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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In a shocking twist, the Chicago Cubs are hiring Craig Counsell as their manager.

The Cubs announced Monday they are bringing in the former Milwaukee Brewers manager, whose contract expired at the end of this past season, and moving on from David Ross, who was under contract through next season with a club option for 2025.

Counsell will get a five-year contract worth more than $40 million that would make him the major leagues’ highest-paid manager, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported. Counsell’s agency, Meister Sports, confirmed that report.

“Today we made the difficult decision to dismiss David Ross as our major-league manager,” Cubs President Jed Hoyer said in a statement. “On behalf of the Cubs organization, we express our deep gratitude for David’s contributions to our club, both on and off the field.

“First as a player and then as a manager, David continually showcased his ability to lead. David’s legacy will be felt in Chicago for generations and his impact to our organization will stack up with the legends that came before him.”

It’s an abrupt ending to Ross’ tenure in Chicago that saw the Cubs go 262-284 (a .480 winning percentage) under his direction the last four years. They were poised to reach the postseason this year for the first time since 2020, Ross’ debut season as manager, before they collapsed during the final three weeks to squander their wild-card position.

Despite the painful ending, Ross received public support from Chairman Tom Ricketts and Hoyer when both were asked whether the former catcher on the 2016 World Series champions would return for the final year of his deal.

“Rossy had a great season and the players play hard for him,” Ricketts said on the final day of the season in Milwaukee. “He’s our guy, so I like him a lot. … He’s a great manager. He creates a great clubhouse culture. The players love playing for him.”

Hoyer echoed Ricketts’ sentiment while acknowledging the expectations going forward.

“He’s not a new manager anymore,” Hoyer said. “He’s going into his fifth season. I think he’s really matured in the job and developed. Like all of us, I think he wants to get better every year. … One of his greatest skills is he’s self-critical. He wants to continue to get better. And I know he’s going to spend the winter thinking about how he could have done things differently.

“Do we have disagreements and do we have heated conversations? Of course we do, but you will with any manager. They have to make so many different decisions. You have so many things to weigh, so obviously we work hard all the time to give the right information and if there are things that we disagree with or things that we can do better, he’s very open-minded to that. He’s constantly trying to improve.

“But ultimately we’re very pleased with the job he did this year and I think that he should be proud of the fact that that group kept fighting for him.”

Ricketts and Hoyer commended the job Ross did in leading the Cubs turnaround this past season, going from 10 games under .500 in June to 12 games over .500 in early September, a first in franchise history.

Ross’ strengths centered on managing the player and clubhouse element of the job and he was well-liked by the team, with Hoyer noting during his end-of-season news conference in October that “creating that type of culture is incredibly difficult and he does a fantastic job of that.”

“Fifty to sixty people are down here every single day. All those people at some point in that day want or need his time, his mood, his direction,” Hoyer said. “Everything about the manager, it just defines what happens in the clubhouse.

“And this game is so up and down all the time, to be able to bring a positive, productive energy every single day to stay on message all the time, to be encouraging the players and to keep their respect all the time — there’s not a lot of groups of humans that are more cynical than a group of major-league players, and if they sense any weakness, that any part of you is not genuine at all, you can lose that group of players really quickly.

“No one’s more self-deprecating about their own (playing) career than Rossy, a guy that got carried off the field after his last game and somehow he’s incredibly self-deprecating and talks about knowing how hard the game is, and that’s something that really resonates with the players.”

The Brewers went 707-625 (.531) in Counsell’s nine seasons as their manager and made the playoffs five of the last six years, including three National League Central titles.

His departure for a division rival will add spice to Brewers-Cubs series. The Cubs’ first series in Milwaukee next year is scheduled for May 27-30.

Brewers owner Mark Attanasio told Milwaukee reporters on a Zoom call that when Counsell informed him Monday morning he would be joining the Cubs, he replied, “Are you messing with me?”

“We’re all here today because we lost Craig,” Attanasio said. “But I’ve reflected on this. Craig has lost us and he’s lost our community. It’s a really special place to be.”

Minor moves were overshadowed Monday amid Counsell’s stunning hiring. The Cubs had two players claimed off waivers — right-hander Jeremiah Estrada by the San Diego Padres and first baseman Jared Young by the St. Louis Cardinals — and they traded left-hander Brendon Little to the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations.

Right-hander Nick Burdi cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Iowa, and infielder Luis Vázquez was added to the 40-man roster to prevent him from becoming a minor-league free agent.

The Cubs reportedly extended a qualifying offer to outfielder Cody Bellinger, who is expected to decline it. If Bellinger signs elsewhere this offseason, the Cubs would receive a compensatory draft pick in 2024.

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The Chicago Bulls are mired in their slowest start of the last three years, dropping to 2-5 in the first two weeks of the season.

Early losses dropped the Bulls to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, where they only sit ahead of the 1-4 Washington Wizards. Only three other teams in the league have five or more losses — the Memphis Grizzlies, Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz, who the Bulls play Monday night.

