By George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune

SZA didn’t quite make history with Friday morning’s announcement of the 2023 Grammy Awards nominees. But she came close on a ballot that saw women artists dominating the nominations for Best New Artist and Album, Record and Song of the Year in apparent record numbers.

A genre-blurring singer, songwriter and sly musical provocateur, SZA earned a field-leading nine nominations. They include nods for Album of the Year (for her critically acclaimed and chart-topping “SOS”) and Record and Song of the Year (both for “Kill Bill,” which takes its name from the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film and tells a similar tale of vengeance).

SZA’s nine nominations are almost a record, but not quite. Lauryn Hill and Beyoncé each had 10 nominations, in 1999 and 2010, respectively. Beyoncé’s six 2010 wins set a record for the most Grammys won in a single year by a female artist, which Adele tied with her six wins in 2012.

Beyoncé, who won four awards at this year’s Grammys, has a total of 32 wins, a record for any female artist. But she has yet to win for Record or Album of the Year, two of the four most prestigious categories.

Should SZA take the prize for Album of the Year, she will be only the fourth Black woman artist in Grammy history to do so, following in the footsteps of Hill, Natalie Cole and Whitney Houston.

That said, the odds are good that a woman artist will prevail when the winners of the 66th annual edition of the Grammys are announced Feb. 4 during a CBS telecast from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

With the exception of jazzy pop-and-beyond veteran Jon Batiste — last year’s surprise victor — the other seven Album of the Year nominees this time around are women. They include — in addition to SZA — Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monáe, Miley Cyrus, the all-woman trio boygenius and Olivia Rodrigo, 20, who won three Grammys last year.

The similarly high-profile Record of the Year nominations went to many of the same artists, all but one a woman. The contenders are “Worship” by Batiste, “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius, “Flowers” by Cyrus, “What Was I Made For?” (from the movie “Barbie”) by Billie Eilish, “On My Mama” by Monét, “vampire” by Rodrigo, “Anti-Hero” by Swift and “Kill Bill” by SZA.

Jon Batiste performs at “A New York Evening With Jon Batiste” at National Sawdust on October 17, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Likewise, Batiste is the only male artist to earn a 2024 Record of the Year nomination, for his understated piano ballad, “Butterfly.” The other nominees in this category — which honors songwriters — include Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Del Rey’s “A&W,” SZA’s “Kill Bill,” Cyrus’ “Flowers,” Rodrigo’s “vampire,” Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” and Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” (which, like Eilish’s song, is featured in the movie “Barbie).

Women artists also fared well in the Best New Artist category. The nominees include Ice Spice, Gracie Abrams, Coco Jones, vocal duo The War and Treaty (which teams Tanya Trotter with her husband, Michael) and neo-R&B singer Victoria Monét, who is nominated in six other categories. They will be vying against the three male Best New Artist nominees — Jelly Roll (whose first recording came out in 2011), Noah Kahan and Fred again..

Surprisingly absent from the list of Best New Artist contenders are such rising performers as Mexico’s Peso Pluma, Iceland’s Laufey and Louisiana native Lainey Wilson, who on Wednesday won in five categories at the 2023 Country Music Association Awards.

The winners will be determined by the 11,000-plus voting members of the Los Angeles-based Recording Academy, under whose auspices nominations in 91 categories are made and votes cast. More than 16,000 recordings were submitted for Grammy consideration. (A list of contenders in the major categories appears later in this article.)

In a significant change, the number of nominees in the Album of the Year category has been reduced to eight, down from 10 the past two years. Ditto the number of nominees in the other three highest-profile Grammy categories — Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist. Whether this reduction will change the dynamics or shift the odds when ballots are cast remains to be seen.

If they do, SZA — real name: Solána Imani Rowe — could, at least in theory, top past winners Beyoncé and Adele. But to do so, SZA will have to trounce an array of fellow nominees, at least a few of whom have much higher profiles.

Taylor-made?

