Jose Abreu

I'm sorry

It really seems like the main reason he's down on the Sox as even contending for a wild card (aside from the 2B situation) is that he thinks Gavin Sheets is the primary DH

It's honestly been kind of weird. Literally every time a player has signed a contract worth $75 million or more this offseason, it's as if there's a scheduled Keith Law tweet 3 hours later talking about how it's such a bad decision. I know it's not his intention, but it comes off as overzealous ownership support. I generally like him too, but it feels to me like he just hasn't adjusted to the new market.

I bet they salary dump him and then he has a great year. He actually had some pretty terrible batted ball luck last season

I'm guessing 5/80 (16 AAV). From what I've read, a fifth year is what was needed from teams to separate themselves

Can a pro-Benintendi person convince me that he's a good defender aside from the gold glove? Trying to talk myself into this

I believe that he stepped down due to health issues, but it's also notable that in his final press conference, he admitted that the fan discontentment might have led him to step down regardless

I agree, but it's difficult to just bank on Eloy/Vaughn/Robert all hitting more home runs. I like the hitting coaches, but it would be nice to get a player that at least has a track record of hitting for significant power -- doesn't have to be Gallo

Btw, for all the talk of Joey Gallo's defense declining (true, but it's still average at worst), why is Benintendi automatically referred to as a good defender when the same metrics are lower on him than Gallo?

They had 3 guys hitting .300 at the top of the order for a significant stretch last season (Anderson/Robert/Vaughn, obviously injuries/regressions stopped it) and it was meaningless because nobody on the team hit for power

Mad is strong, but considering that it would probably be the biggest FA expenditure in franchise history, it would be annoying that he's not even a great fit for the roster (lefty, sure, but yet another singles hitter)

Considering Gallo’s fWAR dropped from 4.2 (2021) to 0.6 (2022), wouldn’t his forthcoming lower contract actually support WAR as an evaluation tool?

The White Sox and Blue Jays have pretty similar payrolls, at least pre-arb, but the difference is that the "bad contracts" on the White Sox are either more temporary (Grandal for only one year) or probably not as bad as people think (Moncada could feasibly return to at least 2021 levels without needing a power increase, and even if he doesn't it's only two more years guaranteed). Sox fans act like these are franchise-breaking albatrosses, but they aren't like the Blue Jays where they are stuck paying Jose Berrios (who, for reference, was markedly worse than Giolito in 2022) another $120 million over 6 years. Nevertheless, the Blue Jays are still the ones simply paying over the mistakes and making them less important as a result. Every team has bad contracts, but the bad contracts on the Sox aren't even that bad (comparatively speaking), which makes the lack of spending over the issues even more frustrating

A salary floor would help

Because it's the White Sox -- they're either signing someone like Gallo (or worse), or going with internal options

I agree that they should just sign more certainty, particularly with Nimmo. But if they're constraining themselves to low/mid-level options, I just prefer a higher ceiling (Conforto would be fine too)

This is pretty funny but also probably somewhat accurate. I'm in my 20s and most of the people I talk to love the idea of signing Gallo, which is definitely not indicative of the larger sample of White Sox fans

I don't think the idea is that he improves, but rather just returns to prior levels of production. And if you ask me, that's better than signing another low ceiling type like David Peralta, or spending more money on a worse roster fit like Brantley

Joey Gallo: 752 career games, 15.1 fWAR Andrew Benintendi: 745 games, 13.1 fWAR

It's fascinating. The Sox were one of the highest batting average teams in the league with one of the lowest strikeout rates and the most singles, but fans have convinced themselves that what they need are more low-strikeout contact-first guys

I just wrote an article arguing for Joey Gallo's fit on the White Sox, if anyone's interested. I think any Sox fan might enjoy, but I tried particularly hard to convince people who don't want him why it's a good idea https://www.soxon35th.com/joey-gallos-risk-is-worth-the-potential-reward-for-the-white-sox/

He's intriguing but why spend assets on him when we already have a very similar prospect with very similar stats/profile in Sosa?

For 15 years, in fact, so I wonder how risky it really is

He said something about making a big move to win over the fans?