ChiSox59

Palka is my full time DH (with occasional OF start) against RHP next season, and PH bat of the bench in late innings when a LHP starts. He's earned it. Not sure who the other side of the platoon would be though. Not sure there is room for both him and Davidson due to lack of defensive flexibility, though Davidson would be a good fit for the job if we had more roster spots.

Afford? Lol. They can afford to put a A ball team out there right now. Losing is more important than winning. Cordell hasn't been good in his limited chances, but I assume he has at least 1 option left so he'll be around for a bit still.

And water is wet.

Healthy Nate is never a bad thing. He’ll be around next season whether you want him to be or not.

That 2025 season is exactly why Eloy isn’t in a Chicago. And I love it.

No, but they’re being put in a position by management. Players aren’t trying to lose. No reason for Gomez to be back out there in the 10th I’d youre actually trying to make it to the 11th. But at this point, losses are good. Gimme that third pick.

So you expect him to be the same dude in 2020 after repairing a major elbow ligament and having not thrown a competitive pitch in 20 months? Seems a bit optimistic.

I don't see how anyone can spin it that losing ~20% of control of a front of the rotation pitcher is anything but crippling. Its an absolute kick straight to the nuts. He was one of the 3 main pillars of this rebuild, and at this point its tough to count on him for much of anything until 2021. And which point he'll have spent 2 seasons and change on the active roster if the Sox keep him on the MLB DL.

Yah, it'd be a tough story to spin, but honestly not much tougher than Eloy. Kopech actually had struggled for significant portions of the AAA season so keeping him there this season wouldn't have caused any more uproar that Guerrero/Eloy. Next year would be tough to spin when you send him back to AAA to start the season, as it will be for Eloy. But we're talking like 2 weeks. The players, certain media members and fans would b**** and moan, and maybe the player files of grievance. But there is no precedent for them to win. It is what it is at this point - but again, its turned out to be an incredibly costly decision. Maybe he gets hurt anyway in AAA, but at least he spends the next year and half on the minor league DL. Still sucks, no doubt, but its better than current situation. Maybe he makes it through the season and hurts himself in offseason, or even early next season in AAA. All scenarios the Sox are in better situation than they find themselves in today.

Meh, we've discussed this at length and its spilled milk at this point. But had he stayed in AAA, he would have for sure gotten 3 more starts (8/21, 8/26 and 8/31 or 9/1) so he still would have surpassed his previous high inning total. The control was well worth waiting seeing as though it was already late August. Now, hindsight is 20-20, but it could turn out to be a crippling move.

Highly debatable.

If the whole board ignores him and/or stops quoting him, it makes it alot better.

I have to imagine that there are guys out there who have gone done for TJS with less than 50 innings pitched in the big leagues that were optioned before appearing in another big league game. I don't really care to spend the time to look it up, but I don't think the Sox would blazing some new trail. I get the optics may not be fantastic, and for that reason, maybe they don't do it. But it seems to make a ton of sense in salvaging something out of pretty much worst case scenario the past couple weeks have been for Kopech.

By that point he will not have pitched in a game in 20 months and is pitching with a newly constructed UCL. Slightly different circumstances. And for the record, I was never really in support in Kopech getting called up this year, Once it was done, I certainly looked forward to and enjoyed watching him pitch, and also understood that things are bit different for pitchers than position players. But I would have left him in AAA with Eloy. Obviously I would never in a million years wish ill upon the kid, but what has transpired is pretty much the worst case scenario in that now ~20% of his service time with Sox is down the drain assuming the Sox don't option him out of ST 2020. And when rosters expanded 10 days ago, he'd been raking for a few weeks in AAA and was by far the best CF option in the organization. Yet they told him to go home because 10 more days on the 25 man meant they get him one less season.

No they weren't. When he was originally optioned after his minor league rehab was maxed out in July sometime, you could make an argument it was performance based. Since he came off the minor league DL again in mid-August, he hit .365/.400/.550 in AAA and plays gold glove caliber defense. The Twins made the decision they made 100% completely and solely due to getting an extra year of control. If they can do that with a guy with over 300 games played in the MLB, the Sox can option a kid with 14 innings pitched in the big leagues, coming off a major elbow injury and who hasn't pitched in a game that counts in 20 months.