This is the biggest gut punch I can remember in all my life being a White Sox fan. No that’s not an exaggeration.
Today the San Diego Padres will officially ink Manny Machado to a 10 year, 300 million dollar contract. The White Sox offer was reported to be around 8 years 250 million.
For the front office talking the talk the way they did for the better part of 3 months, they didn’t come close to walking the walk. They filled our heads with false hope that they would land a big whale and left us with Machado’s best friend and brother in law.
From the day they traded Chris Sale, this free agent market was being looked at as one that could legitimately complete the White Sox rebuild. Instead, it’s looking like it could be the one that destroys it.
I don’t necessarily blame Rick Hahn yet. He seemed like he legitimately wanted to go down swinging. But Kenny Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf ultimately have the last say, and they weren’t budging on their initial offer.
Ken Williams: “We could not go that $300M level.”
— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) February 19, 2019
What the fuck are you talking about, Kenny? The team has 15 million on the books for next season, and 8 million the year after that. There is more than enough room to offer that type of contract to TWO players. So he’s basically saying that the White Sox won’t be going after Nolan Arenado next off season as well. But sure, let’s put Moncada at 3rd where he has 8 errors in 13 career games. I’m sure that will work perfectly fine.
To make matters worse, you just lost out to the San Diego fucking Padres. A team that swooped in literally 2 weeks ago. It’s not like they were going against notorious big spenders like the Yankees or Red Sox. Every reporter out there had the White Sox in the drivers seat until the very end. They didn’t want to outbid themselves and it bit them in the ass.
I truly don’t see how any fan can have hope after not just this, but William’s comments on not spending 300 million. Rick Hahn said it’s impossible to build a championship team that is 100% home-grown and he’s right. The narrative that the Sox will never spend, that seems to be right too. Reinsforf is the White Sox equivalent to Bill Wirtz. Until he drops dead, the White Sox will be the small fish in the big pond that is the Chicago market.
