The White Sox won a World Series in 2005. As a side note that year, they also drafted Chris Getz, who played seven seasons in the major leagues with the Sox, Royals and Blue Jays.
Eighteen years later, Rick Hahn’s premonition about the former infielder might be coming true.
Hahn, the fired Sox general manager let go along with executive vice president Ken Williams Tuesday, touted Getz as “a future general manager” while Getz was overseeing the Sox player development department. And now Getz appears to be on the verge of having that come to fruition as Hahn’s likely successor.
Getz and fellow assistant GM Jeremy Haber were said to be sharing GM duties now — roster moves were made on the first day after Williams and Hahn — but Getz, a .250 career hitter who stole 25 bases for the Sox in 2009, seems to already be getting comfortable in the GM chair.
“Even as a player you can tell he had characteristics of becoming an executive at some point if he chose to go that route,” said manager Pedro Grifol, a coach in the Royals system where Getz played with the Royals from 2010-13.
“And then when he got into the front office, I know he was highly regarded as a young executive with potential to do this stuff. Player development ... that job prepares you for a lot of things in the game and he’s certainly equipped to do what he’s being asked to do by [chairman] Jerry Reinsdorf right now.”
In announcing the firings Tuesday, the Sox said the hiring would be made before the end of the season, which may indicate the decision has already been made. Dayton Moore, the former Royals GM and current senior adviser of baseball operations with the Rangers, could be hired in tandem with Getz, perhaps as the top voice as a director of operations with Getz as GM.
This is Getz’ seventh season as director of player development and third as assistant GM. He spent 2015-16 as a baseball operations assistant/player development with the Royals, who won the 2015 World Series.
Anderson returns
Tim Anderson had two singles, an RBI and stole third base and scored the winning run on J.P. Crawford’s throwing error in the Sox’ 4-3 victory in his return after serving a five-game suspension for the fight in Cleveland on Aug. 6. Anderson has been through more Williams-Hahn seasons than anyone on the team.
“We know what they were here for and unfortunately we haven’t succeeded to what we need to be throughout this window,” Anderson said. “That’s what happens when things like that happen. A lot of those things goes within the players.”
After the Mariners scored three runs in the ninth against closer Gregory Santos, the Sox (50-77) forced extra innings on Andrew Benintendi’s pinch RBI single scoring Oscar Colas (double).
Kopech exits with leg cramps
On a blistering hot day with a 107 degree heat index, Michael Kopech took five warmup pitches before the fifth inning before leaving with leg cramps, due to the heat. Kopech struck out five, walked four and allowed one hit in four scoreless innings.
“I just couldn’t replenish as much as I was sweating out,” Kopech said. “They didn’t want me to push through that stuff too much.”
