The White Sox were 51⁄2 games out of first place in the American League Central entering Monday night’s series opener against the Rangers. With 89 games left, that’s not much.
But they also were 11 games under .500, with only two teams in the AL and five in the majors worse than them. Which is why, even if they are in contention in a weak division, general manager Rick Hahn might not be a buyer at the trade deadline.
Why not take advantage of the opportunity to use trade chips such as right-hander Lucas Giolito, whose contract runs out after the season, or, say, two-time All-Star Lance Lynn — building for a better 2024 and ’25 when all a division title this year might get you is a first-round exit from the postseason?
“Making the playoffs is import-ant, but the goals are loftier than that,” Hahn said after the Sox returned from a 2-4 trip against the Dodgers and Mariners. “And when we judge ultimately what happens as we get much closer to Aug. 1 than we are now, how we project our ability to not only win the division but to make an impact in October is going to factor in.”
Third baseman Yoan Moncada is hurt, All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson is batting .250 with no home runs and All-Star closer Liam Hendriks is on the injured list with no timetable for a return. The Sox were last in the majors in on-base percentage (.293) and 26th in OPS (.680) and had the fifth-worst chase rate.
They were 23-21 since opening the season at 8-21, so there’s that.
Meh.
“The goals have always been higher than just making the playoffs,” Hahn said. “Given our performance so far, our only way in is through winning the division.”
In any event, Hahn said it’s too soon for the Sox to be pegged as sellers.
“If we’re able to turn this around and get ourselves in a position to win this division,” he said, “given that we are currently 11 under, we are obviously going to be playing pretty damn good baseball for the final two, three months of the season, which would give us reason to believe that the postseason performance could be better.”
Pedro Grifol, like all managers, especially those in their first season, wants to win now. And Grifol, as you’d expect, can envision his team playing much better and conquering the forlorn Central.
“Everyone in that clubhouse thinks this division is up for the taking,” Grifol said. “Nobody seems to be running away with it; 51⁄2 games back is certainly a number that’s attainable. We were 91⁄2 back, we’ve made up four games, and we haven’t played our best baseball. So we’re extremely optimistic this thing will click for us.”
Asked why the Sox are worse than expected, Hahn said he didn’t have the answer.
“It’s not for lack of individual confidence,” he said. “It’s not for lack of support from the staff. It’s not from lack of communication about expectations and what we feel guys are capable of doing.”
And it’s not on Grifol, said Hahn, who opened his media session in the dugout by dismissing a national reporter’s questions about Grifol’s job security.
“It pissed me off,” Hahn said. “This underperformance or any of the issues we’ve had thus far this season is not on Pedro and the coaching staff.”
But it’s go time for the Sox. Perhaps they’ll make the Aug. 1 question easy. There are two ways to do that.
“We have been a tick above .500 since that rotten start,” Hahn said. “That’s fine, but that’s not what we need to be if we’re going to make a run in this division and feel like we have a chance to do damage in October. So it’s been OK, but it hasn’t been as impactful as we would hope.”
