6 items on Sox offseason to-do list with World Series over
The World Series is over.So what’s next?For the White Sox, the offseason to-do list is pretty clear cut. And it all starts with hiring a new manager. But general manager Rick Hahn laid out some specific team needs, as well, that makes the work in front of him easy to identify.There might be some surprises along the way — there always are; the White Sox sure didn’t seem to “need” a catcher when they inked Yasmani Grandal to the richest free-agent deal in team history last offseason — but here’s a look at what is on Hahn’s to-do list now that the World Series is in the rear-view mirror.
This one’s obvious, and it takes precedent over everything else.
The White Sox chose to part ways with Rick Renteria after his four-year tenure as the South Side skipper. It was a tough break for a guy who was fresh off leading the team to its first playoff appearance in a dozen years. But the White Sox seemed to send a clear signal that the best way to meet championship expectations was to pounce at the opportunity to hire a manager who’s done just that.
In describing the White Sox “ideal” candidate, Hahn focused on recent postseason managerial experience for a championship organization. That seemed to describe A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora, a pair of free agents who managed two of the last four World Series winners, Hinch helming the 2017 Houston Astros and Cora the 2018 Boston Red Sox.
Of course, both of those guys were suspended for the 2020 season for their roles in the Astros’ cheating scandal. Now, though, with the World Series over, those suspensions are over, as well, and it would be shocking to see the White Sox not consider two guys who fit the bill of what they’re looking for.
Additionally, Tony La Russa’s name has been mentioned an awful lot to this point, which would test the limits of the word “recent.” And some fans would prefer the White Sox take a look at Bruce Bochy, who won three World Series titles during the last decade, though he recently said he might wait until after the COVID-19 pandemic to consider returning to managing.
But whether it’s Hinch, Cora or someone else, the White Sox need to bring a new skipper aboard before getting down to any other offseason business.
Hahn outlined that the team will be looking for upgrades at multiple positions this winter, including both designated hitter and right field, which were two of the positions Hahn attempted to upgrade last offseason.
The fix at DH seems relatively easy, the White Sox likely able to plug in highly ranked prospect Andrew Vaughn. Even if he gets the Nick Madrigal treatment and doesn’t start the 2021 season on the major league roster, he still seems a good bet to spend most of the campaign as a key piece of the team’s everyday lineup.
Right field, though, could be trickier, as evidenced by the 2020 stab at a solution, Nomar Mazara. The White Sox touted untapped potential when they acquired Mazara in a December trade, but with such a menacing offense as is, they didn’t need him to do much more than show the same pop he did with the Texas Rangers. He didn’t do that, hitting just one home run.
Without a prospect like Vaughn to turn to, it’s back to the drawing board in right. That could mean free agency, where there are both big names like George Springer and Michael Brantley and more low-key options like Jackie Bradley Jr. and Joc Pederson. Or Hahn could revisit the trade market. All Mazara cost the White Sox was one of their plethora of yet-to-seriously-impress outfield prospects.
With win-now expectations, turning once more to Mazara in a platoon with Adam Engel doesn’t seem the most reliable option. Of all the needs Hahn addressed — starting pitching included — right field seems the one with the least amount of internal possibilities.
The White Sox were eliminated from the postseason, chiefly, because there was no reliable No. 3 starting pitcher for Renteria to turn to in Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series. And even if his reliance on what had been a terrific bullpen had panned out, the same problem would have reared its head in the longer series that followed.
Team brass remains high on what guys like Dylan Cease, Dane Dunning and Michael Kopech can become. But heading into the 2021 season, it’s impossible to forecast what exactly the White Sox will get from any of those three pitchers. They could all pitch wonderfully. They could all experience the same inconsistencies that plagued all White Sox starters not named Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel in 2020.
And so starting pitching is once again on the South Siders’ shopping list this winter. The options here, however, are tougher to locate, especially if, like many fans, the front office is intent on making a big splash. Trevor Bauer is perhaps the top player, pitcher or otherwise, on the free-agent market, and there’s no doubt he’d make a sensational addition and provide a championship-caliber 1-2-3 punch alongside Giolito and Keuchel. But there are likely multiple teams with designs on adding Bauer to their rotation.
