Not to turn this morning wake-up companion into Chicago White Sox Daily, but it’s a slow time of year. We’ll get through this together, I promise.

After Monday night’s curious report/leak that the Sox were already plotting their way out of Guaranteed Rate Field, or plotting their way into a pot of gold to do work to or around it, there were some tangible moves last night as they fired Vice President Kenny Williams and GM Rick Hahn. These were obvious moves after the two Wile E. Coyote-inspired seasons the Sox have had the past two campaigns.

Seemingly like every Reinsdorf organization, Williams has hung around the Sox for a couple decades like Wooderson. He has been dining out on the lightning World Series roster he caught in a bottle in 2005 and never really came close to replicating. Even when his stint as GM became untenable, he was moved upstairs where he wasn’t in the limelight but he wasn’t out of the control room either. Even this past trade deadline the scuttlebutt was that he authored the Jake Burger to Miami trade around his GM. And whatever moves he did or didn’t make he was always ready to hop in front of a microphone to sell out his GM about what was going on and who he almost certainly knew better.

Hahn certainly wasn’t done any favors by having an actual cadaver in Tony La Russa foisted upon him as manager when the team he had built looked ready to mature, nor the constant undercutting from Williams nor the financial limits placed on him by Reinsdorf’s refusal to even tickle the luxury tax. But when your team lays an egg this big, and when the signings you do make like Yasmani Grandal or Lance Lynn or Andrew Benintendi all turn odd colors in the sun, as well as most of your prized possessions just never hit the heights (Moncada, Jimenez, Anderson, Vaughn) there’s only ever one outcome.

The firings are obvious enough, but combined with the reports of new stadium shenanigans, it does make one wonder what exactly is going on. Perhaps the Sox fan’s wet dream of Reinsdorf selling the team before he dies (or before he falls down, as he’s quite possibly been dead for a while now) is nearing? Certainly, the Sox look like a more attractive sale with at least a functioning front office or one that’s been reset for a new regime to set up as they see fit and at least the possibility of a boosted stadium or a new one altogether. Sox fans can’t hide their excitement at even just the thought, and let’s just say some of the rumors flying around this town are…galactic.

Whatever happens in the top chair behind the biggest desk, whoever comes in as president of baseball operations and/or GM has a pretty wretched and enormous task on their hands. The system is basically tapped thanks to moving an entire generation of prospects to the MLB roster that produced this dreck. There’s a fair amount of money coming off the books, but whether it’s just general Reinsdorf miserliness or wanting to keep the powder dry for a sale, it’s highly unlikely massive spending is going to be sanctioned. The Sox can’t even really “burn it down,” because they don’t have much to punt. Luis Robert Jr. and Dylan Cease would be the list, and both are young enough to still be considered building blocks. With Eloy Jimenez or Yoan Moncada unable to play more than 17 consecutive innings their value is in the toilet, and Tim Anderson has a club option that might be declined. Even if it wasn’t, after two seasons where all his contact was decidedly popcorn isn’t going to bring a treasure trove back either.

Given this being Reinsdorf, it’s likely that the next GM will still come from within the smoldering wreckage of the organization, though at least that person would be easily fired by any new owner should that come about. But at least for one night, any actual movement is enough for Sox fans to dream for a little while.

Bo Bichette flashes the leather

On the field, I can’t really get enough of this Bo Bichette play last night in the 9th in Baltimore:

If the game wasn’t on the line it was certainly approaching it, with the Os having a runner on and only one out. Not making it certainly makes this a rally, and snuffing it out gave the Jays the platform to get to the 10th where they scored three runs to win. It’s the blind throw that dissects Vladito’s chest at first that makes it.

Dame weighs in on grocery store ‘fight’

And now, for really no reason really, there’s this, which I like to hear in my head with the sound effect you got on Punch-Out when you hit the Star Punch:

Honestly, how did this dude think it was going to go?

Follow Sam on Twitter @Felsgate and on Bluesky @Felsgate.bsky.social