The White Sox just flew through the trades of six players in two days and boy, is my brain tired. Let’s slice up Chris Getz’s post-deadline media availability into sections.

Pedro Grifol’s status

The White Sox manager entered Tuesday helming a team that’s tracking toward the worst record in MLB history, but also owns a team-record 15-game losing streak. The discourse about his post-All-Star break address, extolling his team to avoid infamy, centers around his tone. Because the results make it clear enough that it hasn’t worked. They’re winless since the break.

When you write all that out, it becomes less surprising that Getz cannot and will not be boxed into giving him any sort of vote of confidence. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers asked if he could simply assure that Grifol is safe through the end of the season, and that streak continues.

“We just wrapped the deadline and just wanted to focus on that,” Getz said. “We’ll get through tonight and once again, kind of debrief and look through the players that we acquired and we’ll move forward from there.”

That answer came at the end of a very long day, at the end of an even longer week. But it’s common knowledge operating under the conditions of all this losing is difficult, even for veterans.

“You can look at it one of two ways; if you look at it with the opportunity for growth, learning about yourself and learning about the game,” said Paul DeJong after being traded. “I think I learned a lot about playing a new position, playing on a team where I had to really motivate myself to stay engaged in the game.”

So unsurprisingly, Getz does sound a little concerned about the current atmosphere.

“You don’t want to have an environment that isn’t advantageous for development. And that’s part of the challenge for staff, when you’re not putting wins up there on a regular basis. The players that remain in our clubhouse right now, they’re major league players, they’re here, there is going to be adversity along the way, whether it’s wins, losses, mistakes or success on the field. At the end of the day, you need to show up the next day and get better.”

The Garrett Crochet saga

Getz said they were still taking calls from interested teams on Crochet “until the final hour,” and maintained repeatedly that there was “strong interest,” making it “tough to tell,” how his representation’s demands for extending his workload affected his trade market.

“I anticipate the attention on Garrett and the interest in acquiring him is only going to go up,” Getz said, downplaying the notion that this would have been the window to get peak value. “That being said we are very happy he remains here, and being able to watch him compete the remainder of the season.”

Clearly, Getz wanted to move on from the storyline of a damaged relationship between the White Sox and Crochet. For me, the big hint of that is when he said “We are going to work past that,” and perhaps not coincidentally, Getz entertained the concept of talking contract extension with Crochet more than he has in the past.

“We’ll have conversations. We’re going to have time to be able to have dialog with Garrett and with his agents. And if it lines up, it lines up. For what he’s done so far as a new starting pitcher at the major-league level is nothing short of phenomenal. To be able to be part of his journey as he continues to mature as a pitcher and person, I’d love to be part of that. But it’s got to make sense for both sides.”

Luis Robert Jr.: Here to stay (for now)?

“We got a lot of phone calls, a lot of interest,” Getz said on Robert’s market, which didn’t seem like it moved close to a deal at any point. “Teams were certainly open and willing to inquire, it just didn’t make any sense for us to move Luis. If you look at what he’s capable of doing, just the talent that he has, the amount of control that we have from a contract standpoint, and once again look forward to watching him play in a White Sox uniform. But yeah, there was strong interest.”

Referencing Robert’s years of control is a rare nod to his potential to be part of a winning White Sox team before his last club option is exhausted in 2027. That’s probably/certainly reading too much into it, but for now, Robert does have a compelling relationship with Miguel Vargas, who is being touted as a future fixture.

“One of the more enjoyable moments of the day was watching Miguel Vargas and Luis Robert see each other for the first time and embrace each other, very excited,” Getz said. “I didn’t know how much of a history they had, but I know when they looked at each other, they looked like there is a high level of admiration going both ways.”

They found a trade partner for Eloy?

Getz fielded a separate question about whether they were left with more players staying with them through the deadline than anticipated. Chris Flexen, John Brebbia and Nicky Lopez all can be retained for 2025, but had profiles — if not 2024 performances — in line with the types of veterans who get moved as depth additions for meager returns at the deadline. He pushed back on it by noting that even last-minute deals are typically presaged by earlier calls signaling interest well in advance.

In contrast, Getz said the Orioles called on Jiménez Tuesday morning and seemed genuine in their interest, and so the move happened. Whether it actually results in Jiménez having a role in the Orioles postseason run remains to be seen, but in the wake of dumping the salary of a tentpole acquisition of the previous rebuild for a situational lefty reliever in Triple-A, Getz tried to remember the good times.

“I remember going down to Winston-Salem and watching him for the first time, and seeing the pole to pole offensively, both home run and hit potential,” Getz said, recalling what probably really was some of the most electrifying baseball Jiménez played for this organization. “Continued to climb up the minor leagues and get his opportunity in the big leagues. And he helped the White Sox, he really did. There’s a lot to be proud of, not only from the organization, but also for Eloy Jimenez. I know the injuries have affected him, and it hasn’t allowed him to go out there and be the player that perhaps many people thought that he could become, but he’s still young, and he’s going to get a chance with the Baltimore Orioles and he’s going to get a chance to play at a high level.”

So when are the White Sox going to be good again?

Just to preface this before expectations get out of hand, nobody knows the answer to this, and Getz certainly did not say. But it was the subtext of a lot of questions and we’re going to group several replies here. Given the surfeit of 19-year-olds the White Sox acquired over the past couple of days, one of which is out for the season with a stress reaction in his tibia, it could suggest the White Sox are going be in development mode until they’re all grown up into productive major leaguers.

Getz is not stating that as the plan.

“We weren’t focusing on age, we were looking for players that we feel like have a chance to be impactful major league players. That can come at the major league level, that can come at the mid level leagues or lower minor leagues.”

“They’re at A-ball, but they’re performing, they’re middle infielders that have got offensive potential. And then to be able to acquire another bat today for Tanner Banks, similar ages, they’re all at different stages of their development career and looking forward to helping them and watching them grow towards the major leagues, but it was about talent acquisition regardless of what level they were or what age they were.”

That said, Getz said the team hasn’t really assessed yet how active they will be in free agency this coming offseason. And when asked about the outlook for the 2025 team, patience seems to be the big takeaway concept.

“Every player’s path to the big leagues is different,” Getz said. “We spoke about the age of some of the players that we acquired. There’s going to be time for them to mature, both as players and people as they prepare to be at the major league level. We’re not going to rush that. We just felt like it was a chance to balance out our organization in terms of the pitching and hitting.”