But the regular season has been an irregular disaster.
The White Sox could dismantle the team by the trade deadline, but Sr. VP Kenny Williams has been telling the media that is not an option. The team is on a three year window and plan, which to some seems contradictory. Williams told the USA Today:
“It’s important that we not lose sight of what our organization goal was, and that was to give us the best three-year window. And we’re not going to abandon that completely with only three months to play,” Williams said. “I think [Rick Hahn’s] done one hell of a job. Everyone wants to put the blame on [manager] Robin [Ventura], too, but all he can do is put the players in position to succeed. They’re the ones who have to look in the mirror and execute. If we do anything, it will be consistent with trying to maximize this three-year plan or window that we set out originally.”
“We’ve always had that mind-set that we will listen to anyone who wants to make an offer for our players,” Williams said in response to a question about Chris Sale. “How else do you know what the value is? Something may bowl you over. But we can’t envision anything happening along those lines.”
While Sale is locked up on a team-friendly deal that could run through the 2019 season, Jeff Samardzija is a different story, as he’s set to hit free agency this winter. Bob Nightengale mentions that “every club with an urgent pitching need” has expressed an interest in Samardzija, and that the Blue Jays in particular have “strongly pursued” the righty.
If Samardzija signed an extension to remain on the south side, that would obviously change things. But Samardzija has said in the past he has wanted to hit the free agent market to prove his worth to all bidders. This is probably his one big pay day and he knows it. And the White Sox do too.
“We just have to get some sort of indication it’s possible or not to sign him. We have to also see if it’s realistic given our resources and the other obligations we have,” Williams said.
It is hard to say what has gone wrong for the White Sox since just about everything has been inconsistent to bad (fielding, base running, hitting, crucial pitching, scoring, managerial moves, etc.) It would be easy to trade away the new pieces, but then the White Sox would be back to a total rebuild when the franchise likes merely to "re-tool" the roster since that is what the fan base wants, a competitive team.
It is not that the White Sox have to add anything to the current roster. It just needs to have the current players actually perform as expected. But since the Sox are double digits behind the Royals, it is doubtful that a major second half improvement is going to change the Sox fortunes.
