With Luis Robert Jr. floundering at the plate and a blockbuster, Garrett Crochet-style trade unlikely this summer, White Sox general manager Chris Getz might miss out on a chance to add some high-end prospect talent to his rebuilding project this summer.
That makes the MLB Draft, which kicks off Sunday night, all the more important as the Sox look to hit on a top-10 pick, an opportunity to add another potential cornerstone to their slow-moving rebuilding project.
Of course, the opportunity is only so exciting for fans.
Recent rule changes preventing top picks in consecutive years mean the Sox own the 10th pick in the first round, not the sort of silver lining one would expect in the wake of the most losses in modern baseball history.
But this is baseball, where draft position does not especially correlate to future stardom as it might in other sports. Just ask the guy whose statue is being unveiled Friday night on the Rate Field concourse: Mark Buehrle. He was a 38th-rounder.
The Sox do have the top pick in every round after the first, giving them two choices in the top 44 and the chance to add two impact players to their planned future core.
“If we can capture two-for-one, we’re trying to do that,” Sox scouting chief Mike Shirley said Thursday. “How do you match 10 and 44 up to secure two pieces you feel strong about, from an evaluation standpoint, that matches up financially?
“If you can get two-for-one, that’s always the goal. Every organization would want to have that. We’re trying to target that the best we can.”
The Sox took Grant Taylor with their second-round choice in 2023, and he’s starring at the back end of the big-league bullpen. They’re hoping last year’s second-round selection, infielder Caleb Bonemer, can have a similar impact. Playing at Single-A Kannapolis, he has an .819 OPS in his first year of pro ball.
No. 44 might loom large.
But No. 10 will loom larger, joining shortstop Colson Montgomery and left-handers Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith as recent first-rounders with big roles in Getz’s future-focused project.
Getz forecasted a bat-first approach earlier this week, and Shirley echoed the sentiment of many — that high school shortstops are the cream of this year’s crop.
While Montgomery has just arrived as the Sox’ planned shortstop of the future, don’t be surprised to see the Sox go back to that well.
“The security of finding position players that can be special, play in the middle of the field, that’s a target for all major-league teams, that you should build your clubs that way,” Shirley said. “It’s a definition that’s filtered through Chris Getz. . . . Middle-of-the-field players matter to him, so we’re attacking that sector nonstop.”
Given the theme of the Sox’ entire operation right now, the most important takeaway from this year’s draft preparation is what it means for the years to come. Obviously, that starts with the players they choose.
But it’s also about what Getz & Co. have done to remake the way the Sox draft behind the scenes. That’s where the front office has aimed to make its greatest strides, even while the losses have kept coming at the big-league level.
“I commend Chris,” Shirley said. “When people were saying it wasn’t going right, I don’t think everybody could see what he was building. I don’t think everybody could see the investment that he was giving to the organization, building with Jerry [Reinsdorf], really.
“You may not have seen what was happening, but what was happening behind the curtain was real. . . . When he took the job, he knew those were the investments he needed to make, and I think he’s done a great job with it.”
But it’ll be hard for a lot of fans to look past where the Sox are picking and not wonder what might have happened had they been allowed to pick at No. 1.
“We’ll deal with it how we best deal with it,” Shirley said. “We’ll get a good player.”
