The Chicago White Sox Officially Name Chris Getz As Their New GM And Are Now A DEAD Organization
I'm a petty asshole and over the last few weeks, I've felt a little bit of vindication. Over the last few weeks, multiple stories have leaked detailing Kenny Williams being complete power trip and Jerry Reinsdorf constantly meddling as if it's 1986. Rick Hahn - my guy - should have absolutely been shown the door, but he wasn't really pulling any strings. He was Reinsdorf and Williams' press secretary in the end.
That brings us to Chris Getz, who was promoted from Assistant GM and Director of Player Development this morning. Here's the press release:
First of all, Reinsdorf can take his quote and shove it up his ass. "I believe his leadership will provide us with the quickest path forward to our goal".
What in the FUCK kinda quote is that? How in the FUCK can you spew this shit??? How in the FUCK can you compare/contrast Chris Getz' vision with anyone else's if you won't interview anyone else???
It's mind boggling!!!
Here's a response to me bitching about the hire on the Twitter that was a great point in reference to Jerry's quotes:
Let's focus on the "competitive again" part of the quote - over the last 10 years, the White Sox have the 4th worst record in all of baseball. He's not worried about ya know - winning championships - he's worried about getting back to the nice, fat, meaty part curve where the Sox are kinda/sorta in the race (eh… not really), but also not a complete embarrassment, either.
Just dangles and dangles that carrot.
Over the last few weeks, there have been multiple reporters like Ken Rosenthal that have said a White Sox FO job was a gold mine of a gig, too, and this is maybe what rubs me the wrong way the most - big market, awesome city, rabid fanbase that's starving for a winner, shitbag division, OG organization that has played at the same intersection of 35th and Shields for 1000 years, etc. etc. etc.
But but but…Chris Getz is who Reinsdorf landed on. Not anyone from the Rays/Dodgers/Braves/Astros/Cardinals/Brewers/etc. that have won and won consistently for an extended amount of time. Chris fucking Getz.
So let's talk about Getz. Here's a TL/DR on his resume, if you don't feel like reading the press release above:
- Played for Sox, Royals and Jays 2008-14
- Was named director of player development by Sox in 2017
- Was promoted to Asst. GM/ Director of Player Development in 2021
That's pretty much the start and end of it. I could go WAY deeper into Getz and his accomplishments, but that's what Wikipedia is for, but I will say, before today's promotion, he was in charge of what's generally been a dog shit farm system aside from the few years after they traded Sale, Quintana, Eaton, etc.
AJ Pierzynski summed it up perfectly:
Here's how the farm system has slid down the rankings over the last few years once all the pieces from the Sale, Quintana, and Eaton trades graduated from prospect status:
Pretty fucking horrible! Now, not ALL of the faults fall on Getz' shoulders for the mess that is the farm, but some to a LOT of them do and while the amount of blame that should be placed on him is up for debate, what isn't up for debate is that the farm system has been largely bad aside from the short windows where the Sox acquired decent to highly thought of players from outside the organization to give it a jolt. Hardly anything at all has been home grown. The optics alone of this are bad, whether this was all Getz' fault or not.
I'm gonna put in a media request for an interview for him today or tomorrow. Hopefully we can dig further into who he is and what makes him tick.
So my question is this: if any of the 29 other organizations in MLB just fired their top two baseball ops decision makers, would they promote from within or would they scour the baseball world to find qualified replacements?
And what about if the insular hire didn't do anything tangible or concrete to make your organization better like…at all?
My money is on the latter. But the White Sox aren't one of the 29 other organizations. They are incredibly insular (unless they're poaching people from the Royals, apparently) and completely refuse to point thumbs instead of fingers. That's why the Sox and Bulls wind up with guys like GarPax, WillHahn, Fred Hoiberg, Robin Ventura, etc.
The ONLY one of those hires that clicked was Ozzie Guillen, but he's the exception to the rule.
Now if Reinsdorf scoured the baseball world for suitable, qualified replacements and THEN landed on Getz? Awesome. I'd be all in.
He didn't though. He didn't even think to throw together a token minority interview. He said fuck it and promoted a guy who, in my opinion, didn't deserve to be promoted. To play devil's advocate against myself, however, when he was named director of player development, I was told he was a "grand slam" hire by an agent friend of mine.
That was 7 years ago, though. Since then he's overseen a lot of TRASH in the Carolinas and Birmingham.
I hope Getz is the savior and the man to turn around the franchise. I hope I literally have to eat my words. In fact, if Chris Getz successfully turns this organization into the gargage, dumpster diving, pathetic organization that it is into just an average organization like… the Brewers or someone, then I will print out this blog, grate it up and sprinkle it onto pizza or pasta or something like it's parmesan cheese and eat it.
I don't think that's going to happen, though, and that's because Jerry Reinsdorf is still the owner and I don't see anything changing with this organization until he no longer is.
It's a DEAD organization. DEAD. Adam Hoge speaks for 99%+ of Sox fans:
That's why you have to buy a shirt:
BIG PS -
Would be chef's kiss fucking hilarious if the White Sox hired a President of Baseball Ops as Getz' boss & overseer. No organization on earth would hire a GM prior to hiring his boss. That'd be completely backwards. Any other organization would hire a President of Baseball Ops and let him fill out his cabinet as he sees fit. The White Sox aren't just any organization. They do NOTHING right.