“I can’t understate how big of a deal this is for us,” White Sox GM Chris Getz told MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger after landing the top pick in next year’s amateur draft at the Winter Meetings.

“I can’t understate how big of a deal this is,” he also told the White Sox’s RSN.

And just in case you didn’t get the drift …

“It’s a significant event for us,” Getz said to reporters after the lottery. “It can’t be understated how important it is.”

Getz definitely had his talking points down, if not slightly mixed up. Of course, Getz, a University of Michigan grad, meant “overstate” not “understate,” but give him a break. He was excited, and he works for the White Sox, an understated kind of organization.

“I can’t understate how big of a deal this is for us.”

Chris Getz joined The Chicago Lead after the White Sox landed the 1st overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft: pic.twitter.com/VmukVSkxvf

— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) December 10, 2025

The Sox might’ve lost 100-plus games for the third straight season, but they didn’t lose 121 last year, so things are on the upswing. There’s a youth movement afoot on the South Side and having a No. 1 pick is nothing to understate.

Certainly, you can’t overstate how much you want No. 1 most years.

If Getz wanted a warning about both the personal and organizational stakes of the draft, all he had to do was look at one of the TV co-hosts of Tuesday’s lottery. Because there was his predecessor, and former boss, Rick Hahn, opining for dollars in his contributor role on MLB Network. Hahn was in charge of the previous rebuild, and its dramatic failure has Getz and Hahn where they are today.

Getz, who ran the farm system under Hahn, is looking to run a more sustainable rebuild and perhaps eventually win a playoff series. If he doesn’t get a little luck, well, Hahn is looking for a new job in baseball. That’ll be Getz’s future too, particularly with a new owner looking to take control in the coming years.

There are a lot of steps to climb to get from the basement to the penthouse, and the draft is one you can’t trip on. Over their previous 12 drafts, the Sox have been in the top 10 seven times, and four of those were in the top five.

What have those drafts gotten them?

Well, of those picks, the Sox have (so far) hit on two (Carlos Rodón, third, in 2014, and Garrett Crochet, 11th in 2020), but even those successes were uneven.

Rodón was injured or unreliable for years, finally blossoming after the team non-tendered him and re-signed him in 2021, in which he starred for the one, true playoff team of the rebuild. He left the next season in free agency, and he’s coming off an All-Star campaign with the Yankees.

Crochet was rushed to the majors in 2020, had Tommy John surgery the next season and it took until 2024 for him to shine. Unfortunately for the Sox, that was the year they lost 121 games. Getz traded him last year to Boston for a package of prospects. Crochet finished second in the Cy Young voting.

There’s still hope for recent selections.

The Sox’s 2021 pick Colson Montgomery (No. 22) was a surprise breakout player after getting promoted last summer. Left-handed pitchers Noah Schultz (No. 26, 2022) and Hagen Smith (No. 5, 2024) are expected to be major contributors. But the rest of the list is dotted with misfires, projects, bad-luck cases and outright failures.

Getz, of course, was a part of the drafts over the years, as he worked as the team’s director of player development and later, the assistant GM.

The draft rules were changed in the 2022 CBA, and starting in 2023, the draft became a lottery system with stringent rules aimed at combating long rebuilds and perennial cellar-dwellers. For instance, coming off the worst season in baseball history, the Sox could only draft as high as 10th last year because they had picked fifth the year before. It was another indignity for the organization, but what could they do?

The Sox were 19 wins better in 2025 and had the best odds for the No. 1 pick because 119-loss Colorado had to deal with the same restrictions. What do you know, they finally got lucky. Did “Da Pope” help? I’m no expert on the papacy, but sure, why not?

The last time the Sox drafted No. 1 was 1977 when they took Harold Baines. The franchise icon (and slightly controversial Hall of Famer) was the team’s representative for the draft, and Baines, who is beloved among White Sox employees, apparently brought them some much-needed good fortune.

