New White Sox GM Getz has work to do in offseason

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.

CHICAGO -- Before delving into the 2023 White Sox season, let’s take a look at a few of my ironclad preseason predictions.

American League Cy Young? I went with Triston McKenzie or Cristian Javier.

As for the AL Most Valuable Player? My bold call was White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson getting votes.

And in regard to the AL Central? My thoughts were the Guardians, Twins and White Sox battling for the top spot.

So, my expert calls seemed to have been about as on target as the White Sox in their 61-101 performance. But there’s always next year.

Here’s a look back at the White Sox showing during manager Pedro Grifol’s first season at the helm:

Defining moment

Two come to mind. On April 21, at Tropicana Field, the White Sox carried a 7-5 lead into the ninth inning with Reynaldo López on to close. Christian Bethancourt homered to open the inning, and after a Yandy Diaz single, Brandon Lowe ripped a 3-2 pitch to right-center for the game-winning home run. This loss was No. 2 of 10 in a row for the White Sox, which essentially ended the season before it began.

Anderson’s left MCL injury during a botched defensive rundown at Target Field on April 10 changed his whole season. When Anderson is healthy and on point, he’s still one of the biggest game-changers in the White Sox lineup. He ended up being neither for the bulk of ‘23.

What we learned

Chris Getz has work ahead of him. Building up this team as part of the rebuild beginning in 2017 seemed to go off without much of a hitch, and the White Sox appeared poised for sustained greatness after reaching the playoffs in 2020 and 2021. But if the 2022 season was considered disappointing, then ’23 was a downright debacle, costing executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn their jobs.

The next step for Getz, as the new general manager, is about structuring a team beyond just assembling talent. For whatever reason, this group didn’t fit together.

Best development

Liam Hendriks’ return. Hendriks not only was the White Sox best story but quite possibly was one of the best stories in all of baseball. The closer worked just five games and picked up one save before undergoing Tommy John surgery, but after being diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during the offseason, his return on May 29 was a celebratory event in Chicago as the illness was in remission. Hendriks went on to help others battling cancer during meetups at almost every home and away series. It was a truly inspiring tale.

Area for improvement

Everything. But if we have to be specific, let’s land under the category of walks. The White Sox were the only offense in baseball drawing fewer than 400 free passes as a team and finished second from the bottom in baseball with a pitching staff yielding 654 walks. That combination won’t contribute to a great deal of wins.

Right field, second base and catcher are positions of future need. Then again, right field and second have been on this list for a while.

On the rise

Luis Robert Jr. Right-hander Gregory Santos gets a nod for his strong rookie season in the bullpen, and Yoán Moncada looked great after his back got healthy. But Robert Jr. earns this honor.

There was no doubt as to the five-tool talent of Robert Jr., but in ’23, he reached superstar status. That leads to our final category. …

Team MVP

Robert Jr. If the White Sox were a better team and Shohei Ohtani didn’t exist, Robert Jr. would have deserved serious Most Valuable Player consideration. He finished with 38 home runs, 36 doubles and 20 stolen bases, the first 35-35-20 season in franchise history, and he played in a career-high 145 games.