Neo-R&B singer Monét, Phoebe Bridgers and Canadian record producer Serban Ghenea each have seven nominations. Close behind, with six apiece, are Swift, Batiste, Rodrigo, Cyrus, boygenius (whose lineup includes Bridgers), Jack Antonoff and country music singer-songwriter Brandy Clark.

Taylor Swift attends “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” Concert Movie World Premiere at AMC The Grove 14 on October 11, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Swift has won three previous Album of the Year Grammys, the most by any women artist. She had the biggest year of her already momentous career in 2023, when her record-setting North American tour drew 3 million fans and earned $780 million for its first 56 stadium concert stops. Interest in her is so high that USA Today this month hired a full-time “Taylor Swift beat reporter.” Her beatification may only be a matter of time.

So, unless there is an unexpected backlash against her from Grammy voters, Swift, 33, could well emerge as the biggest winner when the Grammy telecast is held in February. SZA, 34, may be hindered by the fact that — unlike Swift — she is not yet a household name with all Grammy voters. (SZA’s sole previous win was two years ago in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category as a featured artist on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More.”)

Antonoff, Swift’s frequent songwriting partner, is one of the most sought-after collaborators in pop music. He will be competing with himself, in a manner. He shares in two Album of the Year nominations (for his work on Swift’s “Midnights” and Del Rey’s “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.”), and two Song of the Year nods (for Swift’s “Anti-Hero” and Del Rey’s “A&W). Antonoff is also up for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical honors.

The 2024 nominees were announced during a 30-minute livestream on live.grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel by multiple artists and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. The scheduled artists included St. Vincent, Vince Gill, Samara Joy, Kim Petras, Muni Long, Arooj Aftab, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Jon Bon Jovi, who will be honored Feb. 2 as the Grammy and Recording Academy’s MusicCares Person of the Year all-star concert in Los Angeles.

“We are thrilled to kick off Grammy season with this year’s diverse and genre-bending slate of nominees, representing the best of their craft and an incredible year of music,” Mason said in a statement released Friday morning. “From breakthrough acts to legacy artists, we are amazed by all the musicians recognized for their outstanding contributions to music today …”

Intriguingly, none of the latest crop of Album of the Year nominees qualify as legacy artists, at least not yet. That designation typically applies to veteran performers, such as 2024 Best Folk Album nominee Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen, whose sole nomination this time around is so far down the list of 91 categories you may need a magnifying glass to find it.

The unprecedented dominance of women artists for Album of the Year, the single most prestigious Grammy category, can be viewed as a welcome development — and an overdue course correction.

The Recording Academy has been under increasing fire in recent years for its failure to recognize women artists. Between 2013 and 2018, only 9.5 percent of the nominees have been women and the number of women winners since then has not improved dramatically.

Mason has made a palpable impact since coming on board as the head of the Recording Academy in 2020, diversifying the nonprofit organization’s membership and spearheading a number of forward-looking initiatives that have earned him praise even from some staunch Grammy critics.

But the academy was jarred earlier this week by news reports that Mason’s predecessor twice removed — former academy CEO Neil Portnow — is being sued by an unidentified woman musician. She accuses him of drugging and raping her in 2018 in a New York City hotel room, a charge Portnow has vehemently denied. The academy said in a statement that the claims against Portnow are “without merit” and that the organization will “vigorously defend itself in this lawsuit.”

High-profile omissions

As is often the case when Grammy nominations are announced, some of the omissions may draw nearly as much attention as the biggest contenders.

Morgan Wallen did not get an Album of the Year nomination, despite being the top-selling country-music artist of this decade. His omission may reflect that Grammy voters — who also cast ballots to determine the nominees — haven’t forgotten the videotape of Wallen’s racially charged drunken rant in 2021, or his flaunting of pandemic masking rules (which got him booted from his musical guest spot on “Saturday Night Live”).

