The White Sox have a new leader atop their front office.
The team announced Thursday that they were promoting assistant general manager Chris Getz to be the franchise’s senior vice president and general manager.
Getz was drafted by the White Sox in the fourth round of the 2005 MLB Draft.
He played parts of two seasons with Chicago across seven big league seasons, which included stints with the Royals and Blue Jays.
Getz has worked in MLB front offices since he retired from baseball in May of 2014.
After stepping away from the game, Getz worked for two years in player development for the Royals before taking over the White Sox’s player development department before the 2017 season.
He was later promoted to assistant general manager in 2021.
“Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and experience within our organization to this role,” White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “Most importantly, he knows our players, both at the major league level and in our system, knows our staff and is familiar with all aspects of our baseball operations department.
“Chris has impressed me greatly over the past seven years. In our conversations together this season, I have become energized by his vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again.”
The move comes after the franchise cleaned house earlier this month, firing longtime executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn, who had been with the organization since 2000 and 2002, respectively, including the team’s 2005 World Series run.
The White Sox have suffered through two straight disappointing seasons after going 93-69 and winning the American League Central three years ago.
After going into the year as AL Central favorites, Chicago finished .500 in 2022 and was sitting at 49-77 at the time of the firings (53-81 through Thursday).
Before the front office upheaval, questions emerged about the culture around the team with Kenyan Middleton ripping the team after being traded to the Yankees at the trade deadline.
“You have rookies sleeping in the bullpen during the game. You have guys missing meetings,” Middleton said. “There are no consequences for any of this stuff.”
Getz indicated during his introductory press conference on Thursday that manager Pedro Grifol would return for the 2024 season, but “nobody is untouchable” on the team’s 40-man roster, according to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin.
“I’m going to take advantage of being someone that’s been here and has a strong understanding of the White Sox organization,” Getz said, according to AP. “And, you know, with that being said, it’s going to be important to bring in different perspectives, different ideas, which comes with different people to add to the group that we have here and make us better decision makers so we can go out there and put together a better ballclub moving forward.”