35thstreetswarm

...and I don’t blame them. I don’t love the idea of massive long-term free agent contracts either, and if the Sox were in the middle of their window of contention I’d want them to steer clear of these kinds of signings. But we are in a unique situation where we should be willing to swallow it because this would be so important to jump starting our rebuild. Really hoping the true market for the terms these guys want winnows down to the two “desperate” teams (Sox/Phils).

Precisely. The Cubs and Dodgers might be able to match our offer if they had more payroll flexibility and didn’t have a bunch of positional conflicts. And if my aunt had a **** she’d be my uncle. Talk to me when either team has actually done the things necessary for them to make a competitive offer for Harper.

Unlike the Dodgers, the Sox are desperate for Harper to alter the whole trajectory of their franchise, and have staked themselves to that desperation publicly. They stripped down their payroll for the express purpose of adding a major free agent. Sure, this contract would out of character for Reinsdorf too, but the Sox have much more natural motivation to break character.

Look at this tweet—YES! Oh, another one—we’re f***ed. Is “peavy” a bot?

...and unlike past free agent misses, this will be a clear case of “won’t” rather than “can’t”. They’ve made a big show of how they stripped the payroll down to nothing for the express purpose of signing free agents. There is no question they have the financial resources to blow other teams out of the water if they want to. If they are outbid, it will be by a team with less “room” for the player than the Sox have, and thus an admission that even when they are in a perfect position to pay up for a player they’ve announced they desperately want, they aren’t willing to make it happen. They will be opting out of the “big boys” club.

I’m puzzled as well — it’s reached a point where they will look incredibly foolish and un-savvy if they come up empty handed here. Maybe it’s the hopeful fan in me talking, but I’m going to apply Occam’s razor to this one and assume they’re talking big because they know they have the payroll flexibility to win this bidding war and intend to do so.

Why do people continue to say this? We were a top 5 payroll team throughout the 2000s. There is no reason we can’t return to that level of spending.

I also don't trust Hahn to trade for players, or the organization to develop them. I frankly hope the Sox avoid "good players" altogether, and maybe think about burning down the stadium.

The mood will be sour, at least among die-hard fans like those on this board. I started the offseason thinking that either one of these guys would be a huge windfall, but I was in the "not counting on it" camp. All the stories about the White Sox pursuit got my hopes up, and got me thinking about just how unique an opportunity this is to supplement the rebuild with elite free agent talent (and boost fan interest), and that for once there is no real financial barrier to the White Sox doing so, at least from a payroll perspective. I've come to think this is kind of a crossroads for the Sox, and if they don't make it happen I'll be upset. I think there are many others like me. I recognize that this is not an ideal place to be from a mental health perspective.

This is the weirdest thread

The Sox will not burn a year of prime-career service time for two weeks of PT during the 2019 season, because it would be baseball malpractice to do so. It's really that simple.

I think that's more realistic, but not a better option all else being equal. While it may not be likely or even plausible, I think Machado plus Harper makes far more impact than what we could cobble together using other lesser free agents. Sorry, I now realize I misread your post before (which I thought was implying the point I am making here.)

And imagine Harper and Moncada joining forces to form the greatest head-of-hair combo the MLB has ever seen.

Good, then that rules out the mid-market teams

Says who? The Sox were near the top of the payroll list relatively recently. And even if $200 were some magic barrier for us, there's a fair amount of room between $60 million and $200 million. Signing these guys doesn't come anywhere near maxing us out.