White Sox proprietor Jerry Reinsdorf is open to promoting the membership and is in “lively discussions” with a bunch led by Dave Stewart, experiences Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. It’s unclear how attainable 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Reinsdorf, now 88 years outdated, is likely one of the extra controversial homeowners within the sport.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 experiences of tumult from inside the group. Reinsdorf solely owns an estimated 19% stake within the membership, in line with Forbes, however is nonetheless the principal proprietor of the membership.
The membership has had some success throughout his tenure as proprietor, together with successful 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 the vast majority 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 yr earlier than issues bought even worse in 2024. They misplaced 121 video games this yr, setting a brand new document for losses within the fashionable 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. Nevertheless, that shakeup was adopted by the membership selling Chris Getz to normal supervisor from inside, seemingly not endeavor 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 debatable merited, however because the Sox had been nearing their dishonorable place in historical past this yr, Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal put the franchise below the microscope in a prolonged piece for The Athletic final month. In it, numerous sources traced the membership’s misfortunes to Reinsdorf. His sluggish embrace of analytics, his refusal to put money into facilities or participant payroll and his insular loyalty had been among the many numerous complaints cited within the piece.
Whereas lots of the membership’s followers have been clamoring for Reinsdorf to promote the membership, it’s attainable their want is being granted in monkey-paw style, given who the customer might be. Stewart is well-known within the baseball world for his enjoying profession and likewise 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 advised Paul Skrbina of the Nashville Tennessean in Could that he nonetheless had designs on getting a workforce to Nashville sometime. Per immediately’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 enjoying days. Ghiroli additionally mentions that Stewart and accomplice Lonnie Murray are attempting to deliver a Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League workforce 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 shifting to Nashville was additionally into consideration. “Ever for the reason that article got here out, I’ve been studying about I’ve been threatening to maneuver to Nashville,” Reinsdorf stated in response, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. “That article didn’t come from me. But when we now have six years left, we’ve bought 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 must 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 subsequent steps would require extra particulars to come back out. The talks between Reinsdorf and Stewart may in early/exploratory levels or they might be additional alongside. It’s additionally attainable 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 attainable that Reinsdorf is utilizing the specter of relocation to assist get a brand new stadium inbuilt Chicago. As coated beforehand at MLBTR, the Sox have mentioned plans a few new stadium in Chicago’s South Loop on a parcel of land referred to as “The 78.” It’s not unusual for homeowners 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 Area via 2029, had been reportedly seeking 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 should in the end come to cross. Lately, groups just like the Nationals and Angels introduced plans to discover the potential of promoting, solely to later pull again from these declarations. This case seems to be considerably completely different, in that some discussions have already taken place. Although as talked about, it’s unclear how in depth 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’ll discover the potential 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.
