The Chicago White Sox currently have the worst record in all of baseball, selling a number of their assets off at the 2024 MLB trade deadline. The organization’s future looks quite bleak at the moment. But just a few years ago, a number of media members, including ESPN’s Jeff Passan, were quite high on the team’s future.
Back in January of 2020, Passan posted to X (Twitter at the time) to share a number of impact players that the team had under team control, including Eloy Jimenez, whose recent trade was openly celebrated by some in the Chicago media.
The White Sox control players through the following years:
Luis Robert: 2027
Eloy Jimenez: 2026
Dylan Cease: 2025
Tim Anderson: 2024
Michael Kopech: 2024
Lucas Giolito: 2023
Yoan Moncada: 2023
Yasmani Grandal: 2023
Dallas Keuchel: 2023Madrigal, Vaughn, Dunning: at least 2026.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 2, 2020
In a follow-up post, Passan shared his optimistic view of the White Sox future with these players under team control for years to come.
“The point: If everything falls right, this has a chance to be a sustained run for the White Sox,” Passan wrote. “Of course, this is baseball, so not everything is going to, but the White Sox have put themselves into a very strong position not just for 2020 but well beyond.”
The point: If everything falls right, this has a chance to be a sustained run for the White Sox. Of course, this is baseball, so not everything is going to, but the White Sox have put themselves into a very strong position not just for 2020 but well beyond.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 2, 2020
We now know that things did not “fall right” for the White Sox. Of the players that Passan listed as impact players that the White Sox had team control over, only three of them (Luis Robert, Andrew Vaughn, and Yoan Moncada) are still with the organization.
To be fair to Passan, his assessment of the organization originally looked like a good one. The organization made the postseason in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. But since then, the White Sox have a combined record of 169-265 over the last three seasons.
Baseball fans have recently found Jeff Passan’s old take. And as you may expect, they wasted no time to roast him for it given the terrible season and cloudy future that is ahead for the Chicago White Sox.
It’s almost impressive how few guys from the list are still with the White Sox.
That’s before even talking about how many of them ended up not developing anywhere close to their ceiling. https://t.co/EHwVII10oj pic.twitter.com/SrLChgyivv
— John Bjerkness (@johnbj14) July 31, 2024
One of the wildest things is that there’s a chance none of these players will be on the 2025 team. https://t.co/d0o8kly6yJ
— Jeremy Spector (@JRSpecs) July 26, 2024
