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 -- I’ve talked quite a bit about the White Sox over the past three or four days.

Not on Twitter. Not on television or radio, and not through my writing, as I was off for the three-game sweep in Toronto. I’ve been talking to concerned waiters, waitresses and hosts at a few restaurants in Chicago. I’ve been talking to frantic friends where I live and disillusioned friends throughout the city and its surrounding areas, not to mention people in baseball and people who were associated with the White Sox previously.

All of them are surprised by the 7-18 White Sox, who looked every bit one of the worst teams in the game during Toronto’s dismantling. Their starters aren’t going deep, there’s a bit of confusion defensively at times and the offense has all but disappeared since Friday night at Tropicana Field with 24 consecutive scoreless innings and three runs scored in their last 36.

This team is not the one I saw working together in Arizona, but then again, the Royals were 19-13 during Cactus League action. I figured the White Sox would be solid, if not necessarily overpowering, and compete with Cleveland and Minnesota for the American League Central crown. I would not have guessed a 0-7-1 series record to date, with seven straight series losses, not to mention a team without a two-game winning streak and sitting seven games behind the Twins in the division.

So, what’s the solution?

It’s still really about getting key players back such as shortstop Tim Anderson, third baseman Yoán Moncada and the uplifting story of cancer-free closer Liam Hendriks and simply playing up to their talent level. The 2023 White Sox aren’t the 1927 Yankees, but they shouldn’t be 11 games under .500.

Pedro Grifol, who certainly didn’t expect the first 25 games of his managerial career to play out as such, doesn’t sense a team giving up through these underwhelming times.

“It just doesn’t feel that way. I don’t know why,” Grifol told reporters in Toronto. “This is a good team, there’s talent here. There’s care here, there’s work here.

“I know that feeling. I’ve been through that feeling. You go 10-20 or something like that and you’re like, ‘OK. We just have to be professionals and grind this thing through.’ But this doesn’t come close to feeling that way.”

Fans not only embraced the rebuild starting with the Chris Sale to Boston trade in December 2016 but almost reveled in it. To follow up said rebuild with two total playoff wins since ’20 and last season’s major disappointment leaves this team with no good graces or room for platitudes while things go sidewise.

There’s also no major call-up coming from the White Sox Minor League system to turn the tide. This is the group to sink or swim with, at least for now. There’s still a long baseball season remaining, but if the White Sox play as they have the first 25, it could feel even longer.