3 reasons it is a bad idea the Chicago White Sox promoted Chris Getz

The Chicago White Sox have officially hired Chris Getz to run the baseball operations.

Owner Jerry Reinsdorf promoted Getz from assistant general manager/director of player development to senior vice president/general manager.

It is more like an over-promotion.

Getz has never run a front office. Also, the Chicago White farm system has struggled to produce major-league-level talent the last couple of seasons, but we will get to that in a little bit.

Like or it not, these are the types of decisions that can happen when you love something that someone else owns.

The response from the fanbase to Reinsdorf’s decision has varied from disappointment to lackluster.

Hoping Getz succeeds where Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn failed the last couple of seasons seems to be the one agreed-upon response from the Southside faithful. It is not like everyone is rooting for him to fail. Getz rebuilding the Chicago White Sox into a championship-contending organization will be greeted with glee.

Despite the poor White Sox farm system, Getz is viewed as an up-and-coming baseball executive.

There are still three reasons it is a bad idea to name Chris Getz as the front office leader.

Jerry Reinsdorf conducted possibly the worst general manager search.

When Jerry announced he fired Williams and Hahn, he said he would have a replacement in place before the end of this season.

That was a bad idea from the start as a lot of the best candidates are on contending teams with seasons that still have meaning going on. It would have been better to wait until the offseason.

Also, it was reported a day later that Reinsdorf was going to promote Getz. If he had that planned all along, why put up this farce of trying to do a general manager search? Just promote the guy right away as we all know Jerry does not care what the fans and outsiders think. See Tony La Russa being hired as manager as evidence.

A decision like this did not need a hard deadline.

Plus, interviewing as many candidates costs nothing. It would have been a great idea to take the time to interview James Click, David Stearns, or Theo Epstein to get their thoughts.

If he did not want to spend the money or give the power to those three, there were still plenty of good front-office lieutenants he could have talked with.

His logic for Getz being able to hit the ground running is flawed.

The Chicago White Sox need fresh ideas if they want to excel in the modern game. The organization needs a long evaluation to get turned around to have long-term success. If he wanted an executive to turn the team around in hire, maybe he should not have fired Kenny Williams as he always went for it when he was the sole final decision maker.

Instead, Jerry decided to go with another decision-maker from inside the Sox family. Which brings us to the second reason.

The Chicago White Sox continue to be an insular franchise.

Reinsdorf is notoriously loyal. It has become his greatest strength as an owner but also his biggest weakness. His loyalty to Kenny and Rick is what allowed the Chicago White Sox to decline in the first place. Well, also being cheap helped.

Being loyal to both led to a dysfunctional front office where no one was really sure who was in charge.

This is not the first time Reinsdorf has tapped a former player to run the team.

Ron Schueler helped build those successful 1990s teams in Chicago. He played a couple of seasons for the Sox. After that, he was part of some other organization’s front offices and then Reinsdorf hired him to replace Larry Himes.

Kenny also played for the Sox and took over for Schueler. All Williams did at the beginning of his tenure was build a World Series-winning roster.

The problem is those hires were 20 and 30 years ago. Jerry’s recent track record of hiring good front-office people has been spotty at best.

The game has evolved to the point where a team needs to make significant investments in scouting and development. The Chicago White Sox have been behind the times in that area.

Maybe that is why Reinsdorf did not want to interview a ton of candidates. They probably all would have told him you need to spend more money in those two areas along with the team being put on the field.

We already know how much Reinsdorf distastes the current economic model in baseball. Getz will probably not rock the boat or make the financial demands to improve the club as an outsider would. Jerry gains loyalty by going with people he knows, and they do not question him.

Schueler never questioned him and publicly carried out the infamous white flag trades in 1997. Hahn never put up much of a fight, at least in public, when Reinsdorf kept putting budget restrictions on him during a contention window.

If the White Sox went about their business like the Tampa Bay Rays or the Los Angeles Dodgers, then the organization would get the benefit of the doubt of staying in-house. The team instead runs things like the Royals–being cheap and mediocre. Maybe that is why Reinsdorf likes hiring his power brokers from that organization.

Now is not the time to hire an unproven candidate.

If the Sox were a small market team ready to go through a full-blown rebuild, hiring the 40-year-old Getz would make sense. Also, if the Chicago White Sox were in any other division in baseball, then it would be fine to go with an inexperienced candidate.

The Sox are in the AL Central where the division is always winnable. The White Sox should be ruling that division with an iron fist based on being in the biggest market in the division.

Instead, Reinsdorf spends like the team is in Cleveland and not playing against Guardians.

Also, this organization just went through a long-term rebuild that failed. On top of that, Jerry wants to win one more championship before he passes away.

This is not a time period to go with someone learning on the job. It is an even worse idea to go with a person who failed in his previous role.

The Athletic’s Keith Law pointed out that the Sox farm system struggled to develop talent to help the big league club. The Sox got a total of 15.6 WAR from players who started their careers in the Sox farm system. We are talking about players the organization drafted or signed in international free agency that barely produced.

That number should be like a scarlet letter around Getz’s neck. Instead, he got promoted.

Now he could have blamed Kenny and Rick for drafting or signing subpar talent. He can also point to the Sox’s lack of funding in their minor league system.

The excuses can only go far as he was still tasked with developing the players he was given. He rolled out Project Birmingham with the thought it would develop the next great generation of prospects. Instead, it failed miserably.

Getz also praised Omar Vizquel on his way out the door when it turns out Vizquel was being accused of sexually harassing a bat boy. Then Getz put Wes Helms in charge of Triple-A Charlotte despite him being Vizquel’s bench coach. The Sox had to fire Helms because of those ties.

This was the time for Jerry Reinsdorf to reset the franchise and bring in an experienced leader from the outside. Reisndorf is not going to be patient. He wants a quick turnaround.

If Jerry wanted a leader who could have constructed the roster quickly to regain competitiveness, he should have hired David Stearns. Hey, Reinsdorf cannot wait a year for Stearns to evaluate his club. Also, it should not take a year to look over the club and make necessary changes.

Reading the tea leaves, what it feels like is Reinsdorf did not want anyone from the outside coming in and wanting to do another long-term rebuild. That is what this team needs, but not what it will get.