That wasn’t a clear cut rebuild in the same way teams often operate today, but the offseason between 1998 and 1999 saw at least something of a youth movement. Robin Ventura and Albert Belle were allowed to depart as free agents, and the team went from four regulars in their starting lineup aged 30 or above to just one — Frank Thomas.

One of the players included in that youth movement was Paul Konerko, whom the White Sox acquired from the Cincinnati Reds that offseason in exchange for Mike Cameron.

Konerko was joined on that team by first-year slugger Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez, fresh off a successful rookie campaign, among others. The ’99 team went 75-86, a five-win decrease from the year before, but a year later the White Sox found themselves in the playoffs for the first time since 1993.

The success of that young core was fleeting — another four-year playoff drought followed the 2000 campaign — but that young trio flourished throughout their individual careers, as Konerko, Lee, and Ordonez combined to play 47 major-league seasons and have 15 All-Star selections to their credit, and all three were part of winning ball clubs at various points during their careers.

Konerko was a 23-year-old rookie when he joined the White Sox and went on to have an 18-year career, all with the White Sox. He visited camp last week and said he saw similarities between the transitional phase that 1999 team went through and what the White Sox are going through in 2017.

“You feel comfortable because everywhere you look, you see somebody like yourself,” Konerko said about his rookie season. “You see someone in the same boat. That was a fun year. We had guys go out together, have dinner together. It was like a college team in a lot of ways.”

This year’s White Sox seem to be trying to create a similar environment. Sure, there are still plenty of veterans still around, but the vibe around camp is all about getting these youngsters — the future of the organization —  comfortable with their environment.

“I think they’ll probably be experiencing the same growing pains, so that helps because you have someone else to talk to,” manager Rick Renteria said. “But I think in terms of being able to gain information about themselves, learn to play the game together, and just take the experiences they’re going to gain at the major league level is going to be a plus regardless of the outcome.”

The mixture of veterans and youngsters isn’t necessarily unique to this team. And Spring Training is always flush with optimistic outtakes that might not be as present when a team is, say, 10 games below .500 getting through the slog of July or August, but when you compare the roster to last season’s — the Drake LaRoche saga, the jersey incident, and what you heard from Jimmy Rollins just a few weeks ago — the expressions of optimism, of feeling comfortable, and of learning together, is a welcome sound.

“When I was younger, I’d ask a lot of questions, just as they’re doing,” said Todd Frazier, one of those veterans. “I remember sitting on the bench … nine innings is a pain in the butt when you know you’re not going to play. But watching what your peers do. Say you’re a third baseman, you’re watching the third baseman. I remember watching Scott Rolen go about his business. I couldn’t do everything he did, but I wanted to see how he prepared, how he set up, what he did in the morning.

“Just kind of take little by little and then hopefully when it’s your time, you’ll be ready.”

And, for what it’s worth, even the young guys seem to be comfortable working with the veterans who are still around.

“These guys have been around baseball for a long time,” said Lucas Giolito after his most recent start last Thursday. “They’ve had their ups and downs. They have experience. And being able to pick their brains and what they’ve been through and try to apply that to my own game … I’ll take that any day of the week.”

The 2017 White Sox aren’t as young as that 1999 team. For one, this team has more veterans, the likes of Frazier, Melky Cabrera, James Shields, and Derek Holland, and for another, the youth infusion isn’t likely to start trickling through the 25-man roster until midseason.

But Konerko sees the parallels. And with the likes of Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Michael Kopech, Carson Fulmer, Yoan Moncada, and Zack Collins experiencing major-league camp — some of them for the first time — it’s easy to see why.

“I think the idea is you grow that core and I think they start to show up each day for each other because it’s been built that way,” Konerko said. “Then the wins are just a byproduct of it.”

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

It was also likely the last time for the foreseeable future we’ll see a player enter Cooperstown with a White Sox cap adorned on his plaque.

