Jerry Reinsdorf is considering giving White Sox fans the greatest gift of all: selling the team

2024 has been about as bad a year as possible for fans of the Chicago White Sox. Their team lost a record 121 games this season, their best hitter slumped through a career-worst year at the plate and their best pitcher was actively antagonized by the front office. If there was a way to do something wrong as a baseball organization, rest assured that the 2024 White Sox found a way.

The future outlook doesn't look all that much better, with Luis Robert Jr. and Garrett Crochet just two of the veterans who could be shipped elsewhere this winter and not a ton of immediate help coming from the farm system or in free agency. And yet, for as bleak as things have gotten this year, it may have all been worth it: Because the worst season in modern baseball history looks like it may have convinced owner Jerry Reinsdorf that he no longer wants to be in the business of owning the White Sox.

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Jerry Reinsdorf 'open' to selling the Chicago White Sox

According to a report from The Athletic, Reinsdorf is "open" to selling the team he's owned since 1981. Nothing is official just yet, but The Athletic adds that Reinsdorf is in "active discussions" with a group led by former big-leaguer Dave Stewart, suggesting that a move could be made soon.

Which would be the answer to quite a few prayers on the South Side of Chicago, as well as a significant reversal on Reinsdorf's part. While fans, media members and just about every neutral third party insisted he sell as payroll dwindled and attendance at Guaranteed Rate Field plummeted, Reinsdorf never publicly indicated he had any interest in even considering a sale, even going so far as to say that he'd advised his heirs upon his death to sell the White Sox and keep his other team, the NBA's Chicago Bulls.

It's unclear what exactly changed Reinsdorf's mind at age 88. Perhaps he just wanted to focus on the Bulls. Perhaps he just likes money (although with a net worth like his, who knows what he'd do with an extra billion dollars or two). Perhaps he simply got tired of being yelled at for being the public face of the cheapest and most dysfunctional organization in baseball. Whatever the case, White Sox fans will take it: Reinsdorf can claim the team's only World Series since 1917, which Chicago won back in 2005, but overall his track record as owner is grim, full of penny-pinching and cronyism. Who knows whether what comes next will be any better, but at least it'll allow White Sox fans to hope for at least a minute or two.