SoxBlanco

What is your evidence for claiming Vaughn's 1B defense is poor/bad?

You're not wrong. The FO has spent a lot of foolish money, which really hurts when you have a tight budget. But the fact that there are teams throwing out HUGE contracts while we are figuring out ways to get creative with trades and hopeful bounce-back candidates because we have to stay at this strict budget of $185M (or whatever it is) is ridiculous. Hahn deserves blame, but JR is the bigger problem by a mile, in my opinion.

Yep. We need JR to di…scover how much he is handcuffing this team and just sell.

Well that would be a nice change. Seemed like Bundy was getting rocked by the rest of the league and then consistently shutting down the Sox.

I was making fun of the blurb because it said the exact same thing in back to back sentences.

Has he only come out of the pen? Or has he also started? Tough to tell from that blurb.

This was my thought exactly. If they trade Liam for Glebry and then sign Nimmo, the payroll would be around $180M.

I wonder how most people would feel about trading TA, signing Andrus, and then signing Nimmo.

I've had a weird feeling since the season ended that we might trade Anderson.

What if you truly believe Quintana will have a better season than Giolito (and you knew you could sign Quintana)? Then you wouldn’t even need a haul.

Thanks. So are we at around $164M for 2023 right now? If so, that’s much a much better position than I thought we’d be after filling out the rotation. @ChiSox59

Good call. What was the verdict on Pollock’s $5M? Is that counting toward the 2023 payroll?

No. I don’t. This conversation started because Sarava said he would trade Vaughn and Montgomery for Reynolds and then sign Bell to play 1B. My point was that IF we were willing to spend money on Bell after that hypothetical trade, then we should just sign Nimmo and keep Vaughn and Montgomery.

Isn’t that approximately what Vaughn and Nimmo will make in 2023 also?

What do you think the combined salary will be for Reynolds and Bell in 2023?

But then you suggested signing Josh Bell to replace Vaughn. If we’re willing to spend, then just sign Nimmo. Which option would you rather have? 1. Reynolds OF, Bell 1B, no Montgomery in the system 2. Nimmo OF, Vaughn 1B, Montgomery still in the system I would take option 2, and it’s not particularly close in my opinion.

What am I missing with Reynolds? There’s not a chance in hell I’m giving up Vaughn and Montgomery for him.

Agreed. I think Giolito is a bargain at $10M. The only way you trade him is if you think there’s a free agent available for under $15M that you think will outproduce Giolito. I believe that Lucas will rebound nicely heading into a contract year, so I’m not hoping they trade him. But I’m not a scout. If a scout told me that Lucas is toast and he’ll never be close to the same pitcher he was in 2019, it’d be tough to argue after last year’s performance. Yes, the defense let him down a lot, but even just using the eye test, he looked horrible at times. So am I hoping Lucas is traded? No. But if we did trade him, I would 100% understand the move.

Believed what? I didn’t say Manaea is definitely better than Giolito, so I’m not sure why you would say “substantially more”. If Giolito has another year like last year, he won’t get much in free agency after 2023. But Manaea is coming off a down year also, so he won’t get a big contract either.

You make the trade if you don't think you are downgrading the rotation. It's not crazy to think someone like Manaea pitches better than Giolito next year.

Problem with that is if Giolito has a solid first half, we aren't going to want to trade him for two reasons: 1. We will likely be in the hunt for the division. 2. We can't simply sign a free agent to round out the rotation like we can now.

That's true. If things ended up like he expected, there still wouldn't be any games being played because of Covid.

I'll predict a three-team trade. The return won't be exciting, but it will allow us to free up some money to sign an outfielder.

Man, there was a month stretch where I truly thought he was going to be a part of our rotation moving forward.

If a wRC+ of 93 is a “disaster” for a rookie who skipped AA and AAA, then we are looking at one of the best hitters in the game.