Despite a lack of team success for the better part of the team’s history, the Sox are far from deficient when it comes to inductees in the Baseball Hall of Fame. 12 different players have gone into the Hall of Fame with the White Sox as their primary team (this is including Carlton Fisk, who has a Red Sox logo on his cap but whose primary team is listed as the White Sox), tied for the seventh most all-time.

In fact, since the first Hall of Fame class in 1936, the White Sox have never gone more than 14 years between Hall of Fame inductees, with Thomas breaking the latest streak after 14 years between him and Fisk.

That said, after Thomas, finding the next White Sox Hall of Famer is an incredibly difficult exercise.

There are plenty of players who have or will enter soon who spent some of their careers with the White Sox, mind you. Tim Raines had four successful seasons in Chicago, and Jim Thome will likely join him in his first year of eligibility next year. But logos for the Expos and Indians will likely don those two caps.

So, who is the next White Sox inductee? That’s pretty tough to figure out.

The recently retired

The only two players from recent White Sox history who will generate any sort of Hall of Fame discussion are Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle, and, unfortunately, both likely fell short of Hall of Fame-worthy careers by varying degrees.

Both are incredibly beloved on the South side, and that’s perfectly fine. Statues, number retirements, all that is great! Konerko and Buehrle are White Sox legends, but that doesn’t necessarily make them baseball legends.

When guys like Fred McGriff, Larry Walker, Mike Mussina, and Curt Schilling are having trouble sniffing 50 percent of the vote, Konerko and Buehrle just aren’t going to cut it.

The recently traded

The most obvious candidate for next White Sox Hall of Famer until about six weeks ago was Chris Sale, and even then, it still might be!

Sale spent the first seven years of his career with the White Sox, tossing 1,110 innings, won 74 games with a 3.00 ERA while accumulating 31.1 WAR. The path to him entering the Hall as a member of the White Sox is tricky, however.

Step 1: Become a Hall of Famer. This one’s easy. While Sale has been stellar through his first seven seasons, it will take a lot more before we start buying tickets to Cooperstown.

Step 2: Bounce around. It’s safe to say if Sale spends more than seven years in Boston, that’ll wind up where he’s most remembered.

Step 3: Don’t be too good for Boston (or wherever he plays after Boston). Randy Johnson played 10 years in Seattle and eight in Arizona, but he wore a Diamondbacks hat in his plaque because, as good as he was for the Mariners, Johnson won four straight Cy Young awards and a World Series in Arizona. That stuff matters. If Sale only plays a few years in Boston but rips off some Cy Young seasons and a World Series or two, it’s game over.

So, yeah, a lot needs to happen. But the chances of Sale wearing a White Sox hat at his 2032 Hall of Fame ceremony are still there.

The current roster

It’s safe to say if someone on the White Sox as currently constructed winds up in Cooperstown it will take quite a bit of A) luck and B) time.

There’s Jose Quintana, of course, and there’s at least one alternate reality out there where he spends the rest of his career with the White Sox. He’d have to become a Hall of Famer, of course (I’m going to stop pointing that out for the duration of this article, because you get it).

Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Reynaldo Lopez, etc., etc., you get it. If one of these guys becomes a Hall of Famer, it won’t be until, say, 2037 at the earliest. A 23-year drought!

The actual answer

The next player to enter the Hall of Fame with a White Sox cap on his plaque will be Minnie Minoso. Some how, some way, Minoso, who died in 2015, will be elected to the Hall of Fame. And it will be long overdue.

Despite a worthy resume, not to mention his significant cultural impact to the game as the first black Cuban to play in the majors and the first black player in White Sox history, Minoso never garnered more than 21.1 percent of the vote from the BBWAA ballot before falling off the ballot after the 1999 cycle.

The most recent opportunity the Hall had to elect him was in 2014 when the Golden Era committee failed to elect any of its 10 candidates. Minoso garnered eight votes from the 16-person committee.

Minoso’s next opportunity will come when the Golden Days committee votes again in 2020 (the Hall recently altered its Veterans Committee standards), and unless those panels come to their senses sometime soon, the next time we see a Hall of Famer come from the White Sox is likely far, far away.

Lead Photo Credit: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports