Roster Crunch: Burger, Sheets, Mendick, Harrison, Garcia

[CentralChamps21 2,294]

Sometime within the next couple weeks, Eloy Jimenez and Tim Anderson will return from the IL. Barring additional injuries (which always seems more likely than not), two players will need to go. I've listed all six possibilities here. (I'm not including any discussion about Grandal because in the very unlikely event they moved/released him, it would be for another catcher and not Eloy or TA).

Gavin Sheets - Case for him to go: Can be optioned, has a .601 OPS overall and only .648 vs RHP, doesn't play any position well other than 1B. Providing no value of any kind to the team at all. Case for him to stay: there really isn't one at this point

The more difficult decision is the second one to go.

Jake Burger - Case for him to go: Can be optioned, assuming that Moncada is not headed for another IL stint, Burger is blocked at his position, he's also been dreadful vs RHP with a .580 OPS which is also the team's biggest weakness. Case for him to stay: He's been the biggest spark for this team the past week and is crushing lefties to the tune of a 1.174 OPS. There's clearly a scenario where he sticks around, getting 1-2 starts a week at 3B and also getting DH time vs LHP.

Danny Mendick - Case for him to go: When Anderson comes back, becomes one of four middle infielders on the roster, and he's the only one who can be optioned. Despite his hot start this season, has a .662 career OPS and isn't likely to keep it up. Case for him to stay: Right now he's outproducing Harrison and Garcia by a lot, could be sending the wrong message to the team to keep those two and send Mendick down.

Josh Harrison - Case for him to go: Putrid .541 OPS to date, costs less to release than Leury. Case for him to stay - costs more to release than optioning Mendick, has been hot this past week and might be turning things around

Leury Garcia - Case for him to go: absolutely obscene .464 OPS negates any value he has as a switch hitter, Vaughn's ability to play OF and Mendick's ability to play all IF positions negates his value as a utility player. Case for him to stay - would cost a lot to release, longest tenured Sox player, manager favorite.

Who I think should go: Sheets, then Garcia

Who I think will go: Sheets, then Mendick

[southsider2k5 12,319]

These things play themselves out.

[Tnetennba 3,963]

There is no roster crunch save for TLR making one.  Sheets & Harrison can and should be the first to go.  Neither contribute much nor offer anything special or unique to the roster.  Both are sub-replacement level and won’t be missed.  They have already sent Burger & Mendick down to keep the aforementioned, no reason to do it again when the former are actually contributing and the later aren’t.  

[JoeC 241]

To me Sheets in a no-brainer.

[Capn12 1,576]

There is less than zero % chance that Leury is going anywhere. It won't happen, at any point during his contract.

Sheets will go to Charlotte, then Mendick will follow, unless they get creative with an "injury".

[Quin 4,560]

Sheets needs to go, then Harrison. Much prefer Danny's glove and, I can't believe I'm saying this, bat.

[bmags 9,255]

5 minutes ago, Quin said:

Sheets needs to go, then Harrison. Much prefer Danny's glove and, I can't believe I'm saying this, bat.

I am in favor of riding hot hands. It's hard because you know if Harrison is dfa'd he'll get picked up and have a better half but I really think at this point we have some vets that are way too comfortable. Not Abreu or even grandal, but I do kinda want the sox to tell moncada he's fighting for a starting spot. Nobody wants to buy a logo of a backup infielder.

[Snopek 442]

1 minute ago, Capn12 said:

Sheets will go to Charlotte, then Mendick will follow, unless they get creative with an "injury".

Unfortunately I don't believe they'll need too much creativity on the injury front, so I think the decisions will end up being pretty obvious.

But in "injuries off mode," Sheets and Harrison make the most sense. So it'll be Burger and Mendick. 

[he gone. 620]

Sheets to me is the no brainer. As you mentioned he hasn't done anything well and can be optioned. Playing lefty/righty is nice in theory ... that said when he's not producing regardless of matchups who cares? You can put a scarecrow up there and its the same results.

when you have a full lineup its some sort of mix of Eloy at DH/LF, Vaughn in RF/LF/DH/1B, Pollock in LF/RF, Engel as your backup OF. 1B is already crowded enough between Abreu and hopefully Yaz/Vaughn for the other days. Sheets isn't good and doesn't have a home. He's AAAA player. 

Second choice to me is easy as well ... barring some sort of amazing week or two, Harrison is a mid thirties guy on a one year deal. seems like a decent guy and all and wish him well, but his track record is what it is. he's probably due for a hot streak, but at this point he's had his chance and if he doesn't get hot when the crunch comes? cut bait. If he is hot? then mendick gets the squeeze. 

Listen, I hate Leury as much as many, but if you look at some of his underlying hard hit data + if you look at his track record in the field? Plus take into consideration his contract? He's on this team no matter what and actually does have value when properly deployed ... aka 2-3 games a week bouncing around and HITTING 7TH-9TH in the lineup. 

Burger is what he is right now ... a spark, but one with many holes in his game still. It's easy to forget sometimes that the kid was out of baseball for like 2+ years. i think he's doing an admirable job and I'd love to see him in lineups at 3b, dh, and 2b as much as it's realistic. I'd also like to see Moncada shift around to 2b a bit. 3b is still his and should be, but with the way he's playing he has to be a team player and bounce to 2b at least through Burgers hot streak or until Anderson is back. All hands on deck. 

[he gone. 620]

I can't believe its 2022 and during our "window" and I just typed multiple paragraphs about sheets, mendick, harrison and leury ... and at the end of it ... support mendick being on the team. 

 

fuck. 

[SpringfieldFan 212]

The idea that all four of those guys are better than anything in the minors...

