2023 White Sox Built Similarly to 2005 Team -- And Not in a Good Way

 

Bobby Jenks: One of the luckiest acquisitions
in White Sox history

White Sox fans remember the 2005 team with reverence and for good reason: They were entertaining; an all-around good team; and won the only championship in any of our lifetimes. They had grit, spirit, and talent. They did it all. Pitching, defense, timely hitting, and base running. One thing many Sox fans are reluctant to admit, however, is that then-GM Kenny Williams was insanely lucky that offseason when putting together that team. We may not want to acknowledge that our beloved team was lucky on the field--although I would argue that ALL championship winning teams in any sport are lucky to some degree (avoiding injury, one or two guys having a career season unexpectedly, facing tough opponents when they happen to be playing their worst, etc), but it doesn't take anything away from that 2005 World Series championship to admit the team was lucky on the field. However, this article isn't about on-field luck. I'm talking about off-season luck. How did Kenny Williams build that 2005 championship and how does it relate to the 2023 team?

The White Sox entered that off-season with arguably their three biggest stars in perilous situations. OF Magglio Ordonez was set to become an unrestricted free agent and OF Carlos Lee had only two years left on his deal. Future Hall of Famer 1B Frank Thomas had suffered a serious injury in 2004 that would keep him out for most of the 2005 season. Kenny Williams allowed Ordonez to walk away for nothing and sign with division rival Detroit. He traded Carlos Lee to the Brewers for former Rookie of the Year runner-up Scott Podsednik, who had hit only .244 with an anemic 75 OPS+ in 2004 and Luis Vizcaino, who had a 4.97 ERA from 2003-2004 to go along with a 5.05 FIP those two seasons. He retained 34-year-old Carl Everett to be the DH. Everett drew no comparisons to Big Frank. Carl hit only .260 with 7 home runs, playing only 82 games in 2004. 

The 2005 White Sox were not off to a good start so far. Did Williams make any big splashes? Did he add exciting new pieces to the core? Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Nomar Garciaparra, Adrian Beltre, Jeff Kent, JD Drew, and Roger Clemens highlighted the top free agents of the 2004-2005 offseason. Surely, if the White Sox would go on to improve from their 83-79 finish in 2004 and win the 2005 World Series, they would have signed at least one if not two or three of those guys... right?

They did no such thing. "Too expensive," said Jerry Reinsdorf *

* = Okay, we don't know that he actually said this. But probably.

The Sox subtracted from their core and went on to pursue complimentary and high risk pieces. They got Jermaine Dye to play RF, replacing All-Star Ordonez. Dye had been a solid MLB player, but was coming off a severe lower leg injury that many thought would end his career. Nobody could have possibly foreseen him hitting .274 with 31 home runs in 2005, let alone just being healthy enough to play in 145 games. Podsednik replaced Lee in LF and although he remained an offensive and defensive liability the entire 2005 season, he stole 59 bases and provided some magic spark from the leadoff spot. Somehow, it just... worked out. Vizcaino magically had a 3.73 ERA in 70 innings pitched. Most of those innings came when the Sox were trailing or ahead by a lot, but many came when the bullpen was tired or injured and Vizcaino needed to save the day.

Shingo Takatsu failed miserably in the closer role, but no problem, because Kenny Williams signed journeyman Dustin Hermanson, a swingman, who just crushed it as a closer, saving 34 games with a 2.04 ERA. This would be akin to Vince Velazquez putting up those exact numbers for the 2022 White Sox. And when, late in the season, Hermanson was injured, Williams called upon AA callup Bobby Jenks, a 5th round draft pick of the Angels who the Sox claimed off waivers in December of 2004, to close out games in the playoffs. And he did. Nobody could explain how this all worked. It just fucking did. Quite luckily.

But Williams' and the Sox' luck didn't end there. No. Kenny Williams batted 1.000 in the 2004 off-season. He did the gambler's equivalent of putting the last $12.45 in his FanDuel account on some wacky, 19-leg Same Game Parlay, and it hit to net him over $1,210,050. 

The Sox needed a second basement. No problem. Williams signed Japanese unknown sensation Tadahito Iguchi--without ever scouting him in person! He watched a few highlights of him on VHS and just brought him in. He paid $2,300,000. Chump change, really. Not quite the $8,250,000 the Cubs paid for Garciaparra that same off-season. Iguchi hit .271 with 15 home runs in 2005, and created lightning in a bottle with Podsednik from the 1-2 spots at the top of the order. Who would have predicted that?

