Jerry Reinsdorf is Unlikely to See the White Sox Win in His Lifetime

As expected, the Chicago White Sox unloaded some serviceable players at trade deadline. The departed include Erick Fedde, Tommy Pham and Michael Kopech. In a complex three team trade, Fedde and Pham went to the St. Louis Cardinals while Kopech heads to the Dodgers. Who did the White Sox get? Prospects. Very young prospects.

The “headliner” in the deal for the White Sox appears to be Miguel Vargas. Vargas plays left field, second base and first base. Which basically means he has no position. Well, that may be a little extreme. In his time with the Dodgers this season, Vargas is hitting .239 with an OBP of ,313 and a slugging percentage of .423 and three home runs. Actually, in the White Sox lineup he might hit cleanup. He also has a WAR of 0.4. But don’t get too excited.

In his career, Vargas has 470 big league at bats and is hitting .201 with 13 home runs and an OPS of .658. That’s the headliner. The Sox also picked up two infielders, second baseman Jeral Perez, infielder Alexander Albertus. There will also be a player to be named later. Here’s the part of the trade to focus

Both Perez and Albertus are 19 years old. That doesn’t sound like anybody that’s going to help the major league team any time soon.

What is Jerry Reinsdorf thinking?

Jerry Reinsdorf is 88 years old. He’s made no bones about the fact he won’t be the White Sox owner forever. He’s taken an interesting approach to owning an MLB team late in life. I’ve seen some owners such as former Angels’ owner Gene Autry and former Tigers’ owner, Mike Illich spend huge bucks to try to field a winner before they died. Jerry seems to be going in the opposite direction.

Jerry has positioned himself to be the owner of the team with the worst record in major league history. And the team is trading viable big-league players for won’t be able to help the major league team until at least 2027. If ever.

There are rumblings of change

There has been talk around Chicago that A. J. Pierzynski will be the Sox manager after Pedro Grifol is fired. A. J. is noted as being very intelligent and very irritating. There are mixed opinions about A. J. as the White Sox manager.

The biggest issue that many have with A. J. is that he has been part of the Sox organization, and the team desperately needs an outside voice. The Sox have gone outside of their organization to make decisions about as often as European royalty did when it came to choosing marriage mates during the Dark ages. And in both cases, the results haven’t been pretty.

On the flip side, A. J. has been famous for speaking his mind. That’s something the Sox really could use.