[soxfan3530 73]

Assuming full health, Anderson, Vaugh, Robert, Abreu, Eloy, Grandal, Pollock, Moncada and Burger (in some order) should be the most common lineup with Garcia, Medick and Engel playing utility roles. 

Sheet and Harrison have to go. 

Edited June 6 by soxfan3530

[Quin 4,560]

7 minutes ago, soxfan3530 said:

Assuming full health, Anderson, Vaugh, Robert, Abreu, Eloy, Grandal, Pollock, Moncada and Burger (in some order) should be the most common lineup with Garcia, Medick and Engel playing utility roles. 

Sheet and Harrison have to go. 

Let's go Maximum Tony:

TA - C
Robert - DH
Moncada - SS
Abreu - 3B
Grandal - 1B
Eloy - RF
Pollock - CF
Burger - 2B
Vaughn - LF
McGuire - P

[mmmmmbeeer 295]

With the rumor going around that there were high-level Sox folks watching Sosa this week down in BHam, coupled with the way he's hitting (with a .972 OPS against RHP), there definitely seems to be something in the works for shaking up the whole Mendick/Leury/Burger/Harrison situation beyond needing to make room for TA's return.  Could be we see Sosa called up, Mendick, Burger, and Sheets sent down, and Harrison released.  Leury would be put back into a true backup/utility role.  Burger sticks if Yo needs an IL stint for the quad.

[Bob Sacamano 3,042]

1 hour ago, mmmmmbeeer said:

With the rumor going around that there were high-level Sox folks watching Sosa this week down in BHam, coupled with the way he's hitting (with a .972 OPS against RHP), there definitely seems to be something in the works for shaking up the whole Mendick/Leury/Burger/Harrison situation beyond needing to make room for TA's return.  Could be we see Sosa called up, Mendick, Burger, and Sheets sent down, and Harrison released.  Leury would be put back into a true backup/utility role.  Burger sticks if Yo needs an IL stint for the quad.

With the way LaRussa handles young players Sosa would probably play 3, 4 games a week to start with.

[The Kids Can Play 218]

Sheets back down to Charlotte and Harrison DFA!

Sheets is not strong defensively and obviously can't hit consistently at the ML level. Maybe he could be packaged in some future trade. We have too many first baseman. 

Mendick should stay. He is hitting much better and is better defensively than Harrison. 

[JoeC 241]

Random thought - the next addition to the 40-man (not off of the IL) should be a 3rd catcher.

If TLR keeps up this "DH Grandal and PH for McGuire late in the game" crap (which shouldn't happen to begin with since Grandal shouldn't be DHing), pretty soon we'll get ourselves into a shitty situation with a reliever hitting for himself and Leury behind the dish in the 11th inning.

[pcq 1,200]

If they keep Grandad they need another catcher. Sheets has to go. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside 3,944]

2 hours ago, mmmmmbeeer said:

With the rumor going around that there were high-level Sox folks watching Sosa this week down in BHam, coupled with the way he's hitting (with a .972 OPS against RHP), there definitely seems to be something in the works for shaking up the whole Mendick/Leury/Burger/Harrison situation beyond needing to make room for TA's return.  Could be we see Sosa called up, Mendick, Burger, and Sheets sent down, and Harrison released.  Leury would be put back into a true backup/utility role.  Burger sticks if Yo needs an IL stint for the quad.

Burger should stick no matter what. He and Vaughn are very similar and Vaughn can help him adjust to RHP. Burger having trouble against RHP like Vaughn did last year. Once Burger starts going to right field against RHP his improvement could be similar to Vaughn's . Just needs to learn to be a little more selective, lay off the high fastballs and down and away sliders. Took Abreu a long time but he's gotten more selective and increased his walk rate. The last couple of weeks Abreu has been on fire.

[Tnetennba 3,963]

4 hours ago, Quin said:

Let's go Maximum Tony:

TA - C
Robert - DH
Moncada - SS
Abreu - 3B
Grandal - 1B
Eloy - RF
Pollock - CF
Burger - 2B
Vaughn - LF
McGuire - P

Maximum Tony definitely benches Vaughn for Sheets, and somehow rotates Leury around every single position throughout the game.

[Tnetennba 3,963]

4 hours ago, mmmmmbeeer said:

With the rumor going around that there were high-level Sox folks watching Sosa this week down in BHam, coupled with the way he's hitting (with a .972 OPS against RHP), there definitely seems to be something in the works for shaking up the whole Mendick/Leury/Burger/Harrison situation beyond needing to make room for TA's return.  Could be we see Sosa called up, Mendick, Burger, and Sheets sent down, and Harrison released.  Leury would be put back into a true backup/utility role.  Burger sticks if Yo needs an IL stint for the quad.

I would hope they would give Yolbert a shot before rushing Sosa to the bigs, but it would be very White Sox to do so.

[caulfield12 4,447]

2 hours ago, Bob Sacamano said:

With the way LaRussa handles young players Sosa would probably play 3, 4 games a week to start with.

When’s the last time the Sox jumped a position prospect directly from AA to the bigs?

They didn’t do it with Robert or Madrigal, or Vaughn.  Doubt they start with Sosa before at least looking to go the trade route.

[CeaseAndExist 236]

DFA Moncada and Grandal

[caulfield12 4,447]

10 hours ago, CeaseAndExist said:

DFA Moncada and Grandal

That sounds both well-reasoned and practical…

[Timmy U 874]

11 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

When’s the last time the Sox jumped a position prospect directly from AA to the bigs?

They didn’t do it with Robert or Madrigal, or Vaughn.  Doubt they start with Sosa before at least looking to go the trade route.

Right. Vaughn came directly from A ball.  Bring up Wes Kath!