White Sox Still Unsure Of Which Direction They'll Take This Offseason
(CBS) After an underachieving 2015 campaign in which they went 76-86 after making a big offseason splash, the White Sox remain uncertain of the direction they'll take this offseason as the Winter Meetings await in early December.
Without revealing details, executive vice president Kenny Williams indicated to MLB.com that the team has Plan A, Plan B and Plan C, as created by general manager Rick Hahn. The question is which path they'll choose.
In December 2014, the White Sox's plan was to go all in on veterans -- they signed closer David Robertson, reliever Zach Duke, outfielder Melky Cabrera and first baseman/DH Adam LaRoche and then traded for right-hander Jeff Samardzija -- to make a run at a playoff spot and perhaps title contention.
Presumably, other plans would revolve around rebuilding completely or continuing with this phase of quasi-competitiveness, quasi-rebuilding on the fly. The White Sox do have a stable of quality young pitchers, but they need to make upgrades at multiple positions offensively.
"As I sit here today, we have had a number of conversations, even as late as this morning, and Rick hasn't presented to us a definitive direction based on his talks that he wants to travel down," Williams said Tuesday night, according to MLB.com. "Until he puts on the table what he wants to do, it's premature for me to comment one way or another on any player or path or anything else because of our process."
Williams acknowledged that this approach could be perceived as "confusing." Not counting free agency additions, the White Sox figure to have a little more than $100 million committed in 2016 payroll by the time arbitration is over and a hypothetical 25-man roster is filled out.
"A lot of things are in play right now," Williams told MLB.com. "I know it can be confusing, but it's completely understandable from my perspective that this is what you do before you decide on the definitive plan.
"I don't want to get into economics. But we have to see what is available to us before we even really are concerned about it."