When you think about it (and I’d advise against it), what’s happening with the White Sox is crazy. A team that had playoff aspirations before the season began fell to a season-high 18 games under .500 Saturday.
You know what 18 games under .500 is? It’s the kind of record that rebuilding teams have. The Sox aren’t rebuilding. Their payroll is $130.2 million, which is 11th highest in baseball. Their .410 winning percentage is the lowest among the top 15 spenders. Ten of those 15 teams have records above .500.
You almost have to try to be as bad as the Sox are. This can’t be emphasized enough: The Sox aren’t trying to be this bad. They’re not trying to get higher draft picks. Their prolific losing is completely organic. Their losing is a living thing, a creature. This is spontaneous dreadfulness.
So, yeah, crazy. Maddening, too. And, more than anything, so beyond unacceptable that the Better Business Bureau should be brought in for a look-see. The gap between what was supposed to be and what is is so large 100 games into the season that heads should have rolled a long time ago. But these are the Sox, where lifetime employment is a reasonable, reachable goal.
First-year manager Pedro Grifol says he likes “the fight we’ve shown, the at-bats when we’re down.’’ The fight? What fight? You’re 18 games under .500. Your opponents show up for fisticuffs. Your team shows up thinking it’s Rock, Paper, Scissors.
To be fair, Grifol wasn’t shy about listing the Sox’ shortcomings this season after a 3-2 loss to Minnesota on Saturday, the one that put them 18 games under the statistical definition of mediocrity. There were the usual suspects: Poor plate discipline. Mental lapses. All the things that bad teams do. All the things that rebuilding teams do.
The Sox are five seasons removed from a rebuild that was going to lead to what sports executives like to call “sustained success.’’ All the losing from that rebuild had brought in high draft picks and talented players.
As far as I can tell, the high point of the post-rebuild era came when rookie Eloy Jimenez hit a ninth-inning home run to help the Sox beat the Cubs in 2019. Jimenez, a former Cubs prospect, had come to the South Side along with pitcher Dylan Cease in the trade for pitcher Jose Quintana.
“Thanks, Cubs!’’ Sox broadcaster Jason Benetti gushed after Jimenez’ home run. His voice carried the hope of all the good things to come for the Sox and the hurt of a fan base still convinced that the dice were loaded in favor of the Cubs from birth.
The Sox have two unfulfilling postseason appearances to show for that moment and that rebuild – a 2020 wild-card series loss and a 2021 division series loss (after winning 93 games).
And now this.
Professional sports is an industry in which executives almost always get fired for failure. The Sox and the Bulls (both owned by Jerry Reinsdorf) are the two franchises in pro sports that don’t fire executives for failure. There are no other franchises with a bigger chasm between what the fanbase wants (fire everybody!) and what the owner wants (more company picnics).
This isn’t about knee-jerk fans or media members. This is about an owner who thinks he’s George Bailey and his franchise is the Building & Loan. The Sox have finished above .500 just twice in Rick Hahn’s 11 years as general manager. Fire him, right?
Absolutely not, banker Jerry tells the agitated Bedford Falls crowd:
You’re thinking of this place all wrong – as if I had the money back in a safe. The money’s not here. Your money’s in Rick Hahn’s house, right next to yours. And in Kenny Williams’ house, the way it used to be in John Paxson’s house, and a hundred others. Why, you’re lending them the money to build, and then, they’re going to pay it back to you as best they can. Now what are you going to do? Foreclose on them?
Well, yes.
In Reinsdorf’s bizarre world, the point is to surround yourself with loyal employees, no matter the results. For anybody else who cares about the Chicago White Sox, it’s an awful life.
The only time the Sox have been above .500 this season was after a 3-2 victory over the Astros. On March 30. In the season opener.
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