Morgan Wallen performs onstage during the 57th Annual CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena on November 08, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images)

Also conspicuously absent from the list of 2024 Grammy Album of the Year contenders is the band Foo Fighters, which this year released its first new album since the 2022 death of its drummer, Taylor Hawkins.

Another MIA from that category is Drake, who has boycotted the Grammys in recent years to protest Black artists being overlooked in the nominations. He did, however, submit this year his joint 2022 album with British rapper 21 Savage, “Her Loss,” for Album of the Year consideration.

It didn’t make the cut in that category. Neither did the latest albums by Ed Sheeran, Luke Combs, Bad Bunny, Zach Bryan or the soundtrack “Barbie, The Album,” which did garner four nominations in a lower-profile category.

Recordings released between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 15, 2023, was eligible for Grammy consideration. The first round of voting concluded Oct. 20. The final round is from Dec. 14, 2023, to Jan. 4, 2024. The winners will be announced Feb. 4 during the CBS telecast.

2024 Grammy nominees

Here are the contenders in 10 of the 91 Grammy categories. A full list of nominees is available at grammy.com.

Album of the Year

“World Music Radio” — Jon Batiste

“the record” — boygenius

“Endless Summer Vacation” — Miley Cyrus

“Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.” — Lana Del Rey

“The Age of Pleasure” — Janelle Monáe

“GUTS” — Olivia Rodrigo

“Midnights” — Taylor Swift

“SOS” — SZA

Song Of The Year

“A&W” — Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey & Sam Dew, songwriters (Recorded by Lana Del Rey)

“Anti-Hero” — Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Recorded by Taylor Swift)

“Butterfly” — Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson, songwriters (Recorded by Jon Batiste)

“Dance The Night” (from “Barbie The Album”) — Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Recorded by Dua Lipa)

“Flowers” — Miley Cyrus, Gregory Aldae Hein & Michael Pollack, songwriters (Recorded by Miley Cyrus)

“Kill Bill” — Rob Bisel, Carter Lang & Solána Rowe, songwriters (Recorded by SZA)

“vampire” — Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters (Recorded by Oliva Rodrigo)

“What Was I Made For?” (from the movie “Barbie”) — Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Recorded by Billie Eilish)

Best New Artist

Gracie Abrams

Fred again..

Ice Spice

Jelly Roll

Coco Jones

Noah Kahan

Victoria Monét

The War and Treaty

Best Rock Album

“But Here We Are” — Foo Fighters

“Starcatcher” — Greta Van Fleet

“72 Seasons” — Metallica

“This Is Why” — Paramore

“In Times New Roman…” — Queens of the Stone Age

Best Alternative Music Album

“The Car” — Arctic Monkeys

“the record” — boygenius

“Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.” — Lana Del Rey

“Cracker Island” — Gorillaz

“I Inside the Old Year Dying” — PJ Harvey

Best R&B Album

“Girls Night Out” — Babyface

“What I Didn’t Tell You” (Deluxe) — Coco Jones

“Special Occasion” — Emily King

“JAGUAR II” — Victoria Monét

“CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE” EP — Summer Walker

Best Pop Vocal Album

“chemistry” — Kelly Clarkson

“Endless Summer Vacation” — Miley Cyrus

“GUTS” — Olivia Rodrigo

“- (Subtract)” — Ed Sheeran

“Midnights” — Taylor Swift

Best Pop Dance Recording

“Baby Don’t Hurt Me” — David Guetta, Anne-Marie & Coi Leray

“Miracle” — Calvin Harris Featuring Ellie Goulding

“Padam Padam” — Kylie Minogue

“One in a Million” — Bebe Rexha & David Guetta

“Rush” — Troye Sivan

Best Dance/Electronic Music Album

“Playing Robots Into Heaven” — James Blake

“For That Beautiful Feeling” — The Chemical Brothers

“Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)” — Fred again..

“Kx5” — Kx5

“Quest For Fire” — Skrillex

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical

Jack Antonoff

Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II

Hit-Boy

Metro Boomin

Daniel Nigro

Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical

Edgar Barrera

Jessie Jo Dillon

Shane McAnally

Theron Thomas

Justin Tranter

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first-prize winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”

Kyle Van Noy has the same question you do.