The Sox were set to open the season with [checks notes] Chris Widger at Catcher? Who the fuck is Chris Widger? Widger did not even play Major League Baseball in 2004. From 1995-2003 he had a lifetime .702 OPS.

In December of 2004 the San Fransisco Giants released A.J. Pierzynski, making him a free agent. Although details for the reason of his release remain sketchy, the rumors were that Pierzynski was hated in the clubhouse by his Giants teammates. If you ever saw Pierzynski play baseball, it's not difficult to understand why that might be the case. Williams risked it, signing Pierzynski in January 2005. AJ hit 21 doubles and 18 home runs for the '05 South Siders, and was a positive in the clubhouse for the entirety of his Sox career, beloved by fans and teammates. 

Could the Sox really afford to stick with Juan Uribe at SS and Joe Crede at 3B? They had underwhelmed in seasons prior, but in 2005, they improved. 

The Sox had stalwart Damaso Marte in the bullpen, and they brought in Hermanson and Vizcaino in the off-season, too. But they had no real middle relief threats. Enter Cliff Politte and Neal Cotts. Politte had a 4.38 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in 2004, but in 2005 he was unhittable, posting a 2.00 ERA and 0.97 WHIP. Poof. Out of absolutely nowhere, 2005 Cliff Politte was 2015 Wade Davis. And Cotts? He entered the 2005 season with 78.2 career IP and a 6.06 ERA. But in 2005 he was 2016 Andrew Miller. Cotts had a 1.94 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP. Neither Politte nor Cotts could ever come anywhere near those numbers before or after the 2005 season. They were lucky, one-year, flashes in the pan. Kenny Williams looked like a goddamn genius.

Then there's Jon Garland, who had entered the 2005 season with a career 45-51 record, 4.68 ERA and 5.09 FIP. Garland absolutely dominated in 2005, going 18-10 to lead the team in wins, and posting a 3.50 ERA while making his first (and only) All-Star game appearance and finishing SIXTH in Cy Young voting. You can't even make this shit up.

In a 2004 mid-season trade with the Yankees, Williams and Brian Cashman made a deal, swapping two bad pitchers for each other. The Sox sent struggling Esteban Loaiza to New York for 32-year-old Jose Contreras. Contreras had a 5.50 ERA in 2004, led the league with 17 wild pitches, and walked 84 batters in 170.1 IP. He morphed into a completely different pitcher by 2005. He was one of FOUR Sox pitchers to toss over 200 innings, and compiled a 3.61 ERA. By late in the season, he was the hottest pitcher on the team, and started Game 1 of every playoff series. He was dominant in the playoffs, too, going 3-1, including a CG in the ALCS.

Williams brought in 39-year-old Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. All he did was get two pop-outs and a strike out in a bases loaded, nobody out situation in a playoff game. Totally clutch. Possibly saved the season. 

Kenny Williams worked more miracles that off-season than Jesus. There hasn't been anything like it since. And therein lies the fucking problem... Every year, the White Sox seem to try to re-create that magical off-season luck. They've been unsuccessful, not surprisingly. Lightning doesn't strike the same spot twice. You don't hear of somebody winning the lottery twice in their lifetime. Life just doesn't work that way and neither does baseball.

The White Sox were good enough to win a grand total of 0 playoff series in 2020, 2021, and 2022, the first few years of their alleged contention window after suffering through a decade of trying to win, but losing anyway, and then three seasons of losing on purpose. They didn't need auxiliary pieces to compliment their "highly successful" core of superstars. They needed to add core superstars. They chose not to.

The 2022 White Sox finished 81-81. They had mediocre starting pitching (15th in ERA), bullpen (19th in ERA), hitting (18th in OPS), they had many injuries to players who have repeatedly showed an inability to stay healthy for a full season and they lacked organizational depth to back them up, and they were not good at baserunning or defense either. The 2022 Sox did absolutely nothing well. There was not one single aspect of their team that was a strength. Often times a sports fan can look at a struggling baseball team and say "Yeah they might have some weaknesses with pitching, but man, they hit the ball out of the ballpark, and they can get hot and bomb some teams out of the playoffs." The Sox couldn't do that in 2022. They had nothing that anybody feared. 

