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.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- I’m going to draw a parallel between the 2023 White Sox and the 2005 World Series champions, but I’m going to do so with an obvious caveat, so people don’t quickly grow irate or accuse me of being way too optimistic.

Actually, nobody has ever accused me of being optimistic at any level, but I digress.

Here’s caveat: The 2005 White Sox are one of the most underrated champions in any sport. They won 99 games in the regular season, posted an 11-1 postseason mark, won 16 of their final 17 games and were in first place literally from start to finish. The ’23 White Sox are a team filled with talent trying to bounce back from a major underachievement in ’22.

But my connection traces between Tadahito Iguchi , the second baseman on the World Series champions who made a stop at Camelback Ranch this past week, and Elvis Andrus , who joined the ’23 team on Feb. 20.

Iguchi was deemed as the one piece away for the White Sox by then general manager Ken Williams when Iguchi agreed to terms on Jan. 27, 2005. Could Andrus hold that same value presently?

“To a degree. Andrew Benintendi, too, to a degree,” Williams, who is now the team’s executive vice president, told me on Saturday. “I mean, the league as a whole is so strong now. There are so many really good teams.

“What you want to do is put together something that is a squad you look at and go, ‘Well, if we are healthy, we can play against anyone.’ I think that’s where we are. How we ultimately are going to do, we’ll all find that out together.”

Iguchi’s addition to the White Sox, or the story around the addition, always intrigued me. So, I asked Williams for a little more detail about that process when we talked in Peoria.

Williams never saw Iguchi in person, making the call by studying him countless times on video from eight successful seasons with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in the Japan Pacific League. He then delivered the idea to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to try to add on even though they were at their budgetary limit.

“You are going to think I’m crazy, because I really only believe we are one player away,” Williams said of his push to Reinsdorf to bring in Iguchi. “He said ‘Oh, yeah. What are the scouts saying? What are the reports?’ I said, ‘We don’t have any scouting reports, we don’t have anything on him but the video that I’ve watched over and over and over.’

“He said, ‘We’ve got nothing?’ I said, ‘No, but I got a good feeling about this.’ That’s how that started.”

Williams went to the marketing and sales department, led by Brooks Boyer, to find the $4.95 million to sign Iguchi.

“I have to give the marketing and sales department all the credit in the world,” Williams said. “They found the [$4.95] million to add what I felt was the one last piece for us.”

As a strong defensive second baseman and a perfect fit in the second spot of the lineup, Williams knew Iguchi was the guy, even via video.

“Strong fundamentals, strong hands, accurate arm. Just the nuances of a swing that could manage the baseball, that could move,” Williams said of Iguchi. “I was very specific about him hitting in the second spot because of the things he could do, and the way Ozzie [Guillen] liked to manage.”

Andrus seems to fit perfectly into Pedro Grifol’s aggressive managerial style and is an exceptional clubhouse presence. But time will tell if this new second baseman has the same championship closing effect 18 years later.