JuliusO1274

Why did they send him to AAA if they were working on this deal. If he is going to be up opening day he should still be getting at bats in Spring Training, especially considering how rusty he looked.

White Sox would have tried to offer 250M but 450m with incentives.

Leury is a much better hitter and overall better player. Engels defensive is not good enough nor is Leurys defensive bad enough to rationalize any argument of Engel being better than Leury, Just look at Leury's WAR numbers he has put up in his limited playing time compared to Engel. It is shame both the White Sox fan base and the management have yet to realize this and we have to deal the false perception that Engel is our best option for CF.

Leury. Leury's WAR numbers have been good(and much better than Engel) considering his limited playing time. Even if you just look at his time playing center field he still is an overall much better rated player than Engel.

Cease has looked better than Kopech ever did in the minors. He and Eloy are our best prospects.

It seems people are have already forgotten the numbers he put up last Spring Training when he was pre season MVP.

The White Sox being cheap asses in regards to Manny and Harper looks even worse considering the amount of money wasted on garage this offseason which could have been used for either of those two.

Why would it be premature when the big FA splash would be signing on for 8-10 years with the team?

You are looking specifically at age 34 and 35 and ignoring that both Ortiz and Frank had seasons in their 30's which they missed 550 plate appearances. The Sox could also find excuses to play him less in such a situation as he would likely be regressing at that stage of his career.

Some of this may be accurate but the White Sox surely did not think 175 million would scare any team away.

The key issue is the player opt out. Hahns comments suggest they are not fond of them because they are exclusively player beneficial hence the reason the Sox offer to Manny did not include any. This was likely one of the main nails in the coffin at our chances of signing him. The opt out he got from San Diego was after the 5th year, I still don't understand why the White Sox would care if Manny came and raked for 5 years and then opted out. We would of had him in his prime during the years we are hoping to contend.

His comments also suggested they are very critical of player opt outs. Manny's opt out from San Diego was after the 5th year, why would the White Sox be against that? Who cares if Manny rakes and then opts out after the 5th year. We would have had him in his prime during our "window".

So basically it seems there were 3 teams (Phillies, White Sox, and Padres) ready to spend "stupid" money for the 2 stars available this off season and the White Sox are the one that ends up neither.

It is easy to say this in hindsight but White Sox fans would have hated this move if Hahn tried it and it didn't work. Manny would know the White Sox were bluffing anyway. There is no way they would walk away from Manny just because he wouldn't sign as quickly as they wanted and Sox fans would be livid if something like that occurred.

I believe an opt out after 5 years with the White Sox would nullify that because he would make more through those 5 years with the Sox and then could opt out for another contract at age 30-31 and likely end up making more than the 300m guarantee by the Padres. No star player wants to be trapped with a team for 8-10 years without a player opt out. If the White Sox were never offering an opt out for Manny they never had a chance.