Balta1701

This sounds weird to me. Unless we're 100% all in next season, he's demonstrated clearly that he can hit pitching at Charlotte over the last few months including making adjustments. If we're going to sign Grandal and cast Collins aside we may as well trade him, but unless we do that, sending him back to Charlotte isn't going to teach him much when we know he can hit AAA pitching.

Gregory Polanco signed a contract with a guarantee, he's fully under contract and guaranteed for the next 2 seasons, followed by 2 option years. He can't be non-tendered. He could be designated for assignment, but then the Pirates would have to buy out the $20 million remaining on his deal.

In general they would be better off had they not made those moves, but they also might have missed the playoffs in 2018 had they not acquired Jose Quintana, and they may not have even made the world series in 2016, let alone stayed in it, had they not thrown Chapman out there so heavily. That's an open question that for the White Sox it would be nice if we actually had to answer it someday. If I were the Cubs, I might not have done the Darvish deal, but I'd almost certainly have made the Chapman and Quintana deals. My Cubs team was far worse in 2020 than it would have been had I not done those deals, but at the same time I have a world series trophy. IMO, win your title, then do everything you can to stay competitive for a few more years and give yourself another shot or two. If you don't win another, at least you get several more playoff appearances. Then, at some point, you have to decide whether to extend everyone, start trading everyone, or do last-gasps and then let guys you can't pay walk as free agents. Houston has sorta avoided this issue but even they lost a little this year when Morton left, and next year Cole departs, so eventually attrition may well get them too.

Rather than ripping the Cubs for being in the top 10% of performing teams...let's also gawk at the Dodgers and Astros. The Dodgers still haven't won a world series, but their player development has allowed them to be on a level that no other teams have reached. The Astros won their title and they are still, 2 years later, hanging right there with the best in the league again - without the type of signings the Cubs kept making to try to stay in the race as their roster started to weaken. The Cubs are in what looks like a normal rebuild - they peaked once, but have slowly fallen off from that peak. That's how most rebuilds go and you're lucky if you finish it off - Cleveland, KC, San Francisco - all peaked, 2 of them won their titles, and they've withered since then. We saw the Yankees and previous red sox teams do the same thing. Houston lasting for 3 years like this is already some next-level S***.

For those guys you have to be talking about Kopech, Cease, or Jiminez as the first piece, probably with Vaughn or Madrigal as a second piece, and then a couple more bits to fill things out.

This. The Texans haven't been able to keep Watson from being hit.

His season has convinced me this is a good idea. The problem right now is that in the eyes of JR, this would be "breaking new ground" as no one has ever really signed a deal like that, and that's one thing this franchise won't do. What we really need is for someone else (Soto?) to sign a comparable deal such that this becomes a deal someone has done before. Suddenly then it's not JR reshaping the market.

IMO, no, very good chance he's stuck on the market until midseason if he turns down a QO and doesn't sign with the White Sox.

Those situations only happened because the teams that those players left didn't want them back or were up against the tax and couldn't bring them back. The White Sox can totally bring Abreu back if they want to; him turning down the offer makes it far less likely that he'd sign elsewhere.

You know what? That's not a bad suggestion and I hadn't thought about it.

IMO this should be Zach Collins. People aren't thrilled about his defense but so far I think he's an upgrade from Castillo already.

The Dodgers are tough but by no means unbeatable. They only won 92 games during 2018 and the Rockies finished 1 game behind them. A couple of injuries here and there and some breakouts from your guys and you can challenge them, but you have to do it well.

There is literally no one in baseball history outside of pitchers who have had >50 at bats and been this bad. The worst in history is apparently a pitcher, Doug Davis, who was 1 for 64. He's got to get down to 0.16 to beat that.

He's too expensive, but the White Sox spending a couple million extra on their bench is not the worst thing in the world when their payroll is so low. The money they didn't spend in the international market this year has to go somewhere, amiright? He should not keep the starting 2b job though.

I think the fact that every option is "Meh" to some extent is why there isn't a clear answer. We don't have a clear internal candidate, the veteran candidates are ok but nothing special, and all of the trade options are "hope a team is letting someone go cheaper than they should" guys. My personal preference right now is to use the resource we have in abundance - free agent money - and fill the hole on a temporary basis. That's entirely because we have such a low payroll right now. But if moving a couple guys does clear out a 40 man roster glut, well I get why we'd do it, I just am utterly scarred by this team's history of "3 or 4 for 1" players. If we un-did every single one of those moves, where we gave up 3 guys to get 1, that we did over the last decade, we'd make ourselves substantially better. If there's chaff on the 40 man that can be cleared while we hold onto the young guys, generally I think the franchise is better off holding onto them. But, if 2 of those guys are potentially going to be exposed to the rule 5 draft, may as well turn them into something that has a chance of being good, but also a chance at being rotten.