Mike Rankin and James Fox reacted to the Chicago White Sox’s end-of-season press conference, which included an announcement that Tony La Russa retired as manager. That led them to discuss all that’s ahead in the offseason and what to expect in 2023.
8 thoughts on “FutureSox Podcast: Tony La Russa retires, Chicago White Sox 2022 season ends”
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The sox off season of accountability is off to a booming start they are basically admitting Tony would of been back had his ticker not flickered, and Hahn thinks he is the best guy for the sox gm job, thus Hahn will remain sox gm and head up the managerial search with the rest of a failed front office types…. amazing stuff from an organization with a rich history of championships and success.
I have 0 faith in Hahn to rework the roster in 2023, and I almost dont want him too even try and make things worse. Best bet is to hope for bounce backs and a new manager being competent.
If 2023 starts off poorly you do a quick rebuild/retool sell off whoever you can and go into the off season of 2024 with some money to spend and key pieces like Cease, Kopech, Vaughn, Eloy, Robert, Anderson, Moncada etc still around.
It’s just stunning how bad this organization is. It certainly looks like business as usual this year, like this year was just a normal season. At least you have to think that Jerry won’t force a manager on the team this time, so if/when it’s a bad choice, it will fall to Hahn. I have zero expectations of anything positive happening this offseason- I’m pretty sure he will sell low on some players and get garbage in return. The best thing someone as bad as Hahn can do is absolutely nothing, and then hope guys are healthy and the stars play like stars next year.
Yea, if I knew Hahn and co would be gone after 2023, I would definitely not want them to try and do anything because they could easily do more harm then good and I still like the outlook of 2024 with their core and the money thats freed up. However its a tougher outlook if you think they are entrenched for another decade.
Hahn said they would look into trading guys who they had previously thought would be long-term pieces, so we will see which of those “key” pieces is still around. It is the right thing to do – and would have already been considered by another front office – but I don’t trust this group to make the right deals. I also don’t trust them to trade from the farm, which also seems likely.
Though – as expressed in the comments – standing pat has a certain “do no harm” appeal, they can’t really do that either. Probably losing Abreu and Cueto, maybe an overall payroll cut, desperate need for left handed bats…. Some kind of significant moves have to be made regardless of who is making them
We have a handful of reasonably attractive prospects that it would be malpractice to trade, but on the big league roster who is even moveable for a major leaguer without eating a bunch of money.
Anderson could probably be moved for a non-All Star starter type, but you’d only do so if Andrus was resigned, so maybe there’s some savings around the margins to be had.
Jimenez or Vaughn could be traded but the market for 1B/DH-only bats (which is all they’d be considered by other teams despite masquerading as corner outfielders) is already fairly depressed.
Hendriks or Graveman would probably be attractive to another team – Lopez too, but less savings there – but if we’re trying to compete you’d just have to replace them and other than Martin there’s not a lot of minor leaguers that can be counted on right now. Maybe the team knows when Crochet will be back and feels like it can trade from the bullpen now that Bummer is healthy again.
Moncada, Grandal, and Garcia have to be considered essentially untradeable. Sheets might be a cheap flyer for someone but not likely to return much of anything.
Long story/short – I’d almost prefer a slow offseason, because any of the projectible moves probably result in a net worsening of the team.
In the off season I dont think too many crazy trades are gonna present themselves, its gonna be more about reshaping a bit of what you have related to the 40 man and for the future. Organizational depth at C is horrible, and not a lot of high level SP prospects exist in the system. I would hope Hahn and co can somehow work out using a few repetitive parts to address a few of these needs.
The problem is I dont think you are gonna get much in the way of Sheets, Burger, and even adding a repetitive MINF prospect like one of Rodriguez or Sosa where does that put you? Is that enough for a #4/5 SP or a C with some upside….
Things get more interesting at the midway point if you are off to a bad start because you will for sure at that point have to look to trade Lynn, Graveman, Giolito, and probably Hendrix type players who if they are performing well would net you something much more of value.
When will we be able to do the OPP? I have mine ready to go! Of course, it will look nothing like what Hahn ends up doing.
By that, you must mean sensible.