A quick glance at league statistics makes it clear why the Bulls have struggled in the early weeks of the season. Here are five numbers defining the team’s first two weeks:

Assists per game: 21

The Bulls offense has been stagnant to start the season, averaging the second-lowest volume of assists in the league. Their assist-to-field goal ratio is the third-lowest in the league (15.7) as the offense continues to sink into isolation ball, which has been a comfort blanket for at-will scorers like Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.

This was the main area of focus for coach Billy Donovan and the offense this season. The Bulls wanted to move the ball, distribute more fervently through the paint and get secondary players like Coby White and Patrick Williams involved in almost every play. But that hasn’t been the reality for the Bulls in the opening weeks of the season.

The saving grace for the Bulls’ ball distribution is their ability to protect the rock. The offense averages 12.1 turnovers per game, the lowest in the league. As a result, their assist-to-turnover ratio (1.73) sits precisely in the middle of the league.

Defensive rating: 115.0

The Bulls defense isn’t on the absolute bottom rung of the league. But with a 115.0 defensive rating (23rd in the league), the Bulls aren’t challenging opposing teams with the same overwhelming force they managed to create last season.

The Bulls have struggled on the defensive boards, allowing opponents to average 14.1 points off second-chance opportunities (18th). They have succeeded in keeping opponents out of the paint, allowing the fifth-lowest volume of paint points per game (44.3). But they also cede the fourth-highest amount of 3-pointers (15.1) which offsets this control of the paint.

Growing into defense isn’t a new phenomenon for the Bulls. This time last season, the defense was 15th in the league with a 111.1 rating. That number stayed the same — the Bulls finished the 2022-23 season with a 111.5 defensive rating — but the rest of the league shifted around it. The Bulls finished fifth overall in defensive rating as they built consistency in Donovan’s system.

This year, the Bulls are folding two high-caliber defenders — Torrey Craig and Jevon Carter — into their defensive system. Unsurprisingly, this has led to growing pains. But the next two months will prove if the Bulls can gel into a defense-first team again.

3-pointers: 9.4

The Bulls are currently making the second-lowest volume of 3-pointers in the league, averaging 9.4 per game. That’s not exactly surprising — this team has finished dead last in 3-point attempts for two seasons in a row. But that was supposed to change this season as part of the team’s effort to create a more balanced offense.

The most concerning trend for the Bulls is their plummeting accuracy. They actually aren’t taking the lowest volume in the league for once — averaging 30.4 attempts (26th) — but the Bulls are shooting only 31% from behind the arc. This is a 5.1 percentage point drop from last season.

The Bulls have been confident that their shooting accuracy — which is down from every point on the court — will eventually even out. Until it does, however, this offense will struggle to keep pace.

Free-throw attempts: 20.1

The Bulls are 21st in free-throw attempts, averaging 20.1 per game. This isn’t a world-ending statistic for the Bulls. But it does reflect the offense’s relative inability to create contact despite finishing well, shooting 33.9% (13th overall) at the rim.

The Bulls offense averages 20.2 paint touches. The majority of those touches in the paint run through Nikola Vučević, who scores 8.2 of the team’s 14.2 paint points per game. But getting into the paint isn’t resulting in drawn fouls. Only three players on the Bulls roster average more than two trips to the line per game — DeMar DeRozan (6.6), Zach LaVine (5.4) and Coby White (2.4).

Pace: 97.4

After a preseason fixated on playing up-tempo basketball, this is perhaps the most disappointing statistic for the Bulls. The offense is second-to-last in pace, averaging only 97.4 offensive possessions per game. This goes directly against the Bulls’ goals for this season, in which they aimed to move the ball quickly and decisively.

For a third consecutive year, the Bulls just don’t look comfortable in their half-court offense. Strong defense and athleticism allow players to score well in the open court, averaging 18.1% of their total scoring off turnovers (fifth in the league). But once the Bulls sink into the half court, their creativity is stymied.

If the Bulls can’t break out of isolation ball early in this season, they will re-create the same patterns of the past two years — sluggish scoring with high numbers from their central stars and paltry contributions from the rest of the roster.

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Target Center is where undefeated records go to die.

Five days after handing Denver its first loss, the Timberwolves did the same to Boston, downing the Celtics 114-109 in an overtime thriller that very much had a playoff feel.

The game was billed as a matchup featuring the league’s top offense — Boston — against Minnesota’s top-ranked defense. It’s difficult to chalk that mini-duel up as anything other than a win for the Wolves’ defense. The Celtics struggled to generate anything that could be classified as a good look in the half-court set.

Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum traded blows in the second half, with the two top-tier offensive wings each demonstrating their abilities to hit tough shots on command. Tatum finished with 32 points, while Edwards had 38 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. But, importantly for Edwards, even on a night where he had his offense rolling, he made a number of wise decisions with the ball down the stretch.

The guard repeatedly used his gravity to generate open looks for opponents, with Jaden McDaniels serving as the beneficiary on a couple open triples and Rudy Gobert getting an easy bucket down low in the fourth quarter.

Then, in overtime, Edwards smelled blood. He scored on three straight possessions — two mid-range jumpers and a turnaround 8-footer — to put Minnesota up seven and essentially seal the contest.

Those are the moments Edwards seemingly always rises to, but just as important were the smart passes. That’s the mix the 22-year-old has to consistently achieve if he’s to lift Minnesota to championship contention.