Let’s start with a show of hands from everyone who reacted cynically — “Typical Jerry” — when White Sox grand poobah Jerry Reinsdorf promoted from within after firing Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn late in the 2023 season, elevating Chris Getz to first-time general manager in a move announced a day after Getz’s 40th birthday.
Are a lot of hands up? Mine is.
Fans and media weren’t the only ones feeling this way, Getz shared in a candid weekend conversation with the Sun-Times.
“I realized that people outside of the walls — and plenty of people, probably, inside — didn’t believe it was a good move and wanted someone from the outside,” Getz said.
“But I believed at the time that it was the right move. I did. I just felt there was such opportunity to improve this place, and I saw it and I felt it. I was just so motivated to get this right — honestly, probably more than anyone else — and I think Jerry recognized that.”
While the Sox were sweeping the Tigers at Rate Field, Getz was scouting the NCAA tournament regional at UCLA, home to Roch Cholowsky, the shortstop Getz might make the No. 1 overall draft pick in July. Possessing the top pick is heady business for the major leagues’ most surprising winning team this season.
In Getz’s first season as GM, 2024, the Sox, record-setting losers, bottomed out at 31-109, their lowest winning percentage — .221 — not counting April. As we talked Saturday morning, the Sox were about to improve to 31-27, an almost unimaginable 82-loss difference in 31 flavors.
“It’s something you don’t want to take for granted,” Getz said. “How can you take it for granted after going through what we did?”
On Sunday — the last day of May — the Sox won their 32nd game, something the astoundingly bad 2024 team, which ended May with a 15-43 record, didn’t manage until September.
From his front-office rebuild on down, Getz’s stewardship is bearing fruit. He is having a moment, for which a tip of the cap to the doubted man seemed to be in order.
“When you can get the right people and set the direction and just focus on the work and look for opportunities to improve, culturally, players start to play to their ceilings or perhaps even beyond what expectations are,” he said. “That’s where this organization needed to go, and it was lacking. There was underperformance. Players weren’t performing to expectations.”
Before newcomer Munetaka Murakami strained a hamstring Friday, losing him to the Sox for what Getz called a “four-weeker,” no player was making the GM look better than the Japanese slugger. Getz had stuck his neck out on the day Murakami was officially introduced, calling him “one of the most prolific power hitters on the planet” and saying, “Mune is going to be a star in this game” and, “It can’t be overstated how significant this boost is.”
They were gushing statements that would’ve been used against Getz and the Sox had Murakami failed.
“I felt it. I believed it,” Getz said. “Thankfully, it’s played out in support of those statements.”
But what will it signify if the notoriously tight-fisted Sox don’t stay in the Mune business beyond his two-year, $34 million steal of a contract?
“Everything that he gets in the future, he’s earning,” Getz said. “I’m really happy for him. This has worked out tremendously for both parties, for the White Sox and for Mune. I know he loves it here, and we’re going to try to keep him here. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
Is it a burden — an embarrassment — within the industry that the Sox are one of two teams, the small-time A’s being the other, never to ink a player to a nine-figure deal?
“I’ve never thought about it, ever. I just haven’t,” Getz said. “I’ve heard that being talked about publicly, but I’ve never had an agent bring that up, never had a player bring that up. There will be a time that we do that.”
Will Reinsdorf ever afford Getz the resources to build a championship team?
“Yes,” Getz said. “There’s this assumption that whoever has the most resources wins the championship, which I don’t believe in, but I think in all reality you do need added resources to pursue a World Series championship. But I’m confident it’ll be there.”
Across baseball, there is wariness of a prolonged impasse between owners and players that might be coming. The 2027 season could be in peril, potentially gumming up the works of the Sox’ ascension. Anyone who remembers the 1994 Sox can’t feel good about that, though Getz claims to be unworried.
“I have faith that this is going to be worked out and that whatever changes are made and whatever adjustments need to be made, we’ll make them,” he said. “We’ve got a talented group to figure this out, whether it be in the front office, throughout the organization and in the player group. It doesn’t stop.
“I know literally games could be at risk, but our commitment to move in this and continue to keep the momentum does not stop. This isn’t about creating something for [winning] windows or cycles. This is a constant pursuit of looking for opportunities to bring in talent and develop them into what we know is a winning style of baseball.”
Getz has the wheel. It might be in good hands after all.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but what an opportunity to make this place one of the top organizations in baseball,” he said. “I felt like it could be. I’ve always felt that way. I was just so confident that I could do it, that I could bring in the people to help me and figure this out.”