Jerry Reinsdorf is disgusted with the 2023 White Sox. But he will not be selling them. He also doesn't have the patience to sit through another rebuild.
"I don't have a lot of time left. I don't want to go through a long rebuild. I only expect to be here another 10 years," Reinsdorf said during a rare media session.
Time, or lack thereof, was one of the main reasons that the White Sox promoted Chris Getz to General Manager instead of pursuing someone from outside the organization. He wanted to give Chris Getz time to prepare for the offseason and Rick Hahn time to get on other teams ’ radars.
When asked why Getz was the right candidate Reinsdorf said he didn’t want a new exec to have to come in and get comfortable on the job. He also called cutting ties with General Manager Rick Hahn and Executive Vice President Kenny Williams the hardest firing of his career.
"I started talking to everybody in the baseball department," Reinsdorf told reporters. "Then, I started getting convinced I had to make a change. And the change killed me. It wouldn't have been any harder for me to fire my son Michael than it was to fire Kenny. Because Kenny was my son, he's still my son.
"I started thinking 'Who's out there?' You don't make a change unless you know that you're going to be able to do something that you're going to improve.
"So I pretty much know who all the potential candidates who are out there, and there's some good guys out there, no question. There are some good guys who can be general managers and have been general managers that are gonna be general managers, maybe this next year.
"That moved me to the thought -- what is it I owe to the fans? I think one of the things I owe the fans is to get better as fast as we can possibly get better. Speed is of the essence. I don't want a long-term proposition.
"It became clear to me that he [Getz] would be one of the major candidates, alongside these other candidates. And then when I started thinking about the speed I owe the fans, I realized that if you bring in somebody from the outside, it's gonna take him a year, he's gonna have to evaluate everybody in the organization. So you'll lose a year."
While the sentiment is nice it shows what has gone wrong with the White Sox for the last decade. They are looking for a quick and easy solution instead of the right one. Fans would much wait for a rebuild to be done correctly instead of throwing a bandaid solution on the current problem.
Reinsdorf believes the AL Central is bad enough that the White Sox can take advantage of it and recapture the division title as soon as next season. He also thinks the foundation of a contender has already been laid with the current group of core players. The White Sox are trying to take a shortcut.
The thought that it would take an executive too much time to evaluate everyone in the organization is misguided. Most executives in the MLB already have a pulse on the White Sox. It would not take a year to come in and get fully acclimated or to identify the problems within the organization.
Having to “evaluate everybody in the organization” as Reisdorf said, should not have been seen as a negative. The whole point of making a change is to have someone come in and diagnose the problem not promote someone who was part of it.
Vinnie Duber of CHGO asked Reinsdorf if he felt there needed to be change then why didn’t he bring in someone from outside of the organization? It was a question that the 87-year-old owner had to take some time to think about before responding replying that Getz has “different ideas. ”
Reinsdorf is giving Getz the keys to the car. No longer is the chain of command broken up into multiple decision-makers atop the front office. Getz will have full control over the roster and decisions. Reinsdorf confirmed the only thing he will not have full autonomy over is spending money.
"If I got a guy on the inside who can do the job, why not? Why not do it and save a year?" Reinsdorf said.
So what about Getz makes Reinsdorf confident that Getz can do the job?
"I wanted baseball taught in the minor leagues a certain way where people understood what they were doing," Reinsdorf said. "They understood what's the right thing to do in a certain situation. And nobody ever did it right - until Chris came along. And this I observed, you know, a couple of years ago. I was thrilled."
This is despite the fact White Sox farm system currently ranks 20th in the MLB according to MLB Pipeline and every team in the farm system has a losing record this season.
Reinsdorf dismissed the notion Getz was to blame for this. He was quick to point out that Getz didn't have control over the players who came into the farm system so he was not to blame for the White Sox consistently ranking near the bottom half of the league in farm system rankings.
After listening to the White Sox owner open up for roughly 45 minutes it is hard to say he no longer cares about the team. But I can say with confidence he does not know how to go about fixing it the correct way.
When it looked like the roster was ready to contend, he hired his friend Tony La Russa. Instead of conducting a proper candidate search he thought inserting a Hall of Fame manager would be a quick and easy solution. In Jerry’s mind, the back of La Russa’s baseball card was justification. But an impressive resume doesn’t always equal the right fit.
But Reinsdorf doubled down on the hiring citing his 93-win season and the division title he won with the team. Now he is making the same mistake again by opting to go with someone who he is comfortable with instead of someone who is the right fit. However, unlike La Russa, Getz doesn't have the same track record of success.
Regardless Reinsdorf is hoping that Getz will be the last major hire he has to make as an owner because this season is one he would like to quickly forget.
“The 2023 season was my 43rd season in baseball. It was absolutely the worst season I’ve ever been through. It was a nightmare. It’s still a nightmare. Embarrassing. Disgusting. All bad words you can think of is the way I feel about the 2023 season, Reisndorf said. “ It was just awful.”
