The White Sox stayed in the family and named Chris Getz as their new senior vice president/general manager Thursday.
“Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and experience within our organization to this role,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “Most importantly, he knows our players, both at the major league level and in our system, knows our staff and is familiar with all aspects of our baseball operations department.”
A former player and front office executive with the Royals and White Sox, Getz, 40, is in his seventh season with the Sox, including the last three as assistant general manager. He has overseen the player development the last seven years.
“I am honored and humbled to be given this leadership responsibility,” Getz said in a statement. “I understand what this team means to White Sox fans, and I am excited to begin the work today and during the remainder of this season. There is a great deal of talent within this clubhouse and within this ballpark, and we are going to diligently begin to do the work and lay the foundation for an organization and a team we all take pride in, from the staff, to the players, to our fans.”
“Chris has impressed me greatly over the past seven years,” Reinsdorf said. “In our conversations together this season, I have become energized by his vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again. With his existing knowledge of the organization, top to bottom, I believe his leadership will provide us with the quickest path forward to our goal, a consistently successful baseball team that competes and plays the game the right way. He will re-energize this organization.”
Ken Williams was fired as executive vice president and Rick Hahn as general manager last week in a surprise announcement from Reinsdorf. The Sox’ rebuild under their watch failed, bottoming out this season as the team takes a 53-81 into the final month of the season.
Before coming to the Sox, Getz spent 2015-16 as a baseball operations assistant/player development with the Royals, who won the 2015 World Series. Getz played seven seasons in the major leagues with the Sox, Royals and Blue Jays.