How the heck was he available for the Ravens to sign in late September?

Two months ago, before he became an unlikely sack machine for the Ravens, Van Noy was stuck waiting for a team to come calling.

“I mean, what are we doing?” Van Noy recalls thinking as he sat at home with the NFL season beginning without him. “Are people watching the film and whatnot? Because I’ve produced and, you know, you get a little annoyed cause you’re, like, watching and you’re saying I can’t play?”

Van Noy is on the wrong side of 30 and no longer in the prime he was in when he played for Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots teams in 2016 and 2018. But he ended last season with the Los Angeles Chargers on a high note and said it was “frustrating” when NFL teams didn’t seem interested in him this offseason.

“I’ve made plays everywhere I’ve gone, doesn’t matter what team it’s been,” Van Noy said, noting an exception for his first stop in the NFL with the Detroit Lions.

After going unsigned throughout the offseason, training camp, preseason and the first few weeks of the regular season, the Ravens needed help at outside linebacker and signed Van Noy to their practice squad. He said the Las Vegas Raiders were also in contact with him but that he chose the Ravens because he believed it would be a better fit.

Six weeks later, it’s hard to imagine the NFL’s top defense without him.

“He’s the player that we anticipated him being,” defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald said. “The things that he’s done over the course of his career, he’s doing here. He’s playing obviously at a high level, but he’s the type of player that I expected him to be. So, credit to him for being ready to go. I don’t mean that to take anything away, but that’s how highly I thought of him.”

In six games with the Ravens, the 32-year-old outside linebacker has five sacks, all in the past four contests, while playing about half the defense’s snaps. He ranks second in sacks behind Justin Madubuike (7 1/2) for a Baltimore defense that leads the NFL in the category at just under four per game.

Van Noy isn’t surprised by how quickly he caught on in Baltimore.

“I pride myself on having a high IQ,” he said. “You can ask anybody, and I think they’d tell you I’m a smart football player. I take pride in that. I take pride in being a professional. I tried to learn the defense in a week, so I feel like I got a good grasp on it. I know what everyone’s doing and where I fit in.”

His importance was never more obvious than in Sunday’s 37-3 rout of the Seattle Seahawks.

There might not have been a traditional turning point in the blowout victory, but if there was one, it was Van Noy’s back-to-back sacks — the second forcing a fumble — in the second quarter.

Ravens wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. had just fumbled near midfield to give the Seahawks a chance to score and gain momentum heading into halftime. But Van Noy ensured that wouldn’t be the case, rushing past Seattle left tackle Charles Cross and slapping the ball out of quarterback Geno Smith’s hand before he could attempt a pass.

The play stood out to coach John Harbaugh so much that he mentioned it during his Monday news conference after answering a question about backup tight end Isaiah Likely.

“One thing I also want to mention is Kyle Van Noy,” Harbaugh said. “Didn’t get a chance to mention him [Sunday]. How about the swing of events that he led at the end of the half, right? Probably flipped the game or broke the game in a way. It kept them from getting back within one score, just crazy good pass rush right there.

“So, side note: Kyle was awesome.”

In his first game with the Ravens, Van Noy totaled four quarterback pressures and got his hands on two passes while playing 23 snaps against the Cleveland Browns in Week 4 — just five days after his first practice. He got home two weeks later with a sack in Baltimore’s win over the Tennessee Titans, and two more (with five tackles) versus the Lions. Going back to last season with the Chargers, Van Noy has 10 sacks in his past 11 regular-season games.

He is far from the first veteran pass rusher to make an impact in Baltimore. From Justin Houston, Jason Pierre-Paul and Calais Campbell in recent years to Pernell McPhee’s second stint with the team a few seasons ago to Chris Canty a decade ago, the Ravens have prided themselves on having veterans to bolster their defense. This year, Van Noy and Jadeveon Clowney, who signed in August, make up that group with David Ojabo on injured reserve, Tyus Bowser on the non-football injury list and Odafe Oweh missing four games because of injury.

