White Sox proprietor Jerry Reinsdorf is open to promoting the membership and is in “lively discussions” with a bunch led by Dave Stewart, reviews Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. It’s unclear how potential a sale is or how a lot progress the talks have made, however it will be a seismic shift for the franchise if it involves fruition.
Reinsdorf, now 88 years previous, is likely one of the extra controversial house owners within the sport. He purchased the membership in 1981 for about $20MM and has since developed a fame for being on the meddlesome facet, resulting in reviews of tumult from inside the group. Reinsdorf solely owns an estimated 19% stake within the membership, in keeping with Forbes, however is nonetheless the principal proprietor of the membership.
The membership has had some success throughout his tenure as proprietor, together with profitable the 2005 World Collection, however the Sox are at a really low ebb proper now. They didn’t make the playoffs from 2009 to 2019, ending under .500 throughout nearly all of that stretch. A brand new core appeared to emerge and helped them make the postseason in 2020 and 2021, however that shortly proved to be unsustainable. They dropped to .500 in 2022 and misplaced 101 video games final 12 months earlier than issues received even worse in 2024. They misplaced 121 video games this 12 months, setting a brand new report for losses within the trendy period.
Amid that downward slide, loads of adjustments have taken place. In August of 2023, president Ken Williams and normal supervisor Rick Hahn had been fired after a few years with the membership. Nonetheless, that shakeup was adopted by the membership selling Chris Getz to normal supervisor from inside, seemingly not enterprise an intensive seek for exterior candidates. Supervisor Pedro Grifol and a few coaches had been fired in August of 2024. Grady Sizemore took over as interim supervisor and it’s not but clear who would be the membership’s bench boss for 2025.
These adjustments had been controversial merited, however because the Sox had been nearing their dishonorable place in historical past this 12 months, Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal put the franchise underneath the microscope in a prolonged piece for The Athletic final month. In it, varied sources traced the membership’s misfortunes to Reinsdorf. His gradual embrace of analytics, his refusal to put money into facilities or participant payroll and his insular loyalty had been among the many varied complaints cited within the piece.
Whereas most of the membership’s followers have been clamoring for Reinsdorf to promote the membership, it’s potential their want is being granted in monkey-paw style, given who the client might be. Stewart is well-known within the baseball world for his taking part in profession and in addition his post-playing ventures as a coach, govt, agent and stint as normal supervisor of the Diamondbacks. Lately, he has been concerned with a bunch that has been attempting to get an MLB franchise in Nashville, Tennessee. Stewart parted methods with Music Metropolis Baseball/the Nashville Stars however informed Paul Skrbina of the Nashville Tennessean in Could that he nonetheless had designs on getting a crew to Nashville sometime. Per at present’s report from Ghiroli, he’s now a part of a bunch known as Smoke34, a reference to his nickname and jersey quantity from his taking part in days. Ghiroli additionally mentions that Stewart and companion Lonnie Murray try to deliver a Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League crew to Nashville.
Again in August of 2023, Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Enterprise reported that the Sox had been exploring relocating inside Chicago however that transferring to Nashville was additionally into account. “Ever because the article got here out, I’ve been studying about I’ve been threatening to maneuver to Nashville,” Reinsdorf mentioned in response, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. “That article didn’t come from me. But when we have now six years left, we’ve received to determine what’s the longer term going to be? We’ll get to it, however I by no means threatened to maneuver out. We haven’t even begun to have discussions with the Sports activities Authority, which we’ll need to do quickly.” In December, a number of sources (together with Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Solar-Instances) reported that Reinsdorf met with Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell.
There are nonetheless loads of unknowns with this story and the following steps would require extra particulars to come back out. The talks between Reinsdorf and Stewart might in early/exploratory phases or they might be additional alongside. It’s additionally potential that Stewart’s group is only one of a number of that Reinsdorf has spoken with or will finally communicate with. Speculatively talking, it’s potential that Reinsdorf is utilizing the specter of relocation to assist get a brand new stadium inbuilt Chicago. As lined beforehand at MLBTR, the Sox have mentioned plans a few new stadium in Chicago’s South Loop on a parcel of land generally known as “The 78.” It’s not unusual for house owners of sports activities franchises to dangle the specter of relocation in an try and extract public cash for actual property investments. The Sox, who’ve a lease at Assured Charge Subject by means of 2029, had been reportedly trying to get a billion {dollars} in public cash for his or her new stadium as of February.
Exploring a sale of the membership additionally doesn’t imply it is going to finally come to go. Lately, groups just like the Nationals and Angels introduced plans to discover the opportunity of promoting, solely to later pull again from these declarations. This example seems to be considerably totally different, in that some discussions have already taken place. Although as talked about, it’s unclear how intensive these talks have been.
That is the second report this month of a membership contemplating a sale. The Twins, divisional rival of the White Sox, are additionally on the block. The Pohlad household introduced final week that they are going to discover the opportunity of a sale. Reinsdorf is the second-longest lively proprietor in Main League Baseball, trailing solely the Steinbrenner household, who’ve owned the Yankees since 1973.
