5 stories for White Sox fans to watch this season
It's a new season for the Chicago White Sox and - for the first time since Jerry Reinsdorf assumed control of the franchise in 1981 - making the playoffs is not the primary objective.
The Sox want to win this year, but they haven't been to the postseason since 2008 and are rebuilding after four straight losing seasons.
Tired of patching major-league rosters together around a handful of quality players, the White Sox are gradually restocking a depleted farm system and the aim is to be competitive on an annual basis in the near future.
As they make the transition from old to young, there are going to be rough patches in the weeks and months to come. Here are five stories to watch with the White Sox this season:
Rumor mill:
General manager Rick Hahn traded ace starter Chris Sale (Boston) and leadoff hitter Adam Eaton (Washington) on consecutive days in early December, netting seven prospects in return.
Hahn is eager to move even more veterans - Jose Quintana and David Robertson are the most likely to go first - but he is holding out for maximum value.
"We've got a fairly clear sense of what the value of certain players is," Hahn said. "The only reason to be motivated to make a move is based upon receiving what we feel is appropriate value and helps advance what we're trying to accomplish over the long term."
Prospect watch:
According to Baseball America, second baseman Yoan Moncada and starting pitchers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez are the White Sox's Top 3 prospects this season, with starter Michael Kopech checking in at No. 5.
All four players came over in trades for Sale and Eaton - Moncada and Kopech from the Red Sox, and Giolito and Lopez from the Nationals.
With the White Sox finally committed to giving their best young players time to develop in the minor leagues, it looks like Moncada, Giolito and Lopez will open the season with Class AAA Charlotte and Kopech will start with high Class A Winston-Salem or AA Birmingham.
Who arrives with the Sox first? On the positional side, Moncada is good enough to play in the major leagues right now. But with the White Sox wary of rushing any young player, Moncada might not be up until the all-star break, assuming he fares well at Charlotte.
Lopez looks to be the most polished arm, but having the luxury of working on his off-speed pitches and gaining confidence at Triple-A could also signal an arrival around the break.
North to South:
Managing a very young Cubs team in 2014, Rick Renteria got the bum's rush at the end of the season when Joe Maddon became available.
Don't feel too sorry for Renteria.
Dating back to his days as a journeyman major-league player with the Pirates, Mariners and Marlins, nothing has come easy for the 55-year-old Renteria.
Having to scratch and claw for everything he has earned in the game makes Renteria well suited to manage a Sox team that is rebuilding.
With eight years of minor-league managing experience, six years of major-league coaching experience with the Padres, his brief stint as Cubs manager and spending the 2016 season as the White Sox's bench coach, Renteria will not be taken by surprise.
He's a skilled teacher and full of energy, two positive attributes for his new role in the Sox's dugout.
He gone?
At SoxFest, veteran TV broadcaster Ken "Hawk" Harrelson said he wanted to keep working through the 2020 season because it would give him eight decades in professional baseball.
"Vin (Scully) was in eight decades, Don Zimmer was in there eight decades, Dave Garcia was in there," Harrelson said. "There's probably only four or five guys in that group, in that club."
Harrelson was in the booth for road games and a few home games last season, and he's planning the same schedule again this year.
But from 2018-20, the 75-year-old icon said he wants to reduce his broadcast load even more, and Harrelson sounds content working primarily as a Sox ambassador.
Gate keeper:
In seasons past, one of the stumbling blocks of doing a rebuild was attendance concerns.
Going young on the field translated into too many empty seats for the White Sox's liking.
Now that the rebuild is on, a majority of Sox fans have given their approval. But that doesn't mean they're going to fill Guaranteed Rate Field this season.
The Sox have been in the bottom half of American League attendance for five straight seasons, so it's not like they were packing fans in with veteran teams expected to contend.
Even with ridiculously cheap ticket prices, they'll be fortunate to draw 1.5 million in attendance this season.
But if the rebuild is a success, the White Sox should be competitive in 2019 and see much better numbers at the gate.
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