Oweh, a third-year outside linebacker and 2021 first-round pick, said the “chemistry” among the team’s pass rushers is among the reasons the Ravens lead the NFL in sacks.

“I learn different things from different vets,” Oweh said Wednesday. “[Clowney] is more like a [Pierre-Paul] mold. He’s going to play [all] out and just go hard. [Van Noy] is the [strong-side linebacker] prototype. He just knows everything, coverages, [he’s] savvy, just little things like that that you can really add to your game to get more just to get more plays.”

Whether Van Noy maintains his torrid sack pace, he’s proved there’s more in his tank. And the fact that other teams questioned that has perhaps given him the motivation to keep making the “game-changing plays” he knew he was still capable of months ago.

“Who needs training camp?” Van Noy quipped Sunday after another big performance in a Ravens win.

Clearly not Van Noy.

Baltimore Sun reporter Brian Wacker contributed to this article.

Week 10

Browns at Ravens

Sunday, 1 p.m.

TV: Fox

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Line: Ravens by 6 1/2

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The United Arab Emirates quietly established sweeping restrictions on the hundreds of journalists expected to visit the country for international climate talks later this month.

Now, the UAE says it was a mistake.

The strict rules against publishing news that could antagonize the rulers of the seven monarchies that make up the country were removed from the United Nations’ website for the climate talks after POLITICO’s E&E News asked the UAE for comment this week.

But the incident has inadvertently highlighted the sharp divisions between how the UAE and its Western allies treat journalists and protesters. It comes as E&E News and other outlets have published stories about the conflicts between the Emiratis’ climate commitments and oil ambitions that could have run afoul of the UAE rules.

The constraints on news reporters were spelled out in a “Media Content Standards” issued by the UAE Media Regulatory Office and posted to the website of the U.N. climate agency Oct. 23. The UAE is leading this year’s climate talks, which begin in Dubai on Nov. 30.

The document called for journalists and media outlets to “refrain from publishing anything that could offend directly or indirectly the ruling regime of the State” or that “could be offensive to the national unity and social cohesion.”

They should also avoid running stories that are “considered as an offense with or without intention to other countries,” that “could include the disclosure of any secret that might damage the reputation” or wealth of any person and “that is officially requested to be kept confidential,” the standards document said.

On Monday, the U.N. climate agency included a link to the standards on an information page it created for journalists who are preparing to cover the climate talks, known as COP 28, an annual conference where geopolitical tensions run high and most reporting is focused on backroom dealmaking.

When E&E News asked the UAE organizers of COP 28 how journalists could accurately cover the event without fear of reprisals, the link and document were removed from the U.N. site. (A version of the deleted file was retained by search engine Google.)

“The document in question is an old guide. Its content is out of date and not relevant for media attending COP28,” a UAE spokesperson for the talks responded in an email Wednesday. “It has been removed from the [U.N. climate agency] website where it was posted erroneously.”

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be named in the story. “We are looking forward to hosting the most inclusive COP ever.”

Sultan al-Jaber, the oil executive chosen by the UAE to lead COP 28, served from 2016 to 2020 as chair of the UAE National Media Council, which predated the Media Regulatory Office.

While the document has been removed from the U.N. site, it’s unclear if the restrictions apply to other journalists who work in the Emirates. The UAE embassy in the United States didn’t respond to questions.

The prospect of unfair treatment for the press and visitors during the climate conference was a point of concern among some democratic nations even before the media standards were posted.

“The EU has repeatedly raised the issue of safeguarding media freedom and the freedom to protest among Heads of Delegation, and we were provided with reassurances that these freedoms would be respected,” a European Commission spokesperson said in an email Tuesday, before the standards were withdrawn.

The spokesperson was granted anonymity to discuss private conservations between E.U. and UAE officials.

