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And if it happens, we will back to the point in this cycle where he has no value, because he has no control and an injury history. We have done all of this before. I have no idea why we think something is going to change, but here we are.

If you "don't need" it, why do you keep chasing me around to tell me how wrong I am? Why the need to literally make up things like "good" and "evil"? Why the need to worry about the definition of parsed words while completely ignoring context? If you are so secure in your beliefs, there should be no need to spend this much effort telling the world how I need to just be quiet and accept everything I am told at face value. Run along then.

Yeah, SS2k5 was the one who actually convinced me to give up the ghost on 5 WAR Robert, and realize he's a 2 bWAR player over 162, which translates to a 1.5 WAR dude over the 100 games he'll be available for. But the Sox probably think there's a little more helium to that 85 OPS+, and he covers CF better than anybody they have for now.

Getz made similar "happy to have him" comments last offseason and obviously did end up holding on to Robert despite the trade chatter at that time. Folks here said he was being disingenuous and would "obviously" take whatever he could get before ST ended, and here we are a full season + $20 million option later. Is he available? Obviously...for some yet to be met price. But nothing about this saga so far contradicts the idea that they are fine with keeping him if the alternative is giving him away. If they were desperate to move him for any return, he'd be gone for an A-ball pitcher and a lottery ticket IFA already. If they just wanted him gone entirely, they don't pick up the option. I don't think it's unreasonable to believe that they are actually content to keep Robert if they can't get a return they like, because they have repeatedly demonstrated that to be the case.

They said they expect Robert to be their CF, but they'll listen on him. I'm still waiting for you show us the lie. I'm just trying to think along with how the off-season is progressing. I don't need to imagine everybody wearing sweat shirts labeled "Good" and "Evil" for the world to make sense to me. Again, I would love for you to question the GM you say is so great and powerful. Let us know when you're going to start doing that, instead of dogging conversations about Luis Robert's trade value and market and trying to force us to admit really bad things are happening to us.

To clarify, Robert had a great 15 game stretch in July and then from August until the end of his season went right back to being .256 / .287 / .690 At this point, if he becomes valuable again it would be a pleasant surprise but I have pretty much lost all hope with this guy which is incredibly sad.

I also think Getz overplayed his hand and thought the offers for Robert would be better than, “here’s some mediocre prospects… now you give us Robert and $10 million.”

I don't disagree. But there seems to be some frustration over Chris Getz not announcing a blow by blow commentary of any trade discussions, or to settle for a package that has less value than just plugging a very good defensive CF into a lineup with no better options in the system. I mean, every team in transience announces a core player or two who is untouchable, and they listen on any phone calls they get. I also don't get the notion that we all have to pretend the White Sox front office is regularly asking for Crochet-like packages in exchange for Robert and are befuddled when the line goes dead. It's kind of insulting to demand we all pretend that. Nobody walks into a car dealership and announces the highest price they're willing to pay. It's a game. So is the trade market. I suppose I'll be accused of writing pages of "WestEddy Getz" in my notebook because I only think he's acting the way the rest of the league does.

So you can admit that Getz is perfectly willing to lie to us, but then get all up in a bunch to justify him doing exactly that when someone points out that is pretty clearly lying to us. Weird, because I think you are the one who is upset that someone is questioning the Great and Powerful Getz, hence the effort to parse his words and make everything okey dokey. Getz is lying, not lying, and justified in lying, all at once. That is covering some bases.

I love when a GM says we aren’t shopping said player but we’ll listen to offers. Robert is most definitely being shopped and I honestly don’t think they want to risk retaining him into the season but they may have to due to his value being so low.

No wait. I recall you being in finance, or something. Do you announce what stocks you're going to be buying up in the next month, and which you won't be? I'm surprised that business-speak makes you angry. Everybody does that. The entire world blows smoke up each other's heinies. There's probably player agreement or tampering rules that govern how much they have to thread the needle about trades and such. Again, I know it's frustrating, but I don't understand why it's so hard to grasp that there's a line where it's worth more to plug Robert into CF than let him go for non-entities. Is Getz supposed to settle and just take what the market's offering, even while the free agency market hasn't really started to play out? If you know about these talks with the Reds and Mets (beyond what little's been reported), are they packages you wouldn't complain about once executed?

