MLB Rumors: Jerry Reinsdorf ready to sell White Sox after historic losing season | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

Jerry Reinsdorf’s tenure as owner of the Chicago White Sox may be coming to an end in the future.

Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic reported Wednesday that the 88-year-old is “open to selling” the American League Central team after an abysmal 41-121 season. He is also “in active discussions” about a possible sale.

Ghiroli noted that these discussions took place with a group led by former Major League Baseball player Dave Stewart.

Reinsdorf could have made a profit on a sale since he led the group that bought the team in 1981 for about $20 million. Forbes ranked the White Sox as the 15th most valuable MLB franchise in March with an estimated value of $2.05 billion.

“The news represents a significant change in attitude for Reinsdorf,” Ghiroli wrote. “Reinsdorf, the oldest majority owner in baseball, has previously shown no public interest in selling the team – at least not while he was majority owner. Reinsdorf has said several times that after his death he advised his heirs to sell the White Sox and keep the Chicago Bulls, where his son Michael is COO and team president.”

But this potential change in attitude comes after Chicago made the kind of history last season that teams don’t want to create.

It broke the modern MLB record for most losses in a season, which previously belonged to the 1962 New York Mets. The New York team had a record of 40-120-1, but the 2024 White Sox ended up losing one more game.

After his team broke the record, Reinsdorf issued a lengthy statement, calling it “an embarrassing season” while telling fans that they “deserved better.” He also said that after a “completely unacceptable” result, the team “will do everything we can to fix this for 2025 and the future.”

This season marked the third straight year the White Sox failed to make the playoffs, and the immediate future isn’t particularly bright.

Finally, general manager Chris Getz said last month: “We’re not going to do much work in free agency. We have guys on the field right now that need to improve their game. A lot of these guys are young players and need to make adjustments to be more productive.

B/R’s MLB team ranked Chicago’s farm system a solid but unspectacular 13th in the league just last month, so there may not be a group of future players that will save the franchise in the short term.

Perhaps Stewart could help turn things around after a baseball career that included three World Series titles, a World Series MVP and two American League Championship Series MVPs as an excellent pitcher who became one of the faces of the Oakland Athletics.

Ghiroli stated that he had previously led a group that had attempted to purchase Oakland’s interest in the Oakland Coliseum and was interested in establishing an expansion MLB team in Nashville.

With that in mind, Ghiroli wrote, “It is unknown what Stewart’s potential commitment would mean for the White Sox’s long-term stay in Chicago.”