The U.S. State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment on the UAE’s media standards.

But in a 2022 review of the country’s human rights practices, the department found that the Emirates had imposed “serious restrictions on free expression and media, including censorship and enforcement of or threat to enforce criminal libel laws.”

“Government officials allegedly issued warnings to journalists who published or broadcast material deemed politically or culturally sensitive,” the State Department said. “Editors and journalists commonly practiced self-censorship due to fear of government retribution, particularly since most journalists were foreign nationals and risked deportation.”

The report also noted that nongovernmental organizations and “media outlets reported that the government targeted activists, journalists, politicians, and dissidents in systematic hacking campaigns.”

Two journalists are currently detained in the country, according to the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. In recent years, social media users have also been jailed for criticizing the UAE government or satirizing Emirati culture.

Reporter Zia Weise contributed.

The Chicago White Sox have been busy since the World Series wrapped up.

Thursday, they introduced Paul Janish as the organization’s director of player development.

The next day, the Sox declined the club option on closer Liam Hendriks for 2024 while starter Mike Clevinger declined a mutual option. The changes continued Saturday when the Sox declined shortstop Tim Anderson’s club option for 2024.

All that activity came ahead of the MLB general managers meetings, which formally begin Tuesday at a resort in Paradise Valley, Ariz.

It will be Chris Getz’s first since being promoted to Sox GM on Aug. 31.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with other general managers around the league, just understanding their needs and conveying what we’re set out to do as well and see if we match up,” Getz said during a video conference Thursday. “Clearly, we’ve got some work to do based on the production we’ve had on the field the last two years.”

The Sox followed up an 81-81 season in 2022 with 101 losses in 2023.

The offseason work includes determining the best fits at shortstop, second base, right field and catcher, along with openings in the starting rotation and bullpen.

“I certainly have a vision for our club for next year and years after,” Getz said. “Some of it is going to be at the mercy of perhaps some other clubs and what their willingness is to do.

“We’ve got some holes to fill. We may have to get fairly creative on how we tackle some of those holes, but I look forward to really diving in deeper and getting in front of some of these other general managers and seeing what we can accomplish.”

The Sox know the defense must improve. They were tied for 10th in the American League with 95 errors and tied for 11th in the league with a .983 fielding percentage.

“Generally speaking, we certainly on the defensive side need to improve at many spots,” Getz said. “Fundamentally there were some breakdowns that led to some really ugly games.

“We have some talent on the roster but it’s not a team that has come together and produced on a consistent basis and that’s why we’re in the position that we’re in. So they’re certainly a short-term, midterm and long-term goal. It’s going to take a little bit of time to certainly present itself, but there is a plan in place. I look forward to executing it.”

The Sox will have a new look at shortstop after penciling Anderson in as the Opening Day starter in six of the last seven seasons (he missed the first two games of 2022 serving a suspension). Second base and right field continue to be spots where the Sox look for a consistent answer.

Korey Lee did a bulk of the catching down the stretch after arriving via a trade from the Houston Astros. He displayed a strong arm, but hit .077 (5-for-65) in 24 games.

Three of the team’s five starters from the beginning of 2023 (Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn and Clevinger) are no longer around. Ditto with three of the top five relievers (Kendall Graveman, Reynaldo López and Keynan Middleton) based on appearances for the Sox.

“There is talent on this club,” Getz said. “Perhaps, you use some of that talent to plug into other holes. But deeper than that, there were players postgame in Texas (after Game 5 of the World Series) who pointed to (Rangers GM) Chris Young’s sentiment last offseason with some of the foundational values that he really prioritized. I felt when those players highlighted it, it was very powerful and when I was named to this position, establishing the values for the White Sox in who we are going to be is very important to me.

“That’s something that I’ve set out to do. We are in meetings right now with department heads and really establishing how we are going to operate. That will bleed into our players and continue to operate that way through the offseason as we execute in a way to improve our roster.”

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