5 On It: Who is the most underrated player in Chicago sports? Do you have hope that the Bears could trade for Maxx Crosby?

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Rahimi & Grote Show 20 min 5 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Mike Florio 0:03

Number one.

Mark Grody 0:07

In the closing weeks of the 2023 season, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf justified his decision to promote Chris Goetz To general manager, instead of going outside the organization by saying this, quote, the conclusion I came to is we owe our fans and ourselves not to waste any time. We want to get better as fast as we possibly can. If I went outside the organization, it would have taken hours. Anybody at least a year to evaluate the organization, unquote, that is Jerry Reinsdorf justifying the decision to promote Chris Getz to general manager instead of going outside of the organization to hire one. So here's the question.

How did Jerry Reinsdorf justify promoting Chris Getz to White Sox GM and has that decision aged well?

Mark Grody 0:52

How has this comment from Jerry Reinsdorf aged?

Vinny Rotino 0:54

A lot better than it hit originally, I'll say that much. Because after that and then Chris Getz having phrases like, I don't like our team when he was in charge of getting the minor league players to develop to the big league level. It didn't make sense. And I think now what we saw was perhaps a combination of things. It was Jerry Reinsdorf wanting to stay in-house. Chris Getz perhaps being more hamstrung than we realized. I did not think that the ascension of this team was going to be that fast. Maybe it took Chris Getz to convince Jerry Reinstor and company to pay more for infrastructure from a technology standpoint and hire more scouts or at least people who work with scouts. You hire Brian Bannister.

Vinny Rotino 1:42

You made some very savvy hires as part of the support staff in that front office. And you saw it come together quickly. in a way that looked very bleak in the years after this, there's not a doubt about that. But the turnaround in 2026 has been evident. So how has it aged? If you asked me at the end of last season, I would say it's aged as well as we thought it did initially. But now, remarkably better. And everybody deserves credit for that.

Marshall Harris 2:14

So the comment itself, I guess it aged okay. Remember, this is the closing weeks of the 2023 season. What happened in 2024?

Vinny Rotino 2:25

They had the worst record ever in the history of baseball.

Marshall Harris 2:29

121 losses. And did you need to lose 100 games two more seasons just to be in a position where you are now, which is tied for first place percentage points technically ahead of the Cleveland Guardians in five games over 500? More important than this team... you know, not stinking this year. They've earned the respect of their peers.

Vinny Rotino 2:56

Yeah.

Marshall Harris 2:56

They've earned the respect of the fans. And there's a certain level of just baseline. We're not bad. We're good. And I'm not saying they're a great baseball team, but they're certainly one of the better baseball teams in the American league, which is different than saying one of the better baseball teams in the national league. Everything is indeed relative. So I guess this comment from Reinsdorf aged okay, because it still did take. Two full seasons of 100-loss baseball just to get to this point, and nothing is guaranteed that this season they're going to compete. It's still a developmental year in nature.

Vinny Rotino 3:36

Yeah, a half a season doesn't erase it all.

Marshall Harris 3:38

Right, right. And if they make the playoffs this year, and if they have some playoff success, like if they finish this season as one of the division leaders with one of the best two records in baseball and get that bye, Like, okay, you're there. You're there now. But if they just sneak in as a wild card and get swept out of the playoffs, I'll say, yes, you got to the playoffs. That's good. But can you sustain it?

Vinny Rotino 4:02

I think what we've also seen is, you know, I will never forget reading the articles about how Theo Epstein had to be the one to convince ownership in Boston when he was still... a part of that organization recently when Craig Breslow was the GM to spend money, like to spend money on Alex Bregman, for example. And maybe sometimes it just comes from a different source. Perhaps Chris Getz convinced Jerry Reinsdorf he must have effectively enough to want to spend money on Munataka Murakami. I think Jerry would have previously seen that as risk. And maybe it took failing enough to get more.