Sox Interested in Marwin Gonzalez?

[DirtySox]

Quote

 

Chicago White Sox

— The White Sox were named as a team to have met with Bryce Harper in Las Vegas by Yahoo, and one source says “they are going big” this winter. They also are believed to have interest in Manny Machado, who has intrigued them in the past. It’s surprising they are also in on Harper based on their past lack of history with Scott Boras, but Harper is a very popular player, it seems … 

— Marwin Gonzalez is believed of interest to the White Sox, as well … 

 

https://fancredsports.com/articles/inside-baseball-mlb-notes-dodgers-have-look-of-s

[fathom]

thanks for posting...I think he mentions Marwin as an option for almost 10 teams.  I'm more intrigued by the "spending big" comment

[Chicago White Sox]

I was kind of afraid of this.  I do like Marwin and kind of get how the versatility makes sense given where we are, but I would really hate to overpay for a guy like him.

[TheFutureIsNear]

The versatility is great and all, but I think it’s pretty obvious that 2016 was a fluke. How much are you willing to pay a .730 OPS, 105 WRC+ hitter that can play multiple positions?  

[caulfield12]

So how much are we willing to give Gonzalez? 

3 years seems kind of pointless, unless we're also getting Harper or Machado.

4 years, and potentially 5, seems what to be this particular free agent market is looking like, especially for a current 29 year old.  The one caveat being he accumulated 4.3 fWAR over 5 years with the Astros (not counting the one really good season), meaning his average was actually BELOW 1 for the majority of his career.

So to predicate a pretty darned big contract for a hitter with one outlying 4.0 season...who has already (arguably) reached his peak, that doesn't seem to make sense unless the White Sox were looking to compete THIS year.

Even if you average his last THREE years together, he's still below 2.

And yet he's likely to get $45-70 million from SOMEONE.  Just doubt it's the White Sox, not when we already have guys like Yolmer and Leury on the roster.   The risk of him NOT being that 4 war player is just way too great.

[GreenSox]

We have utility infielders.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

25 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

We have utility infielders.

We need some who can actually hit HR's

 

[wrathofhahn]

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

So how much are we willing to give Gonzalez? 

3 years seems kind of pointless, unless we're also getting Harper or Machado.

4 years, and potentially 5, seems what to be this particular free agent market is looking like, especially for a current 29 year old.  The one caveat being he accumulated 4.3 fWAR over 5 years with the Astros (not counting the one really good season), meaning his average was actually BELOW 1 for the majority of his career.

So to predicate a pretty darned big contract for a hitter with one outlying 4.0 season...who has already (arguably) reached his peak, that doesn't seem to make sense unless the White Sox were looking to compete THIS year.

Even if you average his last THREE years together, he's still below 2.

And yet he's likely to get $45-70 million from SOMEONE.  Just doubt it's the White Sox, not when we already have guys like Yolmer and Leury on the roster.   The risk of him NOT being that 4 war player is just way too great.

I keep hearing that but have yet to read anyteam being seriously linked close to that figure. Boras likes to plant stories in the media to establish value I doubt any team signs him for that amount of money but it's worth a shot I guess.

I'd just move on because eventhough I'm interested it's for 1/8 and the time it takes Boras to lower his price we the market will be dry. There will be 1B/DH/LF who will accept 1 yr deals.

[Eminor3rd]

Just the last thing the 2019 White Sox need to tie up money into. 

[bmags]

I don't really think it's that big of a deal. It would be more ideal if he played CF.

Tying up money into him isn't a concern. He'll be pretty easy to trade. People will overestimate his contract.

[OmarComing25]

Fangraphs predicts 3/39. Crowdsourcing (which has been more accurate the past few years than the Fangraphs predictions) predicts 3/30. He'll probably get more than 3/30 but I don't see him exceeding 3/39, at least in AAV. Maybe someone gives him a 4th year.

Edited December 7, 2018 by OmarComing25

[bmags]

21 minutes ago, OmarComing25 said:

Fangraphs predicts 3/39. Crowdsourcing (which has been more accurate the past few years than the Fangraphs predictions) predicts 3/30. He'll probably get more than 3/30 but I don't see him exceeding 3/39, at least in AAV. Maybe someone gives him a 4th year.

Perfect.

That would be an easily tradable contract when an internal replacement comes up (or he become a more expensive leury), while also allowing for possibility of great return if he repeats 2017.

Would really depend on CF.

[GreenSox]

He's had one good year; otherwise, he is Leury et al.

 

[Jake]

Since becoming a full-time MLBer, he's put up WAR numbers of 1.3, 1.5, 0.3, 4.0, and 1.6. These are all in not quite full time roles (a little 500 PAs each year). How much extra money does the 4 WAR season get him over and above what a 1.5-ish player in his prime usually gets? It's hard to know. You could also make an argument for a guy who plays multiple positions being more valuable than the numbers tell you because you can deploy him in a way that he's usually filling in for your weakest link every time he plays. I wouldn't mind having him around, but it's hard to see why the Sox would value him more than a team that's more clearly in contention right now. It also begs the question of where we would plan to play him. We're weaker in the corner OF than we are at 3B (and he seems to be a better outfield defender than infielder), but if a couple things go right we could end up weaker at 3B than the corner outfield. In that sense, he can be pretty useful because you're not locked into a guy that plays a position where he might get pushed out by a prospect over the life of the contract.

Edited December 7, 2018 by Jake

[Balta1701]

37 minutes ago, Jake said:

Since becoming a full-time MLBer, he's put up WAR numbers of 1.3, 1.5, 0.3, 4.0, and 1.6. These are all in not quite full time roles (a little 500 PAs each year). How much extra money does the 4 WAR season get him over and above what a 1.5-ish player in his prime usually gets? It's hard to know. You could also make an argument for a guy who plays multiple positions being more valuable than the numbers tell you because you can deploy him in a way that he's usually filling in for your weakest link every time he plays. I wouldn't mind having him around, but it's hard to see why the Sox would value him more than a team that's more clearly in contention right now. It also begs the question of where we would plan to play him. We're weaker in the corner OF than we are at 3B (and he seems to be a better outfield defender than infielder), but if a couple things go right we could end up weaker at 3B than the corner outfield. In that sense, he can be pretty useful because you're not locked into a guy that plays a position where he might get pushed out by a prospect over the life of the contract.

One difference though - we kinda already have a guy in Yolmer who, while moderately cheap, covers most of our backup IF positions pretty effectively and hits just about as well as marwin. I guess you could talk me into playing both of these guys, but Marwin doesn't have strong positional splits since he's a switch hitter.

[wrathofhahn]

6 hours ago, OmarComing25 said:

Fangraphs predicts 3/39. Crowdsourcing (which has been more accurate the past few years than the Fangraphs predictions) predicts 3/30. He'll probably get more than 3/30 but I don't see him exceeding 3/39, at least in AAV. Maybe someone gives him a 4th year.

I don't see him getting more the 1 or 2 years. There is no need for teams to commit big money for someone like Marwin when they can go out and trade for someone like Diaz for little trade expenditure and go year to year.