CHICAGO -- As the new White Sox director of player personnel, Gene Watson is going to be working over the organization’s pro scouting department in trying to find the best players via any route to help the team win.

But as a member of the Royals’ front office staff for the past two seasons, Watson also understands there’s talent in place for a squad whose 3-2 loss to the Padres on Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field dropped it to 61-99 overall.

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“Ultra talented. Very talented when you look at center field and third base and shortstop,” Watson said during a pregame media session Friday. “The key positions, they have a lot of very good skill players. It’s going to be fun to work alongside them and build this team up to win.”

Center field, of course, belongs to Luis Robert Jr., who finished 2023 with 38 home runs, 36 doubles and 75 extra-base hits, to go with his Gold Glove-caliber defense and a career-high 145 games played.

Third base features Yoán Moncada, who doubled and homered in five at-bats Friday, and has been one of the team’s top hitters since Aug. 8.

Shortstop is Tim Anderson, who has had an uncharacteristically rough season in front of a $14 million team option and $1 million buyout for ’24.

That list doesn’t include left fielder Andrew Benintendi, first baseman Andrew Vaughn, and designated hitter Eloy Jiménez, to name a few more. It would have to feature pitcher Dylan Cease near the top. The right-hander struck out seven over five innings Friday to give him 213 strikeouts over 177 innings this season.

This ’23 campaign wasn’t Cease’s best, and he took the loss against the Padres to finish 7-9. But even without an American League Cy Young runner-up finish in the offing, Cease showed his vast talent and ability to adjust.

“Any time you go out and battle, especially if you don’t have your best stuff and command, you kind of have to grit through it,” Cease said. “Just learning how to do that. Especially these last couple starts, I found some good adjustments.

“Hopefully, I’m able to take that into next year. Any time you have more experience, it usually leads to better results.”

Watson, new assistant general manager Josh Barfield and new senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister met with the media this week. More important, they have been meeting all week with general manager Chris Getz and manager Pedro Grifol as they continue formulating the plan for ’24.

The White Sox want baseball players, as Watson asserted. They also are looking to build a team, a cohesive unit fighting together.

“It’s guys who love to play the game that have a heart for their teammates,” Watson said. “In talking to Pedro, it’s just 26 guys that love to play together. When you look at the playoffs right now, the teams that are in, they love to play together.

“We want to get baseball players. We want to get guys when they show up, they are going to give you 27 outs and play as hard as they can. So that’s ultimately what we are evaluating right now.”

Taking the extra base, playing hard and working hard all the time are a few of the intangibles Grifol has talked about wanting to see from his teams, as well as what he envisions White Sox fans want and deserve to see from this group. But wins are what White Sox fans really desire.

They embraced the last White Sox rebuild with open arms, eagerly anticipating the contention window opening. It’s no wonder such disappointment and disapproval came with the team’s pronounced struggles over the past two years.

Whether Getz and crew are retooling or rebuilding in this next phase, they need to get it right.

“I know it’s going to be a lot of work, but Josh and Chris and Brian, they are truly three of the brightest young stars in the game,” Watson said. “I’m 55 years old on Monday, and this is my 34th year in baseball. I’ve been to four World Series (1998, 2003, ’14, ’15). We’ve won two and lost two. I know what it feels like when you got the right people, and Chris got the right people.”

Said Grifol: “We’ve got to win. It’s plain and simple. We can answer questions, but it’s not about talking about it anymore. It’s about doing it on the field, and it’s all about wins and losses. That’s what we’ve got to do. That’s what we’re going to be focused on.”