White Sox’ Chris Getz optimistic amidst rubble

Chris Getz fashioned a seven-year playing career in the major leagues more because of grit than talent.

Getz spent seven seasons from 2008-14 as a second baseman with the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays. He played in 459 games despite hitting just .250 with three home runs.

Determination helped keep Getz in the big leagues for that long.

“I’m probably up there at the top of the list when it comes to competitive nature,” Getz told Draft Nation. 

“I find losing to be pretty awful.”

Thus, nobody was bothered by the White Sox’s historically bad 2024 season more than Getz. The White Sox finished 41-121, setting the record for most losses by a major-league team since 1900. It was Getz’s first full season as their general manager.

Part of the job of Getz – or any leader – is to stay positive. Morale can dip when the boss isn’t upbeat.

‘I definitely had to take a step back, realize where were as an organization, don’t lose focus,” Getz said on handling the unprecedented losing. “When you’re watching games as regularly as we do and you keep coming up short so often, especially the way we were losing games in the seventh eighth and ninth innings – to not be able to hold the lead or come back – it was difficult. It also provided a lot of clarity of our situation but also a reminder that we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

It was clear that the White Sox were terrible in 2024 as their record indicated.

And Getz isn’t kidding that he has a lot of work to do after his team finished last in the major leagues in runs scored, batting average, home runs, on-base percentage and OPS. The White Sox’ pitching was marginally better as Chicago finished 25th among the 30 teams in ERA.

Thus, Getz understands that it’s highly unlikely the White Sox will make a leap from doormat to contender, even though they played in the postseason as recently as 2021 and finished second in the American League Central in 2022.

Forever loyal to his employees, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf fired longtime president of baseball operations Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn late in the 2023 season when Chicago was on its way to 101 losses. Getz was promoted from farm director and began the rebuilding process during spring training this year when he dealt ace right-hander Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres.

It is more likely that the White Sox will be busier in the trade market than signing free agents this winter as they have two highly coveted players in left-hander Garrett Crochet and center fielder Luis Robert Jr.

“We definitely want to look for improvement from within,” Getz said. “With that being said, when the time is right, we’d definitely like to add free agents. Right now, we’re really focused on getting better with our farm system, developing those players and graduating them to the big leagues, helping develop them at the big-league level.”

The White Sox have five players ranked among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects – left-hander Noah Schultz (No. 9), shortstop Colson Montgomery (No. 38), lefty Hagen Smith (No. 49), right-higher Drew Thorpe (No. 67) and catcher Edgar Quero (No. 78). Thorpe was one of three rookies in the White Sox’s rotation at the end of last season with fellow righties Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke.

Schultz, Montgomery and Quero will likely begin next season with Triple-A Charlotte while Smith will probably start at Double-A Birmingham.

“We’ve got a young core of position players knocking on the big-league door right now and I like where we’re at from a pitching standpoint,” Getz said. “It’d about rounding out our roster, adding position players to balance out our pitching. You go from there and try to build out the best roster you can.”

Crochet could help the White Sox add more talent after striking out 209 batters in 146 innings this year.

The 25-year-old was one of the most-coveted players at the trade deadline this past summer. However, Crochet killed his value by saying he would want a long-term contract extension before committing to pitching in the postseason for an acquiring team.

However, Crochet is open to being traded without that restriction this offseason and is attractive to many teams because he has two more seasons of contractual control before becoming eligible for free agency.

“A lot of teams have expressed interest, which is not surprising considering what he accomplished last year,” Getz said. “I do think it’s important to note that he’s one of the best starters in the game and I can very easily see him making an opening-day start for us.”

It would be shocking, though, if Crochet took the mound for the White Sox on March 27 against the Los Angeles Angels at Guaranteed Rate Field. And Getz has a template for a Crochet trade after dealing Cease, the 2023 AL Cy Young Award runner-up, in March.

“I think more than anything, because it was fairly recently, it gave us a chance to really to dive deeply into these organizations and their prospects and it gave us a head start to see what kind of players we would want in return for another top-tier pitcher like Garrett Crochet,” Getz said.

A strong case can be made that the White Sox won’t be ready to contend before Crochet is eligible for free agency in ’26. However, Getz isn’t putting any limits on the White Sox’s rebuild, mindful that the Arizona Diamondbacks reached the World Series last year just two years removed from a 110-loss season and the Kansas City Royals reached the playoffs this past season after losing 106 games in 2023.

“These things can change quickly, the landscape can change quickly,” Getz said. “It’s all about accumulating talent right now, as much as we can.”