Sullivan: Plenty for Hoyer, Getz to do at MLB GM meetings in Las Vegas

With MLB’s offseason likely to be interrupted Dec. 1 by the owners’ lockout, this week’s general managers’ meetings in Las Vegas might serve as coming attractions for a show about nothing.

Executives, agents and the media convene Tuesday for the unofficial start of the annual dance, knowing full well that nothing of importance might happen for weeks or months, depending on the pace of the negotiations.

So it might be a little weird to talk about spending when the owners are arguing that they need caps on spending or will shut things down.

But the rumors won’t stop, even if the action grinds to a halt, and Vegas is where all the magic starts.

The Cubs and White Sox both figure to be interested buyers, with offensive cores in place but holes to fill in the outfields and on their pitching staffs. Cubs president Jed Hoyer and Sox general manager Chris Getz are coming off playoff seasons and need to take another step forward to appease their respective fan bases.

Getz could be named the MLB executive of the year after the Sox’ rags-to-semi-riches story, while Hoyer is still the same old Jed, playing the role of Wile E. Coyote to the Milwaukee Brewers’ Road Runner.

There will be more pressure on Hoyer this offseason than on Getz, because that’s how it works in Chicago. Don’t blame the messenger.

Hoyer has a big payroll that’s never quite big enough for Cubs fans, but usually keeps Chairman Tom Ricketts from paying the luxury tax, making the one man happy he needs to make happy.

Ricketts and Hoyer have been tied together for 15 years now, which is 45 in Cub years. They can finish each other’s sentences at this point, and Ricketts trusts Hoyer’s decision-making, even with the recurring bullpen issues.

“I did a poor job in the bullpen this year — full stop,” Hoyer said in October, as if fans needed the “full stop” to understand who was to blame.

But Hoyer did, after all, acquire Pete Crow-Armstrong in 2021 and signed him to a six-year, $115 million extension last March. After an MVP season that will be made official Thursday, PCA is one of baseball’s biggest bargains, and a cash machine for the Cubs’ business operations department. Because of Crow-Armstrong and the All-Star Game, Hoyer could do next to nothing and the Cubs would still sell out games for most of ’27.

The Cubs lineup was one of the best in the majors in ’26, but didn’t show up in the wild-card series sweep by the San Diego Padres, ending things with a resounding thud. Two games don’t mean anything, but it was a painful exit for fans, and for many players who won’t be back to try again.

Hoyer needs to replace starters Matthew Boyd, Clay Holmes, Kevin Gausman and Shota Imanaga, though the Cubs expect Justin Steele and Cade Horton to eventually fill two of those spots. Hoyer once again will be working to build back the bullpen, so look for him to go the middle-middle route — middle-aged (baseball-wise) middle relievers at mid-range prices.

The Cubs could also use a closer after Daniel Palencia’s injury-marred season forced manager Craig Counsell to improvise most of the way, but Hoyer hasn’t spent money on or acquired a big-name closer in the past. The two best options, David Bednar and Adrian Morejon, might be too pricey for his taste. Or maybe Palencia gets another shot.

Will Hoyer replace Ian Happ in left and Seiya Suzuki in right with the two kids on the roster, Pedro Ramírez and Matt Shaw? Does he hand Miguel Amaya the starting catcher’s spot with Carson Kelly gone or look to upgrade? Some questions might not be answered for a while.

Unlike Hoyer, Getz operates a small-market payroll in a big market, and can’t be expected to change Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s spending habits at this stage. He’ll no doubt be asked to take some calculated risks like the one on Munetaka Murakami, who delivered for half a season and enters the final year of a two-year deal.

But Getz really should have some money to spend if the 90-year-old Reinsdorf decides it’s time to take another step forward in the fourth year of the rebuild. No, it’s not over. The Sox skipped a year in the process in ’26, but this still qualifies as a rebuilding team when you look at the overall roster.

Despite some trade deadline misfires, Getz made Reinsdorf look prescient for promoting him to GM in 2023. Remember, Reinsdorf didn’t have Getz on his original list of GM candidates in the summer of ’23, then decided he didn’t need to interview anyone else.

“What it reminded me of, as an analogy, one of the worst things that can happen to you when you’re house-hunting is to find the best house first,” Reinsdorf said during the wild-card clinching celebration. “And then you keep on going, and somebody else bought the house. I realized I had the guy, and there was no reason to go beyond that. I felt in my bones he was the right guy.”

The right guy could use the right resources to win. The knowledge that owner-in-waiting Justin Ishbia would get the bill down the road for any big free-agent signing should make Reinsdorf eager to let Getz enter some bidding wars, especially for a frontline starter.

But we’ll see. Getz basically used a one-man rotation in the postseason in Sean Burke, and Burke will be the anchor again in 2027. But baseball norms suggest four more starters will be needed for the regular season, and assuredly more.

Getz has the luxury of moving Grant Taylor and Hagen Smith into the rotation if he sees fit, and both appear ready. A veteran free agent starter on a short-term deal would make sense, and obviously the bullpen would need upgrading if Taylor and/or Smith move to the rotation.

The elephant in the room is the abundance of free-swingers in the lineup. White Sox hitters struck out at an astonishing 36% rate in the postseason, setting a nine-inning playoff record with a 19-strikeout game against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the AL Division Series, and then breaking it with a 21-strikeout performance in Game 5.

Colson Montgomery set the MLB single-season strikeout record with 227, and led all players with a 35.6% strikeout rate, including 41.2% in the second half. Murakami was second-worst with a 35.4% strikeout rate, including 37.1% in the second half.

That’s a lot of whiffs from only two players.

Getz said after the season he couldn’t overreact to the Sox’s postseason numbers because of the small sample size. But the strikeouts were glaring in September, too.

The Sox’s highest-paid player in ’27 will be starter Luis Castillo at $24.15 million, and he’s not even assured a spot in the rotation after pitching himself off the postseason roster after his acquisition from Seattle.

Only four other players on the roster will be over $5 million — Murakami ($17.5 million), Andrew Benintendi ($15.1 million), Jordan Hicks ($12.5 million) and Miguel Vargas, who is arbitration-eligible.

Vargas, coming off an All-Star season, is deserving of an extension, but could wait another season to see if his value can rise twofold.

There will be plenty of things for Hoyer and Getz to do in Vegas, and if worst comes to worst, they can go see “The Wizard of Oz” at Sphere.