Gavin Sheets was surprised by the question, one that could only make him laugh.
As bad as this season has been, are there any positives at all?
Sheets, who played on the White Sox’ division winning team in 2021, its disappointing .500 team in 2022 and its calamity squad of 2023, regrouped.
“A positive is going through it,” Sheets said before the 56-90 Sox opened a four-game series against the Twins Thursday at Guaranteed Rate Field. “We went through it, we know what went wrong. We don’t want to replicate this. The positive is how we respond.
“Have to know what went wrong, what we have to fix.”
Sheets declined to elaborate on things that went wrong. But reliever Keynan Middleton publicly questioned the culture in the clubhouse after he was traded in late August, and it’s known the bond between Latin and American players is not as cohesive as it could be. Hitters have been divided by their allegiance to the hitting coaches, not an uncommon occurrence on teams with multiple hitting voices. And there have been leadership (or lack thereof) vacuums.
“I think everybody knows. Just a lot of things,” Sheets said. “I don’t want to step into everything that went wrong, but there has been so much in the media about it, off the field stuff, just a perfect storm. We’re going to get it cleaned up as a team and come back ready to go and improve.”
Sheets, who has become the primary right fielder since Oscar Colas got sent down to Triple-A Charlotte, said things are already improving with two and a half weeks left in the season.
“Things are trending in the right direction, we’re coming together as a team,” Sheets said. “[New general manager Chris] Getz has things going in the right direction, I like what he brings to the table. These last 15 games can set the tone for spring training.”
For what it’s worth, players like that Getz, 40, is young and is a former player.
“He’s energetic and this is his first crack at it and he wants to build something that he’s proud of,” Sheets said. “Having been in this organization he knows what needs to be improved on.”
The Sox, who had lost four of their last five and 33 of 48, are trying to avoid 100 losses. Manager Pedro Grifol joined Sheets in looking at lessons learned.
“Don’t take anything for granted,” Grifol said Thursday. “We had high expectations coming in. You can’t just throw your gloves, bats and balls out there and think this thing is just going to happen. It’s not going to happen. There are a lot of hungry teams out there. There are a lot of organizations out there looking to get better every day. You have to work your ass off in this game and you have to play your ass off to have success.”
The Sox were picked by many to win the division. They entered Thursday trailing the first place Twins by 20 games in the AL Central.
“I don’t think we had the time to be overconfident,” Grifol said. “We started the year off 2-2 and never played .500 baseball again. If somebody was overconfident during this storm then they really need to check themselves in the mirror because I don’t know how you can be overconfident when you didn’t play .500 baseball after the first game of the season. I don’t think so. And I don’t see how that is possible.”
Leaders need to evolve during spring training, in a new environment.
“A tone needs to be set,” Sheets said, “of how we want things to be done. Play the game the right way, attack every day, have a sense of urgency. That’s what it’s going to take. Leadership comes from the way [leaders] go about their business and what we bring to the table.”