They let their best hitter, statistically speaking, Jose Abreu, who was also their team captain, walk away in free agency for nothing. It was a move I could understand being that their defense was so repulsive in 2022 and moving the young Andrew Vaughn to 1B and replacing Vaughn and OF Eloy Jimenez (the new DH) in the outfield would be a massive upgrade in LF and presumably RF defensively. But do the Sox really think Andrew Benintendi adequately replaces Jose Abreu's bat? I sure as fuck don't. Benintendi provides a much needed left hander in the lineup but the White Sox hit only 149 home runs in 2022, ranking 22nd in MLB. They needed a monster bat. They needed somebody on the level of Aaron Judge. Don't laugh. I'm serious. I can't stress this enough: The White Sox core was not good enough in 2020, 2021, or 2022. They needed an upgrade to their core, not role players like Andrew Benintendi.

The Sox couldn't afford to enter 2023 praying for luck that rookie Oscar Colas is just going to be a star right away, or that Gavin Sheets magically figures out, not only how to play adequate right field, but make contact consistently enough at the plate. They currently have only two outfielders on their 40-man roster (Benintendi and Luis Robert). That's absolutely inexcusable!

And speaking of Robert, do the Sox just hope and pray he's magically going to stay healthy and play well this season? In the Covid-shortend 2020 season, Robert played 56 out of 60 games, but he hit only .233. The last two seasons he's put together a superb 129 OPS+ but has played in only 68 and 98 games. 

And he's not the only position player who is always injured.

Yasmani Grandal has played in 93 and 98 games the last two seasons. Tim Anderson: 123 and 79. Jimenez: 55 and 84. Yoan Moncada played in only 104 last season, and he hasn't had a good season at the plate since 2019. In his magical 2019 season Moncada flashed a 140 OPS+ but has only had a 98 OPS+ since, and was at a paltry 76 in 2022. Jimenez and Robert show flashes of stardom but are also prone to long slumps and are wildly inconsistent. And Tim Anderson is an exciting hitter and emotional leader but his defensive metrics have been absolutely fucking terrible since 2019, and well below average overall for his entire career.

The White Sox did nothing to address second base. They didn't even try! Their plan is hope that one of their uninspiring rookies like Lenyn Sosa, Bryan Ramos, or Romy Gonzalez somehow get good at baseball really quick. And if they all fail, they fall back to "Old Reliable": Leury Garcia. puke_emoji.gif.

On the pitching front, Lucas Giolito was awful last year, posting a 4.90 ERA and looking completely lost. Lance Lynn was injured, then returned and looked horrendous before finishing strong. He's 36 this season and we have no idea what he can bring this year. Michael Kopech, stop me if I'm repeating myself, is always injured and always inconsistent. The Sox let their second best pitcher, Johnny Cueto go for nothing, again, a move we could understand given that Cueto was 36 last year, but to replace him with only Mike Clevinger was unforgivable. Clevinger didn't pitch in 2021 due to surgery, and in 2022 he had a 4.33 ERA and 0.6 WAR. Plus, he's an assclown and a bad teammate. The Sox didn't need Clevinger to replace Cueto. They needed Jacob deGrom or Justin Verlander.

And the bullpen? Garrett Crochet and Aaron Bummer are both coming off serious injuries. The Sox are just hoping they are healthy and good. Bummer is maddeningly inconsistent, so good luck. Joe Kelly, Matt Foster, and Jake Diekeman were train wrecks last season. Kendell Graveman was fine... sometimes. The Sox are just going to hope that Reynaldo Lopez can be halfway decent and pray to Thor, or Joe Pesci, or whoever, that Tanner Banks, Franklin German, Jimmy Lambert and a whole bunch of other guys who sound exactly like 2004 Politte and Cotts become like 2005 Politte and Cotts overnight.

Oh, and now Liam Hendrix is out indefinitely with a serious illness and Clevinger's future is in doubt, due to credible domestic violence allegations. The guy is a total dirtbag and shouldn't have ever been signed.

I'm a lifelong, diehard White Sox fan but I hope they lose a lot of games in 2023. The Vegas sportsbooks have their win total O/U set at 83.5 which seems about right, but I hope they finish well under .500. 

I'm sick of the White Sox attempting the same 2004 plan again every single goddamn offseason.

That was the luckiest shit any baseball GM has ever pulled and it will never happen again. If the White Sox are to ever win another World Series, they are going to have do what almost every other World Series winner does: Spend a lot of  fucking money on free agents and make bold additions to an existing core of elite, healthy players--which the Sox don't have. 

Follow: @JimScheffres