Another year of late October baseball has arrived, and again, the White Sox are nowhere to be seen. This is something White Sox fans have gotten used to, as they cannot win more than one game in a playoff matchup if they even make the playoffs.
This was supposed to be a window of contention for the White Sox, yet it seems they are on the precipice of another rebuild. To add insult to injury, the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks have done a fantastic job building their teams, in more ways than one.
For Arizona, they are in the World Series with one of the lowest payrolls in all of baseball. They look like they have a legit chance of winning it too. If they didn’t blow the first game, they could easily have a 2-0 lead on the Rangers. Regardless, they are a team that was built for long-term success. This success relies on great player development and scouting.
Arizona is filled with prospects who have actually made a significant contribution to the major league team. Guys like Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, and Gabriel Moreno all play a major role on the team that has made it so far. To add insult to injury, Thomas should have been a White Sox, if it wasn’t for some dumb rule they made not drafting a son of someone in the organization. For all the favoritism in the organization, you can’t draft the strength training coach’s son, who’s actually good, just because his dad works for the team? Just an absurd choice by the Sox. They picked Steele Walker over Alek, and now Alek is making plays on the biggest stage.
Arizona is everything the Sox wanted to be. A young, cheap team that will compete for a title every year. You can even argue that the White Sox had better prospects coming up in the system than Arizona does. Yet, Arizona is going to be playing November baseball and the Sox are at home. It’s funny what a competent organization can do with young talent.
On the other hand, Texas did a great job of evaluating talent but also spent wisely on big contracts in free agency. Corey Seager and Marcus Semien have both been worth their price tag. They spent wisely on good players. The White Sox avoiding big contracts like the plague is going to come back to bite them. Who cares if Seager’s contact looks bad in 2034 if they win a World Series? Texas has done it the right way and if they don’t win this year, they’ll be back.
It is nice to see what could happen with smart spending. Just because you have two mediocre players making a combined 20 million versus a stud making 25 does not make you a “smart” GM. The incompetence of the organization is sickening and the success of both of these teams is well deserved.
If the White Sox had better talent evaluation or smarter spending, they could be in this position. Yet, here they are at home watching teams that do it well. Let’s hope that Chris Getz can finally do something with this team.
