Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is addressing his team’s “embarrassing season.”
The White Sox clocked 121 losses and just 41 wins in the 2024 season, shattering an infamous post-1900 record set by the New York Mets in 1962 of 120 losses.
In a letter addressed to White Sox fans, Reinsdorf called the season a “failure.”
“By all measures, our on-field performance this season was a failure. As the leader of this organization, that is my ultimate responsibility. There are no excuses,” Reinsdorf began.
“I want to thank you for continuing to support the team throughout what was an embarrassing season. You all deserved better. This season's performance was completely unacceptable and the varying reactions and emotions from our fanbase are completely understandable,” he said.
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 29, 2024
Reinsdorf said the team is working on changes to have a more successful season next year.
“While embracing new ideas and outside perspectives, we will do everything we can to fix this for 2025 and the future,” he said. “This will include further development of players on our current roster, development within our system, evaluating the trade and free agent markets to improve our ballclub and new leadership for our analytics department, allowing us to elevate and improve every process within our organization with a focus for competing for championships. In fact, change has already been happening in our baseball operations group throughout this past year.”
“When named general manager in 2023, Chris Getz and his staff immediately began conducting a top-to-bottom evaluation of our existing operations. Chris is rebuilding the foundation of our baseball operations department, with key personnel changes already happening in player development, international scouting, professional scouting and analytics,” Reinsdorf said.
The White Sox owner said results to some of the changes will be realized quickly, while others will take time.
Reinsdorf said finding a new manager in the coming months will be the organization’s “most important decision.” He said an exhaustive search of a wide range of candidates is already underway.
Despite a rough season, Reinsdorf pointed to some positives.
“Even in the worst of seasons, where at times it felt like nothing was going right, there were bright spots that provided reasons for optimism about our future. The overall health of our organization is improving. Our minor league rankings show this growth. The Class AA Birmingham Barons won the Southern League title, while Class A Kannapolis reached the finals of the Carolina League, and our organization has built an impressive future pool of very talented prospects,” he said.
He promised to deliver actions to support his words.
“Every loss this season - every blown save, every defensive miscue, every shutout, every sweep - hurt. It was a long, painful season for us all. We recognize, on a daily basis, that it is our responsibility to earn your trust, attention, time and support. We vow to take that approach daily as we put the work in this offseason to be better,” said Reinsdorf.
“We owe it to each and every one of you,” he concluded.
The Chicago White Sox will report for spring training in February 2025.
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