Chicago White Sox: Forget about the 2016 team

The Chicago White Sox were bad in 2016 even though they were trying to win as an organization, but here in 2019, we need to forget about that team.

There has been a lot of media coverage of the 2016 Chicago White Sox team this week. This all started because of an on the field disagreement between former White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton and third baseman Todd Frazier. It also sparked the conversation about how they did not get along in the White Sox clubhouse while they were teammates.

Then all of the things that were bad about that team were brought back from the dead. People bringing up Chris Sale cutting up his jersey, the drama surrounding Adam LaRoche and his son Drake, and the fact that the team started off really good and then fell apart.

The truth is, everybody needs to realize that the 78-84 team that was good for fourth place in American League Central served a purpose. They were bad despite trying to be good and that made management realize that what they were doing wasn’t working. That following October the crosstown Chicago Cubs won the World Series and the lowly White Sox knew they had to make changes to maintain any bit of relevancy now that the Cubs were truly on top.

Later that winter and into the 2017 season, they traded away most of their core and declared rebuild. Now we sit in 2019 and they have a loaded farm system and appear to be on the rise to real sustained success. They now have a core of Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, and Eloy Jimenez that will soon be joined by other young talents in the coming years like Michael Kopech and Dylan Cease amongst others.

The point of this is now that they are in a much better spot in 2019, it is time to forget about that miserable 2016 team. Frazier is on the Mets and Eaton is on the Nationals. Their beef has nothing to do with the White Sox anymore. They each earned the White Sox a really nice return in 2016 and 2017 respectively, but they are gone now.

The important thing now is that they are in a far better spot now in 2019 and their clubhouse seems to be loaded with dudes who love playing baseball with each other. This is not a great time to dwell on the past and the media and fans should stop talking about it. It is irrelevant now and if anything, made the White Sox a better team as a result. Onward and upward.