Shortened season for White Sox is ‘legit,’ and a building block for years to come

You play the cards you’re dealt, the White Sox say. So should they break a 12-year postseason dry spell in a shortened 60-game season, they will take it. And celebrate it.

What you think of it, for whatever team ultimately lands the “big” World Series prize if this unique season charges through a coronavirus pandemic to the finish, will be for you to decide, Sox manager Rick Renteria said.

“I’ll let history decide what it means or doesn’t mean,” Renteria said. “All I know is, if we’re able to accomplish that, from your mouth to God’s ears to our club, if we’re able to accomplish that, that would be great. And everybody can do with it what they wish. Because they will anyways, right?”

Should they be one of 10 teams to make the playoffs, the Sox would bank their success and experience as building blocks for more to come. That’s the hope and plan, anyway.

“I’m really of two minds of that,” general manager Rick Hahn said. “Is it a legitimate season? Absolutely. I’m of the mindset that what we are building here is a multi-year project. It’s a multi-year endeavor. This was going to be sort of that first year of transitioning from the rebuild into that competitive stage.

“So it’s extremely important from our perspective to get these guys out there competing. We have a young club, a team that is only going to grow and benefit from playing experience during your regular season and hopefully the postseason. So getting a taste of that this season is of the utmost importance. We are excited about the idea this team will have the opportunity to start of what we view as a multi-year path toward championships.”

Renteria’s focus is on whipping his team into shape in three weeks at what some are calling “summer camp” rather than spring training. It is almost July, after all. Guaranteed Rate Field will be the scene, with 44 players spacing themselves over the home, visitors and umpires locker rooms.

“We’ll do everything we can as if we’re still in spring training,” Renteria said. “Do all those things that are necessary to get those guys ready. Initially, we’ve got to get their legs underneath them, every single one of our players, both pitchers and position players.

“The truth is, regardless of whatever they’ve been doing, after the second or third days, your legs are going to be a little sore. So we need to get to that point as quickly as possible and not push them to the point where we end up causing some havoc. We all understand what the body’s going to go through.”

As soon as possible, intrasquad games will be played.

In the meantime, players and coaches will adapt to the virus age of distancing and safety, as best they can, in a baseball world where hugs, high fives and spitting are the norm but no longer within the rules.

Renteria, for one, has always been an arm-around-the-shoulder, hugging type communicator with his players.

“Emotions, I’m sure at some point in time, will trump all of that,” Renteria said. “You might see something and say, ‘I wish I wouldn’t have done that.’ But there are going to be things available to us in the dugout, for us to clean our hands and try to minimize the effects of maybe a miscue of some sort.

“If we’re looking at it from a perspective of being aware of why we are doing it, and, truthfully, keeping your fellow man out of harm’s way as best you possibly can. That’s something we’re going to have to try to do. It’s respect for somebody else’s space and trying to do what we can to make sure we can stay on the field for as long as possible.”