Sure, White Sox fans are divided between the majority who consider 2026 and the possible hand from Pope Leo the greatest case of divine intervention since the parting of the Red Sea, and those who think a little more intervention in the way of actually getting hitters to put the bat on the ball in the playoffs would have been nice. But even those who are upset about the way the season ended instead of overjoyed how the first 166 games went have nothing on Dodger followers.
My son, who lives in L.A.,
says there is widespread — well, at least a little spread — belief that Dodgers owners got the players to throw the series to the Brewers so there won’t be a big outcry for a salary cap come negotiating time. Apparently, QAnon is alive and well.
OK, that’s absolutely ridiculous. There’s no reason to believe a shred of it. But was there ever a reason to believe the negotiating story of the owners?
COMPETITIVE BALANCE? REALLY?
No question, having three of the four final teams standing be from small markets, including the two smallest metro areas, doesn’t exactly help the argument that there has to be a salary cap to even out the old playing field. Pretty much just makes it look like organizational competence is what really counts. But what unsuccessful owner wants to admit that?
Sure, it’s worth a try on MLB’s part. It’s good P.R., and makes it look like you really care about the game and the fans, not just how many billion pieces of eight you can jam into your pockets.
“We’re out to screw over the players and if fans miss a season, tough,” just doesn’t have the ring of a great sales pitch.
If you want to believe the owners’ main concern is really competitive balance, by all means go for it. Goodness knows gobs of Americans have come to believe even stranger things.
But — small question — if the owners really want negotiations to be for the good of the game, why, oh why, is Jerry Reinsdorf on their negotiating committee, the player- and fan-hating White Sox chairman who has been the strongest voice of obstruction and stupidity on their side for decades? Sure, a 91-year old whose team just had a surprisingly good season would seem on the surface to be someone who would want to solve problems and move on, but Reinsdorf’s bitterness runs too deep for that — players take his money, fans (and taxpayers) don’t give him enough of it, so to hell with them. And why is the equally incompetent Dick Monfort of the Rockies the chairman?
The only big spender on that six-member committee is Hal Steinbrenner of the Yankees, presumably a counterweight to Mark Attanasio of the Brewers, who will really have trouble keeping a straight face when uttering “competitive balance.”
AS FOR THE PLAYOFFS
The Brewers and Guardians being alive as of this writing means that Christian Yelich and José Ramírez are both still playing, which is great for their teams and for the sport, which is a very, very fine thing, two superstars who do things right on and off the field. Yeah, I know — Sox fans are supposed to hate Ramírez for how badly he beats us (.811 career OPS), but if you don’t like watching how he plays the game, you just don’t like baseball.
AND AS FOR THE WHITE SOX
Speculation is already well underway as to how the team should proceed in order to keep doing a George Jefferson (movin’ on up), both within the world of Soxdom and from outside.
Naturally, there are things being said and written about the need for major free agent pitcher acquisitions. But after we all get a good laugh about that, since those speakers and writers seem to neglect there are 29 other teams who might like some good pitchers and would even pay for them, we can move on.
The more likely avenue would be trades, given the plethora of shortstops in the system — even with Caleb Bonemer in Arizona learning to play the outfield, presumably to initially platoon with one of the incumbents, none of whom hits lefties at all (a couple of key successes down the stretch notwithstanding).
(At least one speculator suggests trading Andrew Benintendi for a starting pitcher, apparently not realizing the other side would have to be brain dead to agree to such a thing.)
Of course, on the shortstop front, there’s the question of Colson Montgomery, who managed to have just a 90 OPS+ despite 31 homers, thanks to a .197 average and setting the all-time record for striking out, and whose D is just a C-. Some folks think the Sox can get a pitcher for him. Guess that’s worth a try.
Behind Bonemer and William Bergolla Jr. are Roch Cholowsky and the slick-fielding Billy Carlson — and if you don’t think having a slick-fielding shortstop matters, you haven’t been watching the playoffs — so it could become a question of what you can get for whom.
Also on the strikeout front, there’s speculation about Munetaka Murakami, who K’d 16 times in 31 trips to the plate in the playoffs, but he had a 130 OPS+ for the season and had a .347 OBP compared to Colson’s .282. Besides, he didn’t do those godawful lawyer commercials.
SO?
Hot Stove doesn’t begin until after the World Series. But there’s no reason not to keep the kindling handy, if and when the lockout ever ends.
