This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
My newsletter is brought to you by the word “speculation.”
It’s an idea recently drawing the ire of White Sox general manager Rick Hahn in relation to the employment status of manager Pedro Grifol. Hahn and the front office have strongly supported and praised Grifol from when he was hired on Nov. 3, through a rough April and up to the team’s 32-44 mark entering Friday’s series opener against the Red Sox. Nothing has changed.
But it’s a concept Hahn not only understands but readily accepts when it comes to the direction of the White Sox as the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline moves closer.
Will they be buyers if they stay in contention?
Will they be sellers if they clearly drop?
Or will they take a step back regardless, through a larger number of moves, to be in a better position for 2024?
“Speculation at this time of year, leading up to Aug. 1, that’s the nature of the beast. That’s going to happen. That’s what makes part of it exciting and accessible for fans,” Hahn said. “You can speculate on any sort of pivot between now and Aug. 1.
“In the end, it’s going to come down to an assessment of how realistic this club’s chances of getting to October and doing something, and then what is the market, what is the return available to us if we make certain moves. Do they reinforce ’24? Do they reinforce ’25? How prudent it is to focus [on] those dates in the more distant future vs. the more immediate. It’s reasonable to speculate about all of that, but there’s a lot of time left before that market really plays out.”
Hahn spoke at the end of May and delivered the same basic message. It should be another three weeks to a month before moves really take shape, but the White Sox are six games behind the Twins, a .500 club, for the American League Central lead and five games behind the Guardians for second in the division.
In that month, the White Sox could move to two games under .500 and … a two-game lead in the AL Central. There are a few people I know, really good baseball people, who still believe the White Sox will win this division.
Is winning a weak AL Central enough for a rebuild that began with Hahn talking about multiple titles but has netted only two playoff wins to date? I don’t see the White Sox becoming buyers and trading away the few major players in their system who could help them in the not-too-distantfuture.
I also believe the White Sox won’t make a plethora of deals off the active roster, seconding a report from earlier this week as to how they will focus on their players with expiring contracts.
The beauty of the Trade Deadline is everyone reading this newsletter -- and their friends and family -- has a plan, the right plan. But it will be speculation until Hahn puts things in place.
Let the guessing games begin.
“If we’re able to turn this around and get ourselves in a position to win this division, given that we are currently [12] under [.500], we are obviously going to be playing pretty damn good baseball for the final two, three months of the season,” Hahn said. “That would give us reason to believe that the postseason performance could be better.
“Making the playoffs is important, but our goals are loftier than that. And when we judge, ultimately, what happens as we get much closer to Aug. 1 than we are now, how we project our ability to not only win the division but to make an impact in October is going to factor in.”