The White Sox were 5 1⁄2 games out of first place in the AL Central going into their game against the Texas Rangers. With 89 games left, that’s not much.
They were also 11 games under .500, with only two teams in the American League and five in the majors worse than they are. Which is why, even if they are in contention in a weak division, general manager Rick Hahn might not be a buyer at the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Why not take advantage of the opportunity to sell trade chips such as Lucas Giolito, whose contract runs out after the season, or say, Lance Lynn, and build for a better 2024 and ‘25? When all a division championship might get you is a first-round bow from the postseason?
“Making the playoffs is important. But the goals are loftier than that,” Hahn said Monday after the Sox returned from a 2-4 road trip against the Dodgers and Mariners. “And when we judge ultimately what happens as we get much closer to Aug. 1 than we are now, how we project our ability to not only win the division but to make an impact in October is going to factor in.”
Third baseman Yoan Moncada is hurt, All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson is batting .250 witn no homers and All-Star closer Liam Hendriks is on the IL with no timetable for a return. The Sox are last in on-base percentage (.293), 26th in OPS (.680) and have the fifth-worst chase rate in the majors. They’re 23-21 since opening the season at 8-21, so there’s that.
Meh.
“The goals have always been higher than just making the playoffs,” Hahn said. “Given our performance so far, our only way in is through winning the division.”
In any event, Hahn said it’s too soon for the Sox to be pegged as sellers.
“If we’re able to turn this around and get ourselves in a position to win this division,” he said, “given that we are currently 11 under, we are obviously going to be playing pretty damn good baseball for the final two, three months of the season, which would give us reason to believe that the postseason performance could be better.”
Manager Pedro Grifol, as all managers do — especially those in their first seasons — wants to win now. And he, as you’d expect, Grifol can envision his team playing much better and conquering the forlorn Central.
“Everyone in that clubhouse thinks this division is up for the taking,” Grifol said Monday. “Nobody seems to be running away with it, five and a half games back is certainly a number that’s attainable. We were nine and half back, we’ve made up four games and we haven’t played our best baseball. So we’re extremely optimistic this thing will click for us.”
Asked why the Sox worse than expected, Hahn said he didn’t have the answer.
“It’s not for lack of individual confidence,” he said. “It’s not for lack of support from the staff. It’s not from lack of communication about expectations and what we feel guys are capable of doing.”
It’s not on Grifol, Hahn said of his first-year manager. He opened his media session in the Sox dugout dismissing a national reporter questioning Grifol’s job security.
“It p—- me off,” Hahn said.
“This under-performance or any of the issues we’ve had thus far this season is not on Pedro and the coaching staff,” Hahn said.
But it’s go time for the Sox. Perhaps they will make the trade deadline question easy. There’s two ways to do that.
“We have been a tick above .500 since that rotten start,” Hahn said. “That’s fine, but that’s not what we need to be if we’re going to make a run in this division and feel like we have a chance to do damage in October. So it’s been OK, but it hasn’t been as impactful as we would hope.”