Would make sense with Cassie on the way out. Maybe they bring back Bellinger?

Yeah kinda figure that. They gotta add an OF to keep Suzuki at DH right?

Cubs gonna sign a big bat also now

"Glean" all you like. You can try to turn this into playing around with the definition of "is" is type of garbage, but if Chris Getz is in pretty deep talks with the Reds and Mets, he is pretty actively looking to trade him, even if Chris Getz won't call it "shopping" so that Luis Robert can be Schrödinger's trade bait. You can play games with the phrase "shopping" so that Chris Getz comes out immaculate in your scenario, but big picture, this is just playing the dupe again. Getz will piss on us and call it a golden shower, doesn't mean that is accurate.

I'm going to get labeled as a Getz-lover, just because I'm trying to glean some sense from this. Can you tell me where the lie is here? “It’s very truthful that we are not shopping him, because we’re very comfortable having him in a White Sox uniform, knowing what he’s capable of doing. Now if it makes sense for both parties to work out a deal, then so be it. But we’re planning on him being in uniform for us next year,” Do teams generally announce that they intend to trade a player at all costs? I don't seem to remember that ever really happening. Should Chris Getz release his call logs to the press? What level of factual information do you think you're due? And are you saying that the White Sox shouldn't then trade Robert if they get their socks knocked off by a return offer? If you know something that we don't, it would be nice if you told us.

January 7, 1985 - Former White Sox reliever Hoyt Wilhelm was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, garnering almost 84 per cent of the vote in his eighth year on the ballot. In the previous election of 1984, Wilhelm had fallen just 13 votes shy of enshrinement, with 72 per cent of the vote. Wilhelm pitched six full seasons for the White Sox, the most time logged with any of the knuckleballer’s nine franchises. He had a career White Sox ERA of 1.97, 41 wins and 99 saves. The ERA, considering the unpredictability of the pitch he threw, a knuckleball, was truly remarkable.

I am saying Chris Getz is lying through his teeth when he talks about keeping Luis Robert, and the fact that the rest of baseball keeps talking about other MLB teams engaging in pretty healthy trade talks according to reporters who don't see their living depending on keeping the White Sox happy is a pretty clear confirmation of that. We KNOW that Chris Getz will tell us whatever story is convenient at the time to sell to the general public, so I am not sure why we are taking what Getz tells to Merkin as gospel here.

See below for the Top 20 of what is now a Top 30. https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2027-chicago-white-sox/prospects/?season=2026&ranking=preseason

From my November 2022 story of the issues with the organization. This from one of six sources I spoke with: “Jason Benetti’s deal with the Sox is up, the Sox hold the option for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He went to Fox to negotiate that deal with them after he was told to do it and then come back to the Sox and they’d work something out. Jason wanted to get the deal done with the Sox first and then go to Fox or ESPN or whoever. Turns out when he came back to the Sox and said that he needs 40 days off so he can do the Fox work he was told, ‘no, that’s not happening.’ So I don’t know what’s going to happen to him or Steve Stone.”

People are taking way too simplistic of a view on this. They are certainly right in saying we have failed to cash in on Robert for two straight years. And I fully get the skepticism that the third will be the charm. However, Robert went through some drastic changes last year and may have turned a corner with the bat. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s injury prone, but with half a season’s time it could address the other element that has impacted his value which is being a bad hitter. Not saying the juice will be worth the squeeze ultimately, but the calculus is arguably different now than it was a year ago if you believe in his improvements. All this being said, I’m not sure I see a better use of his $20M next year that doesn’t involve a significant long-term contract that Jerry won’t permit. I’d rather roll the dice on Robert one last time, try to build some momentum with the positional group, and see where things stand in July. If someone is willing give up real value for him right now, I’d certainly accept that offer. But based on what have seen and heard so far this offseason, teams don’t appear to be willing to pay up for 2nd half Robert (or 75% of that guy) even if we include cash. As such, we likely need to hold and hope he can be both healthy and productive.

MLB off-seasons have become frustrating in how they play out. Are you suggesting the the White Sox declare that they will not trade Robert under any circumstances? Or do you think they should just take the best offer right now because ChiSoxFanMike is cranky?

BA dropped their new top 30

Taking steps...aka... Figuring out how much money they need to pay off the Trump family.