Now, Getz has to do something with that luck. The smart money for the top pick is on UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, a Phoenix-area native and son of former minor leaguer and current scout Dan Cholowsky. And if nominative determinism is a factor in the development process, he’ll be a perfect fit for the Sox. What a South Side name! Roch Cholowsky sounds like your uncle’s godfather’s best friend, who knew the Pope’s brother from grammar school in Dolton. Roch Cholowsky sounds like the kind of guy who got the late Bobby Jenks’ autograph at Jimbo’s in 2005.

Coming soon to the Chicago White Sox… #RochHard pic.twitter.com/OAEzhBQEY1

— Dylan Barnas (@NotCease) December 9, 2025

More importantly, maybe he’s the top-five selection who actually hits.

The Sox took Nick Madrigal fourth in 2018 and Andrew Vaughn third in 2019. Madrigal, a diminutive singles hitter, was traded to the Cubs for closer Craig Kimbrel in 2021, and Vaughn, who never realized his potential as a slugger, was traded to the Brewers for pretty much nothing last season. Vaughn, of course, immediately turned into a major contributor for Milwaukee and helped send the Cubs packing in the NLDS.

As odd as the Madrigal pick looks now, the 2018 draft was pretty barren at the top. But the next year, Vaughn was drafted behind Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr. In 2018, the Sox were tanking, but not as badly as the Orioles (115 losses) and Royals (104). Still, six future All-Stars were drafted after Vaughn in the first round.

There were many things that went wrong for Hahn and the Sox, some out of the team’s control, some not. One was strictly Jerry Reinsdorf’s fault.

But while the Sox farm system was lauded as the best in baseball during the rebuild — thanks to some canny trades and international signings — missing on those two draft picks turned out to be instrumental to the early collapse of a budding playoff contender.

Getz hit the lottery Tuesday. Now he just can’t go bust with the payoff.

The sky didn’t fall after the Bears’ loss in Green Bay on Sunday. No one is getting fired or benched. The result, a 28-21 defeat, wasn’t foretold, but it wasn’t a total surprise either. The Packers, despite what you may have heard, don’t suck.

The stakes of the Bears’ season changed thanks to the team’s surprisingly positive performance. It went from “Caleb Williams needs to play well and the team should win eight or nine games” to “This team should make the playoffs.”

After Sunday’s loss, Ben Johnson was asked if this feels like a playoff team.

“We’ll be a playoff team once we’ve earned enough wins to become a playoff team,” he said. “So right now we’re a nine-win team, and I don’t think nine wins is gonna get you in this year. So we’ve got to do what we can to get enough wins to find a way to get into the tournament.”

Johnson has actually been saying the Bears need to win 11 games to make the “tournament,” but in reality, they could win 11 and find themselves on the outside looking in.

Right now, The Athletic’s playoff simulator gives the Bears, currently in the seventh and final spot, a 70 percent chance to make the NFC field.

But with just four games left, there’s almost no margin for error. Sorry, Ben, you really need to win 12 games to be sure.

Coach Johnson is live at the podium https://t.co/vNTJASR9YQ

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 10, 2025

Let’s say the Bears beat Cleveland this week and defeat either Green Bay or San Francisco the next two weeks to get to 11 victories, the finale against Detroit could still be a must-win game, depending on how the Lions, Niners and Packers do.

Play around with our simulator or ESPN’s playoff machine and you’ll see the permutations. Beating Green Bay and/or San Francisco is a tall task in itself. But I’ll say the Bears find a way to win one of them. So Bears-Lions with everything on the line, to me, is the most likely outcome and certainly the most dramatic. Johnson facing his old team with the playoffs on the line? It’s an NFL dream and for nervous Bears fans, a stomach-churning nightmare.

The last time Chicago was in a similar situation was the end of the 2013 season when it needed to beat Green Bay to win the NFC North. You might remember how that one ended. This is a better team, though.

The Bears could lose to Detroit in the finale and still make it in, but the only way for them to control their own destiny is to win three out of their last four.

So Chicago fans, buckle up and get ready to ride an emotional roller coaster over the last month and steel yourself for a must-win game against the Lions at Soldier Field to start 2026.