After Bauer, the attractiveness of the free-agent starting pitchers drops off significantly. While any addition would provide always-necessary depth, how many would provide the kind of upgrade in the dependability department over the likes of Cease, Dunning and Kopech?
That could send Hahn to the trade market. But regardless of where an upgrade comes from — even if that simply means the guys who are already slated to fill the rotation improving — it needs to happen if the White Sox are going to be a championship-caliber club next season.
The odds could be stacked against the White Sox retaining two key players heading to free agency, but they’ve got to try — because they’re a much better team with Alex Colomé and James McCann than without them.
McCann figures to be the trickier one to re-sign, just because Grandal isn’t going anywhere. The White Sox gave Grandal the richest contract in club history to be the team’s No. 1 catcher for four years. And it’s worth noting that he did a fine job of that in his first season on the South Side, even if he wasn’t thrilled with his own production.
McCann, though, followed up his 2019 All-Star season with an even better 2020 campaign, putting up bigger numbers and revamping his defense to earn Gold Glove finalist status (which Grandal did, too). All that, along with his role in Giolito’s transformation, made him a popular player among White Sox fans and a key piece of the puzzle the last two years. He’s earned a starting job, though, and even if the White Sox can reward him financially, they’d have to get really creative — and perhaps box Vaughn out of the picture — in order to accommodate the playing-time needs of both All-Star backstops.
Colomé should also receive plenty of interest after what was kind of an under-the-radar season as one of the best closers in baseball. He’s done nothing but rack up saves for years now, and he carries an attribute the White Sox seem to greatly value moving forward into their contention window: proven dependability.
Aaron Bummer could very well be lined up as Colomé’s successor in the closer’s role, and there’s no shortage of other candidates after the White Sox bullpen was so good in 2020. But Colomé is pretty darn close to a sure thing, as ninth-inning men go, and the relief corps is undoubtedly better with him than without him, allowing all of those other talented arms to dominate in earlier innings, shortening the game for whoever the new manager is.
When it comes to these two, plenty will be out of the White Sox control. But they’re key pieces they’d be better off not letting get away.
For the first time in nearly two decades, the White Sox will have a new pitching coach in 2021. The team parted ways with Don Cooper the same day Renteria’s tenure ended, a bold move if not a dramatic change in direction.
Surely the new manager will have input on what his coaching staff looks like, but there are internal candidates for the job. And with so much still riding on the development of arms like Cease, Dunning, Kopech, Garrett Crochet, Jonathan Stiever and Jared Kelley, the hire will be an important one.
As far as those internal candidates go, the names that spring to the fore are Triple-A pitching coach Matt Zaleski and minor league pitching coordinator Everett Teaford, who have both received rave reviews for their work in the organization.
The White Sox have made a habit of handing out long-term contracts to the core pieces of their rebuilding project, starting all the way back in 2017 with a deal for Tim Anderson. New contracts have followed for Eloy Jiménez, Yoán Moncada and Luis Robert, Jiménez and Robert getting their deals before even playing in a major league game.
Locking in an ample amount of team control over its long-term cornerstones is part of what’s set the White Sox up for a seemingly lengthy contention window. So it would be no shock to see the team attempt to do something similar again.
That could mean building on the trend of young position players by looking toward Madrigal or Vaughn. But the most intriguing potential long-term deal would be one for Giolito, who has established himself with back-to-back impressive campaigns as one of the best pitchers in baseball. Giolito is currently under team control through the 2023 season, and it doesn’t take a fly on the wall of Hahn’s office to guess that the White Sox would like to have him under control for even longer.
Of course, Giolito has pitched well enough — and surely expects to continue to do so — that he’s earned the right to get the biggest payday he can as a free agent three years from now. But there's certainly security that would come with a long-term deal now.
A Giolito extension would be a slam-dunk move for the White Sox.
