The White Sox were viewed as a postseason contender going into the season. Thirty-five games in, they’re thinking much bigger than that.
Is a World Series appearance a fantasy? When you win 11 of 13 games, lead baseball in home runs and slugging and your starting rotation, injuries and all, post a 2.59 ERA over the last 30 games with a no-hit performance sprinkled in, you’re going to at least flirt with the thought.
At the very least, even in the weirdness of a 60-game season played under the veil of a pandemic and without fans in the stands, the experience leading up to the playoffs and whatever happens in them will be huge for the many young players who haven’t been through it, general manager Rick Hahn said.
“There’s a great deal of value in winning this year,” Hahn said Monday. “It’s unique, certainly it’s different from previous seasons but with the challenges presented this season, what a team has to go through in order to get across that finish line as a champion, by no means in my opinion takes away from the value of that championship.”
If anything, Hahn said, a gold star and not an asterisk should go next to the eventual champion’s name on the trophy because of the unique challenges.
When chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, Hahn, vice president Ken Williams and manager Rick Renteria met with seven players Sunday to talk about the team’s present and future, “one of the things that really struck me was how diligent our group is and how focused they are in doing everything in their power to not only get across this finish line but sprint through this finish line and attempt to win a championship.”
The beauty of the Sox and those who are behind them for long haul watching them blossom from also-rans to bona fide winners in the fourth year of their rebuild is their contract situation. The only players not under club control for next season are closer Alex Colome, catcher James McCann and injured outfielder/infielder Leury Garcia.
Prized rookie center fielder Luis Robert, third baseman Yoan Moncada, left fielder Eloy Jimenez, shortstop Tim Anderson and left-hander Aaron Bummer were all signed to long-term deals before they hit free agency, keeping them well paid and in the fold for multiple years.
Robert is under club control through 2027, Jimenez through 2026 and Moncada and Dylan Cease through ’25. Anderson, Bummer and Michael Kopech are under control through 2024.
Dallas Keuchel, Yasmani Grandal and Giolito, he of the aforementioned no-hitter, are under wraps through 2023 and Jose Abreu is signed through 2022.
And so this season is far from a last dance. To the contrary, it’s one big toe on the edge of the dance floor.
The goal all along has been to build for multiple championships. Maybe, perhaps a year ahead of their full contention window, it can be pulled off now.
“The rapidity with which many of these things have happened,” Hahn said, “[including] Luis Robert’s ability to acclimate himself to the big league level, Lucas’ ability to maintain that elite status in a rotation, Eloy’s further development as a hitter, Tim Anderson maintaining himself as an offensive threat and improving defensively — there’s a great deal of satisfaction, not just because of those results and what they mean for the future, but also because we get to see how challenging it is right now for these guys to be able to focus on this day in and day out just given the world around us and what we’re asking of them.”
“It’s what we’ve been waiting for, man,” Giolito said. “It’s been a lot of losing baseball the last few years. We knew what we were capable of and now that we’re starting to show it, coming out every single game with confidence, all nine players on the diamond, it’s a lot of fun. This is the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball, not even close. But the work’s not finished. The preparation is there, the confidence is there. We just keep it rolling.”
“We’ve been able to get those positive moments each day,” Hahn said. “Some of them, like the no-hitter or the four home runs in a row, these momentous events, have perhaps stood out more than others. But all of it has really led us to not only feel good about where we are as an organization now but reinforce where this thing is going to lead us over the better part of the next decade.”
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