something we didn’t really expect.”

Even though external expectations were dreadfully low before the season began — you’ll remember the 0.0-percent chance this team was given to reach the postseason — this level of losing baseball was unexpected. Chris Getz’s offseason additions might not have inspired many fans in the wake of a 101-loss campaign in 2023, but the low-cost acquisitions were at least supposed to improve the team fundamentally and defensively. Grifol forecasted a different style of play that would see the departure of the many mistakes that defined recent seasons.

None of that has ever materialized, though. The White Sox are not only baseball’s least productive offensive team, they’re also its worst defensive team. They rank dead last in plenty of categories, chief among them run differential, at minus-177.

With things this bad, silver linings like a dramatically improved clubhouse and a knack for playing close games mean little to a frustrated fan base.

“You can’t pinpoint it in one area,” Grifol said. “There have been times where we’ve made mistakes mentally and physically on the field defensively. There have been times where we have not executed a game plan. There have been times where physical mistakes on the pitching end, we leave a ball out over the plate. There have been times where we have had opportunities to get a big hit in the fourth or fifth or sixth that would give us, instead of a four-run lead, a six- or seven-run lead. So it’s a little bit of everything.”

And there are 64 games left to play.

So what will make the second half different from the first, if anything?

Well, change is undoubtedly coming. There are only a couple weeks before the trade deadline at the end of the month, and once the league gets past the ongoing MLB Draft, the focus figures to shift to deals. The White Sox have been one of the most discussed teams in the lead-up to the sport’s trading season, with a bunch of candidates to be moved before July 30, ranging from the obvious, guys on one-year deals like Paul DeJong and Tommy Pham, to the more curious, young stars under control for multiple years like Robert and Garrett Crochet.

[MORE SOX: In his own words: How Garrett Crochet became an All Star]

And yet, the vibe that Getz has given off — not to mention the national-reporting consensus — is that the team is open to trading anyone and everyone off the major league roster in an effort to inject as much talent into the farm system as possible and strengthen the foundation of Getz’s long-term rebuilding project. Getz already showed his willingness to part with top talent when he traded Dylan Cease to the Padres in March. Similar moves could be in the offing this month.

“Assuming based on trading Cease before the season, there’s certain guys that they want to keep, and there’s certain guys that could be moved. So yeah, I anticipate there will be some change,” DeJong told CHGO last week. “I’m not sure how much. It depends on what kind of deals they can make for the right price. At this point, I’m prepared for anything.”

The list of candidates to depart the South Side is lengthy.

DeJong leads the team in homers and could provide pop off the bench for a contender. Pham is praised as a professional presence in the clubhouse and has recent experience as a World Series difference-maker. John Brebbia is having a quietly great season in the bullpen. Nicky Lopez could provide defensive-minded infield depth. Tanner Banks is a productive lefty reliever. Michael Kopech has an outrageous amount of talent in his electric arm. Crochet and Erick Fedde have, quite simply, been two of the best starting pitchers in baseball this year. Robert is a rare talent capable of turning in MVP-style seasons.

White Sox players themselves insist that they’re not focusing on everything that might happen, sticking to their daily duties and ignoring all the talk. Of course, that’s only so easy for players who are on their phones as much as any other 20- or 30-somethings and spend hours a day in a clubhouse where the TVs are frequently — if not constantly — tuned to MLB Network.

“Obviously, I pay attention to it. I see it. I hear it all the time,” Crochet said last week. “But I’ve still got to perform. A wise person told me, ‘Every time you take the mound, you’re playing for every team in the league.’ And that’s just the fact of the matter. You never know what can happen in this business.”

“Anything could happen,” DeJong said. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen last year (when he was traded from the Cardinals to the Blue Jays). Stuff happens right before the deadline, and teams make moves quickly. I’m open to whatever happens, just grateful to have this opportunity this year and having fun with these guys here. And understanding I’m on a one-year deal, I’m dispensable. I’m prepared for anything.”

Even players who might not be viewed as “dispensable” are ready for the possibility that they’ll be packing their bags and switching uniforms before the end of the month. It might strike as crazy to some fans that the likes of Crochet and Robert would be dealt away, the two fitting the bill of relatively inexpensive, controllable young stars who would be perfect for a rebuilding team to rebuild around. But they also provide rare opportunities for Getz to bring in sizable return packages, hauls of prospects who could populate the minor leagues with talent under control for even longer — like long enough to be under control the next time the White Sox plan on fielding a contender.

“I don’t have any idea. I’m here. My mind is here, and until something changes, I’m here,” Robert said. “I know there is a chance. Not just me, but the players, we know there is always a chance to be traded. That’s something that we can’t control.”

But there’s also what comes after an expected exodus from the major league roster: who’s next.

The team is unlikely to replace every traded veteran with someone on their top-prospects list, but there’s certainly a chance for fans to see some of the ballyhooed pieces of the future arrive on the South Side before season’s end.

Whether that means Colson Montgomery, Edgar Quero, Ky Bush or Jake Eder — all currently at Triple-A Charlotte — remains to be seen. But Grifol spent some time Saturday opining on the benefits of bringing young players up to the majors before the traditional Sept. 1 roster-expansion date.

“There’s a good possibility of (bringing prospects up in the second half),” Grifol said. “We need to see what the state of the organization is. Sometimes it’s difficult if you don’t do that. Sometimes you’re going on minor league evaluations. Development in the minor leagues is extremely important, but the difference in the caliber of play between the minor leagues and the major leagues is significant. And sometimes you need to see these guys in this environment to be able to know how close they really are.

“I’m not a big September guy. I’ve seen guys just go have a good month. You’re talking about what, 75, 80 at-bats? A lot of good things can happen in 75, 80 at-bats that are not realistic. A lot of bad things can happen in 75, 80 at-bats that are not realistic. … Only 75, 80 at-bats, 20, 25 innings, 30 innings I don’t think is significant enough to determine exactly where a player’s at.”

The winning isn’t expected to pick up once a group full of big league vets is replaced by a slew of rookies who have never had a taste of the big leagues. But post-deadline promotions would offer an opportunity to continue the development of some of these youngsters, who are expected to be featured pieces of a winning future, at the major league level.

That’s what the White Sox will be focused on in the second half, providing fans a look ahead to what are supposed to be brighter days.

“We want to develop to win. We want to develop winners,” Grifol said. “You’ve got to develop players fundamentally, but most of the time, these guys come up here fundamentally sound, for the most part. Here, it’s just a different mentality. Here you’ve got to develop players to win, and you’ve got to develop a winning mentality, a winning attitude, a winning instinct. And that’s where we are going to focus on in the second half.

“There’s a lot of things that can happen in the second half that can put us in a position for ‘25, a lot of things. Development is one of them, but at the same time, developing winners is really, really important. Evaluating winners is really, really important. We’ll take advantage of the next two and a half months and really evaluate things and do our very best to develop winners and put us in a position where we can compete in ‘25.”

The question of whether the team will be positioned to compete in 2025 is best answered in the winter and spring, even if educated guesses could be made this summer. But there are two and a half months of baseball to play, and the White Sox will have to make the most of them if 2024 is to truly contribute to better days years down the road.