Paul Sullivan Thinks Chicago Baseball Fans Are Unreasonable

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune fired a shot across the bow of Chicago baseball fans on Sunday when he wrote a column entitled “No matter how much money the Cubs and White Sox spend, it’s never enough for their fans.”

No matter how much money the Cubs and White Sox spend, it's never enough for their fans https://t.co/q8Ps7HbIn4

— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) February 24, 2019

“The one constant in baseball is no matter how much the owner is willing to spend, it’s never enough to appease everyone,” Sullivan writes in the lede before laying out a checklist of canned quotes from both Rick Hahn and Tom Ricketts from last week.

Get off my lawn, Sully!

The White Sox

The White Sox are notorious for being the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. They have a history of signing washed up talent at bloated prices and refusing to pay up for marquee talent in free agency. Yes, the Sox bucked up for Albert Belle once upon a time, but isn’t tossing out this fact — which was over two decades ago — getting stale?

White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is more infamous for signing Ken Griffey Jr. Jimmy Rollins and Adam Dunn, all of whom were in their 30s at the time, than loosening the purse strings and offering a historic deal to Manny Machado when he is 26 years old. Sure, the Sox offer to Machado at eight years and $250 million was a higher average annual value than the $300-million-deal he ultimately took from San Diego. But instead of tossing in another $50 million for two years — WHICH WOULD HAVE HIT THE TARGET EVERYONE KNEW MACHADO WAS LOOKING FOR — they incentivized the deal to try and squeeze the last ounce of juice from the orange.

As of right now, the White Sox payroll is at $80.167 million. The average MLB payroll is $125.662 million. So the White Sox are at 63.7% of the league average spending.

In 2018 they were at 51.5%.

In 2017 they were at 61.2%.

But we’re the assholes.

— Write Sox (@WriteSox) February 24, 2019

One player doesn’t make a world-series roster though. Hahn and company have shrunk the payroll over the past two seasons while amassing an envious collection of prospects that are starting to graduate to the big leagues. Entering this season, the White Sox have an approximate $80-million payroll. That can change based on who makes the final roster, a la Ervin Santana-type deals, but they are $99 million from the competitive balance tax threshold. Fans railing on Hahn and Sox brass for failing to corral a young Machado for the next decade and shaving $30 million from that $100-million cushion is COMPLETELY WARRANTED.

Honestly, the audacity to imply the fans are the ones who are greedy in this scenario is astonishing. Carry that fucking water.

— Write Sox (@WriteSox) February 24, 2019

Rail away, Sox fans. There is a pattern with the White Sox in these kinds of moments where the club whiffs on a deal and gives an aw-shucks, we-tried excuse to the fanbase. Yes, no one died. Yes, a baseball player chose a different team and that happens in sports. Yes, we are being cavalier with other people’s money, but after two years of burning the tower down and being told they “have a seat at the table” and will have the resources to pave the way to more success, losing Machado stings.

The Cubs

The Cubs spent 108 years as the lovable losers, but after winning a title in 2016 and watching the payroll balloon to $212 million, there’s a hint of entitlement that goes along with the cries for Theo Epstein and Ricketts to spend indiscriminately. Spoiled or not, the Cubs should be actively trying to find payroll space to sign a player like Harper.

They made some suspicious trades that haven’t worked out the way they wanted them to — Jason Heyward — but Sullivan could have framed his column by saying Cubs fans have been blinded by the luster of such a sparkling free-agent class instead of calling them irrational. Compared to the White Sox the Cubs are in great shape to run away with the NL Central if everyone stays healthy. And with Epstein steering the plane (we all know how he likes to listen to black box recordings from plane crashes) there’s always the possibility he will pull a rabbit out of a hat.

But Ricketts spoke in more certain terms last week writes Sullivan.

“That’s a pretty easy question to answer,” Ricketts said. “We don’t have any more. The fact is that we’ve been in the top five in baseball spending for the last five or six years. We were in the top couple in spending last year. We’ve put our money back on the field. Unfortunately, you just can’t have a high-profile free agent every year, and part of that obviously is how much it costs — the $25 or $30 million it’s going to cost — plus it’s a 10-year commitment, and you’ve got to pay those dollars. … As much as I’d like to have a great, new exciting player every season, it just can’t happen.”

He’s got a point. The Cubs are guilty of spending a lot of money. They landed Yu Darvish last season, Jon Lester’s contract was thought to be bloated until he became a folk hero in 2016, and picking up Cole Hamels‘ option wasn’t cheap either. The fact is that if the Cubs are healthy they are a force to be reckoned with. Sure there are concerns in the bullpen and who knows what happens with Addison Russell. Another wildcard is Javy Baez and whether he can put together another season like he did in 2018. But if cause for optimism is lurking, we sure caught a shot of adrenaline on Saturday when Kris Bryant launched a nuke over the left-field wall and put the media on notice.

We Earned the Right to Complain

Major league owners make money. Let’s not kid ourselves and act like the criticism of front offices is unwarranted and unfair. Reinsdorf has been criticized for a long time about his penurious ways, and although he made a solid bid for Machado, he didn’t close the deal and fans have every right to let him and the rest of the front office know about it. In fact, I think the fans deserve to know what the other $30 million in incentives offered to Machado were. Attendance and ticket sales to White Sox games (please don’t take advantage of the low hanging fruit) is sinking depressingly fast and even with Eloy Jimenez poised to debut with the Sox in April, I’m not sure the fanbase is going to recover from this disappointment quickly.

As for the Cubs: yeah, they kind of sound spoiled. Make no mistake, last year was a trainwreck of a season, but the pieces are in place to be competitive for the next four seasons. Yet, if they don’t do something soon, Bryant could be on his way out of town in three years and Anthony Rizzo could be gone even sooner.

I agree with Sullivan that just because teams have money doesn’t mean they should burn through it just as fast they earn it. However, I think it’s fair for fans to shout at the front office to spend when they are reaping the benefits of a deep and dedicated fanbase. One revenue stream set to line the Ricketts’ pockets is a new media deal. Sullivan cites a quote from Ricketts about spending wisely rather than spending like you have the fattest wallet.

“I don’t think there is any limitation in baseball on how much money you want to lose,” Ricketts said. “I think there are some guys that have tested that.” He added that one of the “biggest mistakes” Tribune Co. made during its years of owning the Cubs was its short-term thinking.

It is healthy for those in the C-suite to hear from the lowly masses in the stands from time to time. It keeps them honest and on their toes. It’s similar to the media’s relationship with players and franchise brass. Getting too cozy with the subjects clouds one’s vision and that’s when the buckets start to fill and the yolk becomes heavy.