The White Sox will try to engineer an immediate turnaround without big additions expected

LAS VEGAS — The interest by the White Sox in extending their years of contractual control of Dylan Cease predates him switching his representation to Scott Boras after the 2021 season, or even before his surface-level statistics made the 26-year-old right-hander such an obvious candidate. And yet here he remains, arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter, and on schedule to become a free agent after the 2025 season.

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And so Boras did not have to go out of his way to posture for leverage, instead offering that it’s not necessarily a given that his Cy Young finalist client will seek a monster contract in free agency three years from now. He even pointed out that Stephen Strasburg’s seven-year extension in 2016 gives him precedent of a client pushing back their free agency for the sake of staying with their current team.

“We just listen, we’re always open to what (teams) have to say,” Boras said Wednesday, neglecting to inject a Cease-related pun from his makeshift dais on the second floor of the Conrad Las Vegas resort. “Our job is to just listen, take information, and then we transfer that to Dylan and see what he wants to do.”

I’ve cleared out a lot of the old cell phone prospect video I took over the years, but I held onto the 2018 Cease stuff. If for no other reason than the batter reactions are all very funny https://t.co/TLLqtt2U0A pic.twitter.com/8tgaKELOfy

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) November 9, 2022

But the White Sox do not need the specter of just three years left with their best pitcher to drive home when their competitive window is (hint: it’s now). For one, Cease and Michael Kopech probably present the team’s most long-term mainstays in a rotation that already needs at least one addition. Their increasingly veteran roster of which José Abreu once noted “I don’t think we are as young as we think we are” was brought in on the premise of winning right away, with some senior members letting it be known they’re not interested in waiting out a retooling period.

Last season’s payroll, estimated at $196 million by FanGraphs, was not a top-five figure in MLB, but it was easily a franchise record and indicative that the franchise feels its time to compete is now. But that figure also reflects some level of expenses accrued over the season, with a team source indicating that an Opening Day figure in the territory of $180 million is more what the club has in mind when it comes to staying in the same vicinity as last year over this offseason. The current FanGraphs estimate for the 2023 Sox payroll is $173 million, and while that could be knocked down a few million by some non-tenders and is an imperfect replication of the team’s internal numbers, it would make top-level free agent signings unlikely and be a consideration in what sorts of trades they can execute. If there’s one thing the White Sox are not touting about themselves this offseason, it’s their payroll flexibility.

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“We’re in the position we placed ourself in contractually with some of our commitments,” general manager Rick Hahn said Tuesday, projecting the Sox to be more active on the trade market than in free agency. “We made these commitments because we believe in the talent we committed to. And part of the goals for next year is to get some of the guys who underperformed to get back to accustomed levels. Big part of our improvement will come from that area, we hope.”

In that framework, the necessity of Oscar Colás claiming an outfield spot for himself and the difficulty of bringing José Abreu back (to say nothing of the roster machinations it would necessitate) comes into clearer relief. Hahn indicated he wants to improve the team via trade but also views the quickest path back to contention as restoring core pieces like Yoán Moncada, Tim Anderson and Yasmani Grandal to All-Star levels after injuries and underperformance hindered them. Ideally for the White Sox, a farm system that improved after being regarded as the league’s worst before 2022 would provide more of the trade capital needed than picking away from the major-league roster.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the room who’s pounding the table for ‘Let’s stand pat, run it back with these guys,’” Hahn said. “Even last year, Opening Day when we’re being projected to win the division and some people projected us to go deeper than that, we knew there were areas we could solidify and get better. We certainly believe that things evening out will be in our favor next year in terms of guys getting closer to their traditional levels of health and playing and performance, but we still know we’ve got work to do.”

There’s also a complicated nature to trading away from a major-league team where nearly everyone not named Dylan Cease is at a relative nadir of their trade value.

“Hypothetically if you want to trade for Yasmani Grandal and you’re another team, you’re not giving up 2021 Yasmani Grandal value, you’re looking more 2022 value,” Hahn said. “It’s up to us to figure out who’s the real guy, and obviously his track record prior to last year is awfully strong.”

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Yet with all these challenges in place to restore an 81-win team to one of the best in the American League, the mood that Hahn struck was unfailingly upbeat. A plan reliant on internal improvement puts a ton of focus on the work of new manager Pedro Grifol and his still-being-assembled coaching staff. And if there’s something that Hahn feels good about, it’s the man that emerged victorious from the search process that he led, and distinguished himself from assistant general manager Jeremy Haber’s 190-page book of background data on the initial field of White Sox managerial candidates. And if there’s a side benefit to finally looking beyond the White Sox circle, it’s that other figures in the league have been chiming in with their enthusiasm for Grifol as well.

“He was a strong candidate in our search too,” J.J. Picollo said of the Royals, who hired Matt Quatraro as their manager. “You never know where the opportunity is going to come, but I never doubted that Pedro had the ability to manage in the major leagues. He’s prepared, he’s hungry, he’s taken all the necessary steps along the way as a professional.

“He’s very relational with players, very much into data and the use of data, and he’s adapted to the game. So there were a lot of really good things that he represents, that are going to allow him to be successful. I feel happy for him that he’s got the opportunity. I wish he wasn’t in our division.”

(Top photo of Dylan Cease and White Sox teammates: Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)

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