White Sox look to flip the script in '24

DETROIT -- The White Sox were eliminated from the American League Central title race via a 3-2 loss to the Tigers on Sunday afternoon at Comerica Park.

That would not exactly fall under the “breaking news” heading, with the White Sox basically removed from postseason thoughts since stumbling to a 7-21 opening within the 2023 campaign. But the American League Central somehow kept them on the outskirts of contention, just as it has done the past couple of seasons.

In 2022, the White Sox hovered between five games below .500 and five games above .500, but they stayed right with the Guardians and Twins until losing eight straight during a key September stretch. This season, the White Sox featured a 36-48 mark as late as June 30, but they were only 5 1/2 games out of the top spot in the AL Central at that time.

It’s the less-than-stellar AL Central that provides the White Sox some sort of hope for a quick turnaround in 2024, despite many problems that need to be repaired, but it’s also become a crutch of some sorts for the South Siders. The goal from the start of the rebuild executed by Ken Williams and Rick Hahn, who were dismissed on Aug. 22, was to win a championship. Make that win multiple championships.

That goal shouldn’t change, even if it means the White Sox having to take a step back once again next season to get everyone moving on the same page. Their change of focus took root at the Trade Deadline when they moved six pitchers with expiring contracts and third baseman Jake Burger.

“It’s just good to see things, to make difficult decisions a little more accurately in real time here in the big leagues, not in the Minor Leagues or Spring Training,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “But we’re focused on winning games as well.

“It hasn’t been a good season. We had high expectations coming in. So we flipped our focus to making sure we see what we need to see and at the same time competing.”

Flipping that script meant getting a look at second baseman Lenyn Sosa playing third base in the series finale against the Tigers. It means bringing up catcher Korey Lee to learn on the job.

“Not compromising games whatsoever,” Grifol said. “But there are things we need to see as well.”

“Every day is a gift we get to play in the Major Leagues,” said first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who ranks second on the White Sox with 19 home runs and 72 RBIs. “We all dreamt of this. Every day counts. We have to go out and play as hard as we can every day no matter what.”

So what went wrong with the 2023 White Sox?

Closer Liam Hendriks became the most inspiring story of the year, quite possibly in all of baseball, when his battle against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma ended with the disease in remission. But his absence during chemotherapy and immunotherapy, not to mention an injury issue eventually leading to season-ending Tommy John surgery, meant the absence of a late-inning force and a clubhouse leader.

The same holds true for a driving force such as shortstop Tim Anderson, who has dealt with physical issues and uncharacteristic underperformance. Those two key components really represent the tip of the iceberg for a second straight woeful year.

“Yeah, there’s so many ups and downs throughout the season. We just didn’t win enough games,” Vaughn said. “It was a little bit of everything.

“Some days we would hit decently and did not pitch well. Some days we would pitch our butts off and our offense wouldn’t pick up the pitchers. There’s definitely a lot of things that happened.”

The hope is history won’t repeat itself with Chris Getz as general manager. Getz has already talked about nobody being an untouchable on the roster, which means bold moves could follow this offseason. It’s as much about changing the culture, which has been frequently talked about by Grifol, as personnel switches.

“There are a lot of areas that need to be attacked,” Getz said. “But there is an order in which we will be attacking those.”

“There’s a lot of things we have to keep up with,” Vaughn said. “We’ve got to do our work. Keep going this year and just play baseball the way it’s supposed to be played. Go out and have fun and do our best.”