With new front office in place, Getz and White Sox set to tackle a busy off-season
The White Sox could have waited until Monday to call the press conference Monday where they announced the firings of general manager Rick Hahn and executive vice president Kenny Williams.
But with so many roster issues to deal with, Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf decided to pull the plug early, launching Hahn and Williams on Aug. 22.
The timing gave new GM Chris Getz more time to clean up a massive mess of a season.
In turn, Getz was able to hire some needed front office help 10 days before the White Sox completed an atrocious 61-101 season.
Josh Barfield is the Sox's new assistant general manager, Getz brought in Brian Bannister as senior advisor to pitching, and Gene Watson is director of player personnel.
"I am excited for them to get started working together as we define our new vision for the future and create a path to success for the White Sox organization," Getz said.
The work has already started, and it will really begin to ramp up as the off-season has officially arrived.
"It's coming in here and figuring out foundationally where are we with different departments so we can avoid these extreme swings," Getz said. "That's been the focus and will remain the focus. As we move through October and November, we'll start focusing more on what we need to do to put the best team forward for next year and years further."
Barfield, 40, joins the White Sox after working for nine seasons with the Diamondbacks, the last four as the director of player development.
The 42-year-old Bannister spent the last four years as the director of pitching with the Giants.
Watson, 54, has more than 25 seasons of scouting experience, mostly with the Royals.
"I think it's just another perspective," Barfield said. "Part of (Getz's) vision was bringing in people from other places where things have gone pretty well. Between me and Gene Watson and Bannister, a lot of this first week has been kind of downloading ideas and things we have seen, things that have worked, things that maybe haven't worked, and also getting to know how things are done here.
"I like the collection of ideas we have so far, and we'll continue to build on that."
Getz is going to have the final say on all roster decisions, and some of them may involve big-name players like Tim Anderson.
"It's putting together the best team that we can," Getz said. "If that means we've got to move on from some players or bring in other players to create competition, we'll have to do that. I think it's my duty in this position to do the best thing for the Chicago White Sox, and I'm determined to do so."