New White Sox general manager Chris Getz: What you need to know

CHICAGO (CBS)  – Chris Getz has been named the new senior vice president/general manager of the Chicago White Sox, the club announced Thursday.

Getz is a former player and front-office executive, previously with the Kansas City Royals and now the White Sox, He is in his seventh season with the Sox baseball operations department, including the last three as assistant general manager. 

He was involved in player evaluation, acquisition, staffing decisions, the amateur draft, and the sports science department. He has overseen the club's minor league operations and player development system since 2017.

"I am not naive to the expectation that things need to change," Getz said at his introductory press conference on Thursday. "To that I will say the fans deserve different. I am different. We will be different."

White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said this season, his 43rd in the sport and "the worst year I've ever suffered through. It's been a horrible experience," but, he added, the organization will put it behind them. He explained the thought process behind hiring from within the organization that's experienced such turmoil over the past year.

"The conclusion I came to was what we owe our fans, and ourselves, is not to waste any time," Reinsdorf said. "We want to get better as fast as we possibly can and if I had gone outside, it would have taken anybody at least a year to evaluate the organization."

Getz was hired by the White Sox in October 2016 after spending two seasons as a baseball operations assistant/player development with the Royals, including being a part of a World Series-winning organization in 2015.

 He served as director of player development with the White Sox from 2017 to 2020 before being promoted to assistant general manager in 2021. 

For the past seven seasons, Getz has handled the day-to-day operations of the minor-league system, including individual development plans for every player, player evaluation, personnel and staff decisions, contract negotiations, affiliate relations and overseeing the Dominican Academy. 

In 2022, Getz implemented "Project Birmingham," an innovative program in which many of the organization's top prospects, as well as the development staff, were assigned to Class AA Birmingham from August 23 through the end of the year. Getz also supervised operations of the alternate training site in Schaumburg, Ill., in 2020-21, helping Andrew Vaughn and others prepare to play successfully in the major leagues.

Originally drafted by the White Sox in the fourth round in 2005, Getz played seven major-league seasons with the Sox (2008-09), Royals (2010-13) and Toronto (2014).

 A native of Grosse Pointe, Mich., and a graduate of the University of Michigan, Getz played collegiately at Wake Forest (2003) and Michigan (2004-05), earning First-Team All-America honors in 2005. He and his wife, Nicole, reside in Winnetka, Ill., with their three children.

Getz also said manager Pedro Grifol will be back next year despite this season's disappointment.

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