Hitting Reset: White Sox Need an Offensive Guru to Elevate Organizational Outlook

Look, I know I harp on things that the Chicago White Sox organization does wrong quite frequently. If we're being honest with ourselves, it's hard not to these days. There simply aren't many things you can point to and say this organization does well.

You all know by now that I am the lead #BannisterBot, and I'm firmly behind organizational pitching czar Brian Bannister in his efforts to reshape White Sox hurlers from the ground up. There have been positive results down at the minor-league level already, although in some regards their successes may be a little overhyped. There's a strong probability we won't see many of these organizational improvements on the mound manifest themselves en masse at the corner of 35th/Shields until next summer. That will cause some to question if there's any improvement happening at all, but this organization deserves all the skepticism and derision being thrown its way.

We've already seen Drew Thorpe and Jonathan Cannon reach the White Sox active roster and have modest success in their first go-arounds at the big-league level, but both still have significant development and improvement to undergo. We haven't seen much development on the positional side for the MLB club this season, however. Brooks Baldwin's meteoric rise from Double-A to the bigs has hit a major speed bump. The rookie infielder is slashing a meager .205/.239/.341 in 92 plate appearances to begin his MLB career.

Baldwin is just the latest in a long line of positional players to encounter immediate struggles when putting on the White Sox uniform for the first time. Frankly, it's hard to remember a Sox prospect — whether highly touted by prospect evaluators or not — hitting the ground running when he gets the call to the big club.

I've highlighted for a few years how the White Sox are simply behind the times when it comes to the modern game offensively. The team lacks any semblance of a successful identity in the batter's box from the Arizona Complex League all the way to the corner of 35th/Shields. I joke all the time that I'm old enough to remember when sports talk radio callers would be irate that the Sox used to "hit too many homers, and were too one-dimensional." For some reason, during this team's last heyday in the first decade of the century, people wanted a bunch of slap hitters who made contact and didn't impact the baseball. I didn't understand it then, and I still don't today.

Ironically, the team for much of the last 10 years has become what many of those fans yearned for. The White Sox of recent memory don't hit for power as they rely on trying to piece together three and four hits in an inning to scratch any runs across the board. And we see how well this has all worked out, less a short stretch during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and about half of the following season.

Finding the Guy

When meeting with the media following the dismissal of manager Pedro Grifol, Chris Getz said a few things of interest. I'm not going to dig into the managerial search; we'll have plenty of time to do that in the coming months. Rather, I was intrigued by the rookie general manager's comments stating that the team needed to find a Brian Bannister equivalent on the offensive side of the baseball.

The team tabbed Matt Lisle in late 2018 to serve as a hitting analytics instructor, but he parted ways with the organization before the conclusion of the 2019 season. We don't know much of what went on with Lisle's departure or what his exact role was with the organization. His job duties and assignments were held as close to the vest as a CIA operative's because we all know the White Sox can't afford to have details of their development program leak out to the public.

Lisle was viewed as a progressive hitting instructor after garnering much attention through his YouTube channel and other social media platforms. Perhaps his ideas were too drastic of a change for an organization stuck in the stone age for much of the last decade, so maybe now is the right time to see new, fresh ideas be accepted. The hope is that Getz having close to a year under his belt in control of all organizational processes/decisions will generate a clear understanding of what changes need to be made.

Again, it's fair to have a high level of cynicism behind this idea as Getz was, after all, playing an integral role in the organization's poor player development record. However, maybe some self-reflection has allowed him to acknowledge that things have to change. The White Sox must modernize their organizational approach if they aspire to be a competitive team again for any length of time.

The Sox have routinely found themselves at the bottom of baseball in most offensive categories for the last decade, so installing someone in a position of authority who will be tasked with fixing that is a tall order. It's paramount that Getz utilizes whatever network he's established within the game to find a qualified individual to oversee this change. He was able to successfully pluck Brian Bannister from the San Francisco Giants last September; he now has to find a counterpart on the offensive side.

I think it would behoove Getz to look to organizations with successful track records offensively over the last five years or so. Teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, and Tampa Bay Rays have routinely found themselves near the top of the league in most offensive categories, and it's no coincidence those have been among the most successful organizations in the sport during that time. Being able to pluck someone from the knowledge tree of an offensively productive organization would do wonders toward getting the White Sox on track at some point.

I don't pretend to know who the right candidate is to help the Sox become a modern, progressive organization that can develop hitters from the minor leagues all the way to the majors, but there are plenty of qualified people out there. Hopefully Getz is tapped in enough around the league to bring in someone who will make meaningful change and get us back to the days when this team used to be an offensive force.

The Big Picture

I miss going to the ballpark and seeing fireworks after White Sox hitters deposit the ball over that fencing that is set up prior to the game. That used to be a lot of fun, and I'd like to see those days return. The team has to change its offensive approach and identity from the bottom all the way to the top. That starts with a qualified voice joining the organization and leading that charge.

It's a small positive that Chris Getz acknowledged this need. His honest assessment that the team's pitching infrastructure is ahead of its hitting is a step in the right direction. It's now incumbent upon him to fix the problem and bring in the right people to make the change. Until the Sox can produce more runs consistently, we won't see joy return to the corner of 35th/Shields on a nightly basis.

Related: Lack of Firepower: The White Sox Have No Offensive Identity

Subscribe to On Tap Sports Net on YouTube and the Sox On Tap podcast for more Chicago White Sox content, updates, and hot takes!