NASHVILLE, Tenn. — White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf met with Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell while the winter meetings were taking place this week, the club confirmed Wednesday. But the Sox will have nothing more to say on details of the get-together, spokesman Scott Reifert said.
The Sox’ lease at Guaranteed Rate Field expires in six years, and this summer Reinsdorf shot down a report that Nashville was being explored as a potential landing spot for his team, which has been based in Chicago since 1901.
“I’ve been reading about I’ve been threatening to move to Nashville,” Reinsdorf said in August. “That article didn’t come from me. But if we have six years left, we’ve got to decide what the future is going to be. We’ll get to it, but I never threatened to move out. We haven’t even begun to have discussions with the Sports Authority, which we’ll have to do soon.”
The Sox lease Guaranteed Rate Field from the Illinois Sports Facility Authority.
Most people in the baseball industry don’t see major-league baseball approving a move by the Sox to Nashville, which wants an expansion team. But any reported action by Reinsdorf suggesting an intent to move or an exploration of moving the Sox will attract attention.
O’Connell has stood against private funding for a hypothetical Major League Baseball stadium. In his recent race for mayor, he took a hard stance against a $2.1 billion stadium deal for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
“Mayor O’Connell did not share anything with [Reinsdorf] that he hasn’t previously said publicly,” a spokesman for O’Connell told Axios.
With their lease expiring after 2029, the Sox are known to be in the exploring stage for a new ballpark, possibly near Soldier Field or the United Center in the city or Arlington Heights in the northwest suburbs. The Bears purchased land in Arlington Heights with the intention of building a stadium there.
Sox take lefty Drohan in Rule 5 Draft
The Sox selected left-hander Shane Drohan from the Red Sox in the Rule 5 Draft.
In the last item of business at the winter meetings, the draft allowed teams to pluck players not protected on 40-man rosters. Drohan, 24, went 10-7 with a 5.06 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 123 innings between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester in Boston’s farm system in 2023.
“We had some early spring-training looks on him this year, and we liked what we saw, and during the season, as well,” general manager Chris Getz said. “In further evaluation analytically, there were some indications of some upside here. So it’s an opportunity to take a shot on an arm that we feel has the potential to have some survival skills at the major-league level, to begin with and long term, with a little bit of upside that could potentially be a rotation piece or a reliever of some sort.”
A Red Sox fifth-round draft pick out of Florida State in 2021, Drohan has a 24-19 record and a 4.32 ERA over three minor-league seasons. He won his first five starts with an ERA of 0.62 in 2023 at Double-A. At Triple-A, his ERA was 6.47.
“Obviously, these things are bets, but there’s enough support and indicators to think that there’s potential here,” Getz said.
Rule 5 selections must stick on the 26-man roster for the full season or get offered back to their former team.
