You all know the way I really feel about Jerry Reinsdorf. He is nothing greater than a virus that has contaminated the one crew I really care about in all of sports activities. Ever since I bought into this running a blog sport, I’ve circled the wagons a number of instances calling out public enemy primary in Chicago White Sox land. At seemingly each flip, the person that has been the bane of our existence for over 4 a long time has discovered a brand new method to allow us to down.
Within the coronary heart of the White Sox’ supposed “rivalry window,” they’re both standing pat or, even worse, subtracting from a crew that was flawed for the final two seasons. This isn’t what a crew with critical championship aspirations does. This isn’t what an proprietor that’s dedicated to profitable does.
If you wish to know what dedicated possession seems like, see the Philadelphia Phillies and John Middleton. Or the San Diego Padres with Peter Seidler. Or maybe the best instance, Steve Cohen with the New York Mets. All three of those people personal groups that fell wanting their championship aspirations in 2022. And now all three homeowners are stepping on the gasoline to present their respective franchises the very best alternative to win the World Sequence in 2023.
Ripple Impact
Picture: Lucas Peltier/USA TODAY Sports activities
Every week in the past, I opined that I had zero expectations for the White Sox to make any significant strikes on the Winter Conferences in San Diego. Certain sufficient, they didn’t disappoint in that regard. Whereas the Phillies had been signing a franchise cornerstone in Trea Turner, the Mets had been beefing up their rotation with veterans Justin Verlander and Jose Quintana along with re-signing outfielder Brandon Nimmo. The Padres added one other All-Star infielder in Xander Bogaerts, and the Sox sat idly by. None of this was a shock to longtime White Sox followers.
What’s troubling within the exercise that befell per week in the past was the shift within the market. Taijuan Walker, a mid-tier participant, obtained a four-year, $72 million provide from the aforementioned Phillies. Walker has been a serviceable mid-rotation starter because the 2015 season when he lastly caught within the bigs with the Seattle Mariners. An $18 million AAV for a mid-rotation starter despatched shockwaves by means of the trade and social media. Particularly contemplating that just some days prior, the Sox announced their deal for Mike Clevinger, which obtained its justifiable share of criticism for the monetary funding to a pitcher that has endured spotty well being and efficiency points because the begin of the 2020 season.
Walker was the kind of participant that the White Sox usually would goal within the open market. Everyone knows after the nice lie instructed through the winter of 2018, that this crew could be a viable participant for premium top-of-the-market free brokers. As a substitute, we now have grown accustomed to looking the secondary and tertiary ranges of the market to seek out methods to fill out the roster. Walker’s deal, together with that of Brandon Nimmo, might show to be a loss of life nail to the Sox’ hopes of utilizing even lower-level free brokers to spherical out a roster this coming season and into the longer term.
If these mid-tier choices are receiving contracts with AAV within the $18M-$20M vary, the White Sox are in hassle. These offers are consistent with that of Yasmani Grandal, the person who signed the richest free-agent contract in franchise historical past. On the time of his free company, Grandal was extensively thought-about one of many prime two to a few catchers within the sport. His price ticket was commensurate along with his observe document over the course of his MLB profession. If gamers like Walker and Nimmo are actually approaching and exceeding that stage, with out the historical past of efficiency to match, I do not know the place the Sox go from right here.
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All through his tenure, Rick Hahn has failed miserably at figuring out mid-tier gamers to spherical out rosters no matter the place the Sox are of their aggressive cycle. If the wage flooring are going to be elevated now to the equal of the White Sox’ highest free-agent expenditure ever, I shudder to consider how Hahn will reply within the coming months and years.
Whether or not it was Mat Latos, Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche, or a bunch of different gamers, Hahn virtually at all times guesses incorrect on this tier. If these guesses now include an $18 million/12 months price ticket, this crew will discover its method into roster development hell very quickly. We all know that this proprietor would not have the heart to spend over errors by his entrance workplace, so now much more impetus might be placed on strikes for gamers that will not transfer the needle that a lot.
Harbinger of Doom
Picture: Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports activities
The ramifications of the market shift final week may very well be devastating for the Chicago White Sox in each the brief time period and long run. If the Sox are actually priced out of the market on even mid-tier free agent choices that they’d beforehand take into account, I do not know the way this “window” will get cracked open once more apart from getting the dead cat bounce I eluded to weeks in the past.
Maybe the one hope we now have as a fan base at this juncture is for Jerry Reinsdorf to be so scared by the price of enjoying poker in in the present day’s atmosphere that he cashes in all his chips just like the coward that he’s. Reinsdorf has a protracted historical past of making an attempt to suppress participant salaries, most notably when he robbed the best crew he ever had of its alternative to win a World Sequence in 1994. It has to make him cringe to know {that a} mid-rotation starter is now getting $18 million on the open market, and an outfielder with spotty well being historical past is receiving an eight-year deal for $20 million yearly.
There was a motive why Jerry Reinsdorf was certainly one of solely 4 dissenting homeowners that attempted to stop Steve Cohen’s buy of the New York Mets. Cohen is the richest proprietor within the sport, and a Mets fanboy (I say this in a constructive gentle) to the intense. The $94 million luxurious tax cost he makes is nothing to him. That was what Jerry Reinsdorf at all times feared. He is at all times feared homeowners that may spend with reckless abandon, thus driving up participant salaries.
Maybe issues have gotten to the purpose the place Reinsdorf now not has an urge for food to remain within the sport because of the elevated labor prices. That is actually our solely hope at this level. I believe it is unlikely, nonetheless, as a result of I believe he actually needs to sink this franchise earlier than he’s buried along with his cash.
He proved as soon as once more final week along with his media comments that he actually would not care about Chicago White Sox followers. He solely reveals his face when somebody will bathe reward on him for his philanthropic efforts. Regardless of what the media puppets will print at his request, this man doesn’t care about constructing a sustained winner on the nook of thirty fifth/Shields. Perhaps simply perhaps, the price of enjoying poker has gotten too wealthy for Jerry’s style.
