White Sox's competitive window finally ready to open in 2020
There was an unusual sound emanating from Guaranteed Rate Field Friday.
It wasn't thunder in the sky or rain pelting the tarp before the White Sox played Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Tigers.
It was the sound of a creaky competitive window being cracked open.
As the White Sox put the finishing touches on a seventh straight losing season this weekend, winning is finally going to be expected in 2020 and beyond.
"We enter this offseason feeling very good about the progress we've made in Year 3 of this rebuild," Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. "As you've heard me allude to a few times, I think we've gotten ourselves to the end of the first stage of this rebuild and we're ready, come this offseason and next year, to take that next step and head deeper down the path toward competitiveness and ultimately winning championships as we get to where we want to be."
In addition to not having a winning record since 2012, the White Sox haven't made it to the playoffs since 2008.
"We've been putting ourselves in a much better position as we continue to move forward," manager Rick Renteria said. "I've seen a lot of growth with our players. I know that we as an organization are looking to continue to add, as we need to be able to get ourselves on the other side of the win and loss factor."
Hahn is going to be busy after the regular season ends on Sunday.
He has some quality young talent to build around - likely batting champion Tim Anderson, emerging ace Lucas Giolito, Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease - and veterans Jose Abreu, James McCann and Alex Colome are all likely to be back in 2020.
The stage is set for Hahn to go outside and add to the roster rather than subtract.
"We've had a fair amount of meetings in terms of where we think we need to go," the Sox's GM said. "I think it's no secret that as strong as some of the offensive performances have been this year, we obviously haven't gotten much production out of certain positions, right field, designated hitter, over the course of the year.
"We're very pleased, going into the offseason, projecting out Giolito, Cease and (Reynaldo) Lopez as part of that rotation, but that leaves a couple spots. Obviously, Michael Kopech's coming back from injury, Carlos Rodon at some point next year, at some point next year Dane Dunning and Jimmy Lambert. But it still leaves the opportunity to solidify that rotation either through free agency or trade, and that will likely be a priority in the coming months."
The White Sox went after star free agent Manny Machado last offseason, and they also courted Bryce Harper. They failed to land either player, but this winter could be different.
"There's a lot of positive buzz about where this team is headed," Hahn said. "When you are talking to some free agents, last year, we were probably a year too soon. You had to map out what it was going to look like and educate them a little bit about who was coming and how we saw this thing coming together.
"Over the course of this year, we saw a lot of it come together before our eyes and it's fairly easy to project out who is going to be joining us from our system and what that's going to potentially look like. The excitement is there, not just in our clubhouse but around the game right now."