Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate on news related to Major League Baseball each week. Some of the topics will be pressing issues, some may seem irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, and many will be somewhere in between. The best thing about this site is that it is free and you are allowed to click away. However, if you stay, you will become wiser. That’s a money back guarantee. Let’s get to it.
Once the dust settles on the 2024 season, Major League Baseball will have an unquestionably new team: the 2024 Chicago White Sox.
It’s such a futile effort that it won’t be the new norm for evil groups. It is very bad. For example, the Twins and Royals have gone 12-1 against the White Sox this season, significantly improving their postseason chances. The White Sox are so bad that it affects the playoff race drastically.
The worst part is that, unlike some of the bad performances we’ve seen in recent seasons from teams like the Orioles and Tigers, the White Sox weren’t really trying. Unlike the 1962 Mets, who have the biggest loss in the MLB season for several days, the White Sox are not an expansion team that has been placed in a negative position by the league.
No, they are just incredibly evil.
We can point to many reasons for this, but let’s keep it simple and point one finger where it belongs: Directly at owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
Reinsdorf’s problems are all over the place. It’s a sign of cruelty combined with ignorance on the part of MLB team owners. He is cheap, very “hands on” in baseball operations and believes he is entitled to the worship of all who care about the White Sox. Almost everything wrong with the White Sox has a direct line back to the owner’s box.
Spending money
This may be the most embarrassing part of the situation. White Sox game in Chicago, big market. It is the third largest market in MLB. Sure, it’s separate from the Cubs, but ask yourself how many years you’ve seen the Mets or Angels. There’s no reason the White Sox can’t perform at the same rate.
However, he is one of two teams in baseball that has never signed a player to a nine-figure contract. They never came close. Andrew Benintendi’s five-year, $75 million deal is the largest in franchise history. Only the A’s haven’t gone that far. Pirates went to $ 100 million exactly with Bryan Reynolds and we are now dealing with low cost of ownership.
The Marlins are over $300 million. The Royals have Bobby Witt Jr. with a contract approaching $ 300 million. The Brewers made monster deals with Ryan Braun and Christian Yelich. The Reds went over $200 million to keep Joey Votto.
In a game with no prize, discussions like this shouldn’t happen. They certainly shouldn’t happen around a franchise as resourceful as this one.
Things aren’t going to change anytime soon, just like the White Sox aren’t.”I will be working hard on freelance work“This coming winter, according to GM Chris Getz. It probably didn’t need to be said. They never work hard in free agency.
And that’s not all. They’ve long had one of the smallest analytics departments in baseball (it was the smallest in 2018, for example). Their international screening process is inadequate. A few weeks ago, their front office discussed expanding their footprint:
“We’re in the process of developing our school down in the Dominican Republic,” Getz said recently (via MLB.com). “We have done a lot of work and research in the areas and we plan to focus more on that in the coming months to find a facility that will work for us.
We could go on, but the bottom line here is that it all comes back to the almighty dollar and Reinsdorf’s unwillingness to use the conditions that other franchises do.
Interference
After the 2020 season, the White Sox looked like an up-and-coming team. They were 35-25 in the short term and had a good core of young talent. Manager Rick Renteria was fired and replaced by 76-year-old Tony La Russa, who already had three World Series rings under his belt and had managed the team between 1979 and 1986. The White Sox won the AL Central in 2021, but things started. it’s fall 2022 and La Russa didn’t finish the season.
“I’m so sick and tired of reading that bringing Tony La Russa back was a mistake,” Reinsdorf said in 2023. “Tony La Russa is back in 2021, and does anybody know what we What happened in 2021? Does anyone remember that we won 93 games? We won the division by 13 games.
The move to La Russa was not, by itself, why the White Sox have sunk to their current depths. Still, it’s an example of Reinsdorf stepping in and doing whatever he wants instead of giving in to his baseball hires to run baseball operations.
And when he fired his front office last season, who did he promote? Getz. He may prove to be a good manager in time, but he is too young and inexperienced for the job. His trade-time (and non-trade) moves this season were exec over his head.
Furthermore, if the front office was so bad that it needed to be fired, why was the assistant general manager — Getz — promoted?
Also, this is a team in the third largest market in the league. A high-level, progressive manager could have been hired to rebuild the field’s product. Instead, Reinsdorf suggested coming from within. Why?
The answer is very simple. Reinsdorf wanted Getz in the seat.
Attitude and privilege
Earlier this year, reports shown The White Sox wanted to build a new ballpark in Chicago. Hey, Reinsdorf even said he wanted to put up his own money to help pay for it! Of course, he’s also asking for $1.2 billion in tax money, according to Crain’s. Indeed, rumors began to circulate that Reinsdorf would move the White Sox to Nashville if the plan didn’t come together. It’s not the first time. There were threats to move to St. Petersburg in 1988. A Trop was already being built for them.
You see, with Reinsdorf, White Sox fans are expected to continue to line their own pockets with their tickets and concessions and television viewing and everything. He also has the right to get taxpayer money if he feels he needs to build a new ballpark. If he doesn’t get his way, he’ll take his team and move! It is a form of legal extortion.
In fact, he could have made a mistake by selling the team, but he refused to do so. Then he will no longer manage a Major League Baseball team. I think energy is a big part of it, though. In every room he walks into, he comes up with his head up and says “I have a baseball team.” He can hold that over the heads of White Sox Nation as well.
If it didn’t hurt me because of the fan base, I would have laughed Reinsdorf’s recent statement: “Everyone in this organization is not very happy with the results of this season, which is saying nothing. This year has been very painful for everyone, especially our fans.”
You, sir, have not done anything on the field that shows you care one bit about the White Sox fan base. They won the World Series in 2005, sure, but that wasn’t because of their great owners. It wasn’t even a long period of glory. There were four playoff periods before the title and two playoff periods afterward. Since then, the Sox have only made the postseason three times in 19 seasons. It’s a franchise that’s been running poorly and the rot is seeping down from Reinsdorf.
Mr. Reinsdorf, you are the biggest reason fans are in the midst of the worst season in baseball history.
For shame.
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