The Jays are coming off a series win and heading into three games against the White Sox. The White Sox are once again terrible this season and anything other than a sweep will be considered a failure by the Jays. Still, despite their record breaking win-loss record last year and a 23-51 record so far in 2025, the White Sox are facing a real challenge from the Colorado Rockies as the worst team ever this year.
It’s hard to be a fan for a hopeless team and even harder to find the enthusiasm to write about them day in and day out. But Brett Ballantini of South Side Sox was willing to take the time and answer a few questions about the Fall of the White Sox and what their fans have to look forward to.
So, to rip off the bandage all at once, can you identify the key factors that saw the White Sox go from a division winner in 2021 to a record 121 losses just three seasons later?
Answering this would cover two dozen separate articles, none of which Bluebird Banter readers would like to read. But in an attempt at brevity:
Spending The White Sox did not spend enough to maintain their momentum as a team winning 90-plus games, and what they did spend was done unwisely (broadly speaking no effective bats, no starting pitchers at all, mostly bullpen arms)
Farm Couple that with a bereft farm system yielding nothing. The White Sox spent several years drafting slow/questionable college bats, high-K hitters who flamed out or at least never saw footing in the majors. That’s a terrible combination with no/poor spending
Bad luck/injury This is a stupid point, every team has injuries. But the core group hardly or never saw their potential. Yoán Moncada gets a bad rap but had just one great season, as has Luis Robert Jr. Eloy Jiménez didn’t even have that. Tim Anderson went from All-Star pest to out of the majors in one knockout punch. José Abreu provided leadership and slugging, but started to tail off and then bolted town to Houston and was never heard from again.
Horrifying leadership From the cruel axing of Ricky Renteria as manager to the star-crossed pick of Tony La Russa to replace him and the outright naive selection of Pedro Grifol to replace HIM, to the embarrassing promotion of Chris Getz (overmatched as farm director and assistant GM) to general manager, the White Sox are utterly rudderless
Amorality No this is not a “true” factor we can trace with metrics, and the White Sox are not the only club run by conscienceless clowns, but the repeated signings of Mike Clevinger, an unsolved shooting at the ballpark, going forward with the TLR hiring in spite of a recent DUI arrest, and broadly looking the other way when it comes to abuses in their minor leagues don’t attract talent on or off the field or bolster fan confidence or affection.
Jerry Reinsdorf agreed to a rather bizarre ownership sale process that could see him selling the team to the Ishbia brothers as early as 2029. Do Sox fans think this is a legitimate transfer or or just a way for Reinsdorf to hang on to the team until he passes away?
This is possibly the dumbest franchise sale in baseball history. Who announces a sale that might not take place for 10 years? White Sox fans want to be/are excited that change looms, but Jerry will have had the team for roughly 50 years before it is pried from his clinging hands. Excuse me if I am not excited in the least about this pending, one day, maybe, eventually, just a few more years now, sale.
Record aside, what kinds of developments and progress this season would Sox fans need to see to feel the team is moving in positive ways?
We are seeing it, a bit. The games, still terrible, are more competitive compared with 2024. But at the moment the club is only about five wins better than the team that lost the most games in baseball since 1899, and in spite of new faces and new on-field leadership, there are parallels to 2024 closer than we’d like to admit. In fact, quick quiz: In 125 seasons of White Sox baseball, what have been the two worst starts to the season? Easy guess at No. 1 is 2024. But No. 2? 2025.
But the club is on track to improve by 10 games or so. A year ago, there was essentially no one to be excited about going forward on the roster not named Garrett “On the Trading Block” Crochet. This offseason should look much brighter.
Which prospect are White Sox fans most excited for that might debut this year?
Well, this team utterly sucks, so those debuts have already happened. Chase Meidroth was promoted in May and has been terrific, a breath of fresh air and a pesky gnat of a player. He may be capped with, say, a 3.0 WAR ceiling, but that’s Christmas in July to White Sox fans. Edgar Quero came up not long after, and he’s pretty much hit the ground running behind the plate with a killer arm, and he’s shown some real maturity with his switch-hitting bat. And now Kyle Teel, yep another catcher, is up with the club and looking pretty OK. See, all you have to do to have not one but two blue-chip backstop prospects is lose more than 120 games!
Who is your favourite member of the team to watch right now?
Meidroth is a fun little spark plug who you just wanna root for. But I have to say it’s Quero. He’s a terrific talent, a no-nonsense guy who just kept his head down and grinded his way to the majors even after the offseason acquisition of a “better prospect” in Teel arriving via the Crochet trade.
Finally, just a fun little exercise, if you could choose any player who debuted with the White Sox at any point in their history and drop them into this team at their rookie position and with their rookie year numbers, who would it be?
As much as I want to hit you with an exotic choice from 1914 or spend three hours researching this question to come up with the undisputed best possible rookie choice here, I’m going to cop out and say 1990 Frank Thomas joins this team. Not that I need to justify that pick, but the White Sox somehow have not only no SLUGGING first basemen on the team, at the moment they don’t have an actual, decent first baseman on the team. How does a major league club manage that?
Thomas was called up at the start of August and only played two months in his first season, but still rocked 2.3 WAR in 60 games. This White Sox team might not finish as a negative-WAR team offense in 2025 (as it did, BADLY, in 2024) but it still has a desperate need for impact bats. Big Frank was the consummate impact bat. In fact, I’d start him at first base for the White Sox right now, at age 57.
Thanks Brett!