White Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf Vindicated by Playoff Success

Chicago White Sox chairman and owner Jerry Reinsdorf certainly shouldn't be the first person taking credit for the team's recent success and current playoff run.

A sweep of the Houston Astros this week gave the White Sox their first postseason series win in more than 20 years, dating all the way back to the 2005 World Series championship team. And while that in and of itself is something to celebrate, 20 years without a playoff series victory is far too long a drought for a big-market franchise playing in Chicago.

Reinsdorf has plenty to do with that.

His organization has regularly lagged behind the advancements made by well-run baseball franchises. Behind in analytics. Behind in infrastructure. Behind in player development and scouting. And during the team's brief pockets of success, like the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Reinsdorf's involvement in baseball decisions, along with a reluctance to spend at the top of the free-agent market, helped limit those White Sox windows and close them faster than they opened.

That being said, the end of Reinsdorf's tenure as controlling owner now has a timeline, with a transition agreement in place between Reinsdorf and next-in-line Justin Ishbia. And it has been well documented over the last few years that Reinsdorf wants to deliver the South Side of Chicago another winning team, and potentially another championship, before his run as controlling owner comes to an end.

For a while, that was difficult to envision.

After failing to properly supplement his previous core of young players, forcing Tony La Russa upon general manager Rick Hahn as the team's manager and failing to authorize deals with premium free agents, the White Sox didn't just enter another rebuild. They entered one of the most miserable stretches of losing in the history of the sport.

A rapid fall from contention eventually produced a 121-loss season in 2024, setting the modern MLB record, and three consecutive seasons with at least 100 losses.

So it was only natural for White Sox fans and Chicago media to question Reinsdorf's decision to hire Chris Getz as the team's new general manager.

Getz had served as Chicago's director of player development at a time when player development was one of the organization's most glaring weaknesses. The rationale behind the hiring was that Getz could get the White Sox back into contention faster than an outside candidate.

Hiring from outside the organization would have brought in refreshing voices. But it also would have meant bringing in a new executive who first needed to evaluate the players and personnel already in place, determine what needed to change and establish a plan before carrying it out. Reinsdorf believed Getz's familiarity with the organization could accelerate that process.

He even declared publicly that the White Sox would not be entering another rebuild.

That sounded almost absurd when the White Sox proceeded to lose 121 games in Getz's first full season and, because of MLB's draft lottery rules, were only able to pick 10th in the following draft.

But here we are in 2026.

The White Sox are in the ALDS, with an early 1-0 lead in the series and an opportunity to go even further, and one of Reinsdorf's most criticized decisions suddenly looks considerably different than it did two years ago.

Getz has helped build infrastructure the organization desperately needed. He recognized early that turning around the White Sox had to involve more than simply changing the major-league roster. He made outside hires to improve amateur and professional scouting, player development and the coaching staff.

He's had misses, as every general manager does. But in less than three years, Getz has helped turn one of the ugliest situations in baseball into a young, exciting and fun-to-watch playoff team. He deserves all of the credit he's getting.

And as uncomfortable as it might be for some White Sox fans to admit, Reinsdorf deserves at least some credit for giving him the job.

Reinsdorf made a relatively rare appearance in front of the media following Chicago's victory in the Wild Card Series. As he reacted to the team's unlikely success in 2026, he couldn't resist reminding reporters how poorly received his decision to hire Getz had been at the time.

“I lived up to the faith you guys all had in me when I hired Chris,” Reinsdorf joked. “You know, happy we vindicated your judgment in praising me for hiring him.”

But even Reinsdorf didn't expect the turnaround to happen this quickly.

“I didn’t think it would come to fruition this fast, I really didn’t,” Reinsdorf said. “I really thought 2027 was the year that we would contend. But nobody told the players that they couldn’t do it.”

I suppose if there's ever a time for a victory lap, it's after a postseason series win.

And Reinsdorf has reason to enjoy this one. The White Sox haven't simply returned to the postseason. They've done it with one of baseball's youngest rosters and one of its smallest payrolls.

Of the eight teams that played in the Wild Card round, the Houston Astros had the second-lowest payroll. It was still more than double that of the White Sox.

Getz has managed to field a competitive roster without the financial resources afforded to most of the teams Chicago is competing against in October. That's an accomplishment worth recognizing.

But it should also be the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it.

The White Sox shouldn't look at what Getz accomplished with a limited payroll and determine that he can simply do it again. Regardless of how things end for the White Sox in October, we should look at what he accomplished and wonder what this organization could become if he were given more resources to build around it.

That's where Reinsdorf's role in this story becomes more important.

Results be damned against the Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS or beyond, the White Sox have accelerated their competitive timeline. Players who were supposed to represent the future have already brought postseason baseball back to the Southside.

Now ownership has an opportunity to meet them there.

Playoff baseball shouldn't be a rare scene that White Sox fans only experience once or twice a decade. Fans deserve to see it regularly, and the players responsible for bringing it back deserve every possible resource from ownership to make sure this season isn't remembered as another isolated window of success.

Reinsdorf can take some credit for trusting Getz when few others did.

What he does next will determine whether that decision produces something that lasts.