New Year — time for a new White Sox story

Is target date 2028 too soon?

Lots of sports teams talk about a youth movement, but there is no team in all of sports better suited for an all-out youth movement than the White Sox. They’re going to be awful for years no matter what, so why not take a chance on going really young now in order to possibly be really good later?

After all, the Sox will never be good as long as our Father Time is calling the shots, and actuaries compute that on average an 88-year old man will have another four years or more before he does off to The Great Tax Dodge in the Sky. That means there’s little chance of a good team until at least 2028, and even then it will take the Reinsdorf heirs some time to follow dad’s instructions and sell the team to someone who cares about baseball.

So let’s go young. Really young.

That’s right — an all-rookie, or close-to-rookie, team. And the results the next couple of years be damned. As they will be, anyway.

FIRST, WE CLEAR OUT THE DEAD WOOD

That may be an unfair description for some, but so be it. In this case, by “dead wood” we mean any player not under team control at least through 2028 and age 30 or younger that season.

That means trading all veterans, getting whatever you can get for Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Vaughn, Andrew Benintendi (and paying all of his salary you need to in order to get rid of him). That includes all of the players just signed to one-year contracts and those aging out under the 30-and-younger in 2028 rule, which includes Steve Wilson, Jesse Scholtens, Dominic Fletcher, Ron Marinaccio, Penn Murfee, Cam Booser, Justin Anderson, Fraser Ellard, Gus Varland, Bryse Wilson, Matt Thaiss, Austin Slate, Mike Tauchman, etc.

No one in the aged-out group had any future with the team anyway, except to be filler while younger players get to the parent team, so let’s get them out of the way so the newbies get a chance at high-level OJT.

THEN WE BREAK A TABOO

Yep, we refuse to listen to all that jabber about “too soon” for a young player to make it to the bigs. Sure, they’ll be lousy for a year or two, and the Sox will probably break their own record as the worst team ever. So what? You lose 112 games (current prediction by the pros) or 132, what difference does it make? And you’re actually building for the future instead of dreading it.

Basketball and football players dive right in to the top level, often after just one year beyond high school in the case of basketball, and they do just fine. So will many baseball players if people stopped telling them they can’t. Yes, the major league game is much faster than anything they’ve seen. So is the NBA game. Time to find out who can adjust (as Nick Madrigal never did).

As for possibly ruining young psyches, nobody who gets to the top level of a sport is a shrinking violet who can’t handle a challenge. And it should be made perfectly clear to all of them that they will be learning at the very highest level, while being paid well (though so little Jerry Reinsdorf will smile all the way to the bank), and getting the organization’s best coaching and technical input — and they should have no shame in losing and/or performing badly at first.

FIRST, THE PITCHERS

This is the easy part because so many have already made appearances with the White Sox and so many more show major league promise. Start with Jonathan Cannon, Jared Shuster, Davis Martin, Drew Thorpe, Nick Nastrini, Sean Burke, Ky Bush, Jairo Iriarte and Prelander Berroa from the 40-man roster. Add super prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith and you’ve got 11 before you even dig a little deeper.

(Note that almost all of them are starters or are capable of starting and you have the perfect situation for going with the 3-3-3 pitching plan — three pitchers per game, three innings each, every three games, with the other four spots traditional relief or to give those in the rotation a rest. No young pitcher has to toss too much in any game, or to shoulder too much responsibility, There has never been a better team or situation in which to make a creative breakthrough like that. But with a boss who’s not real sure the thing about defenders wearing gloves is going to catch on, it may be a bridge too far.)

BUT WHAT ABOUT POSITION PLAYERS?

Aye, there’s the rub. Still, even with a dismal group in the farm system you could make do, and that’s before adding a few when dumping the veterans.

Catching is no problem. Among Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero, and Korey Lee, you’ve already got two majors-ready catchers and a leftover to store in Charlotte or put at first, left field or DH.

First base is a problem, with only the lowly-rated Tim Elko in the system, but any number of players could be converted to first, especially if infielders like Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos, or Lenyn Sosa show they really can’t play anywhere else.

Those last three would otherwise compete for the other infield slots with Chase Meidroth, Brooks Baldwin, Jacob Amaya and Miguel Vargas.

Unfortunately, it’s also a good idea to have outfielders, and with Robert and Fletcher gone, there’s no one to actually catch a fly ball, but maybe the fancy new coaching staff can teach somebody something. Surely someone out of Zach DeLoach, Oscar Colás, Braden Montgomery, Wilfred Veras, George Wolkow or, Vargas or Ramos can figure out which hand the mitt goes on. Barring that, getting a glove-first center fielder when trading veterans is a must.

As for DH, use whoever absolutely can’t field a lick.

IT’LL BE NO WORSE THAN WHAT’S IN STORE, ANYWAY

And at least fans will get a chance to say “I saw him when” and maybe get new favorite players to follow and (as Reinsdorf smiles) whose gear to buy.

This whole redesign of how professional baseball is done needs a name, of course:

How about OPERATION BRIDGEPORT?

Except, of course, that Father Time wants to call it Operation South Loop.