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Was skeptical but bat flip convinced me.

My answer is....yes! His numbers show that he is ready for the MLB level already(minors stats show 51 bb, to 21 k's with a .309 average and .377 obp.) He also won a Gold Glove. He can be placed as the leadoff hitter or even better.... the #2 spot. This can open up Danny Mendick to an outfield position. My idea is to sign Billy Hamilton to play CF and leadoff with Madrigal in the 2 hole.

There is zero reason that $150M should be a problem. I think we could probably that payroll right now given all the TV deal money (both national & local) we now have in place.

That’s like someone going to the casino on payday, hitting up the roulette table, placing all their money on red 36, and then saying “I sure enjoyed those thirty seconds” after it comes up black 11. I am one of the biggest fans of being bold, but trading a top 25 prospect for Mookie without being able to secure an extension is simply reckless. There are so many ways to build a playoff caliber team by 2020/2021, we don’t need to go all in on this one guy. If the Red Sox are willing to take lesser prices, then I’d be far more willing to roll the dice. I just don’t think that ends up happening.

I heard if Collins is in dugout even that the Sox pitchers' arms will fall off. I don't see how any of them can even throw a strike if Collins is behind the plate. Sox won't even win 50 games with Collins at catcher. He's the plague!

That sucks. Now let's all dream of our division winning juggernauts with Kole Calhoun in RF and salary space galore to sign up to 3 corey dickersons.

In September, when he was finally getting regular playing time, he hit .233/.343/.417. Not great, but not bad. Collins probably isn't going to be a star in MLB, but if he can get on base at a .350ish clip and hit 25 homeruns, he would be a fine everyday DH. A DH who would post similar or slightly better stats probably wouldn't be hard to find in free agency every year, but if the Sox could save $8-10 mil annually and put it towards something else by using Collins in that role, why wouldn't they?

This team SHOULD NOT trade significant assets for a 1 year player, Is that better? Sign Betts in 13 months. Don't give up Madrigal or Cease or Vaughn for a guy that is going to walk after 1 season. Its silly.

This whole Semien and Samardzija backlash is such a joke. NO ONE and I mean no one disliked that trade when it was made. Samardzija was coming off productive years and we looked like we finally wanted to contend. Semien was a UTL player at best. We all agreed on that then. It just so happens that Samardzija turned into a terrible pitcher and Semien (5 years later) became a star... Hindsight is nice... But not when you use it to act like we never should have made the deal, when in reality we all loved it.

Betts is not going to sign an extension. There is zero reason for him to not test free agency. Trading assets for 1 year of a star player before the Sox are clearly in contention mode would be idiotic. Mookie most likely doesn't even make this a playoff team in 2020. If the Red Sox want to trade Betts for something like Rutherford + Sheets + Pilkington - sure make the deal, and roll the dice. There is no point in giving up anything more than that, and there is a 0% chance a team closer to contention would not beat that package. Giving up Madrigal for 1 year of Betts is the type of deal that is going to get hammered for a decade as Madrigal becomes one of the stars of baseball in Boston. Hahn pretty much said last week that 1 year rentals that will require a lot to acquire are not really in the cards, so not sure why this is still being discussed.

Exactly. I totally get those that say we should just aim to sign him next year, I don't understand those that just accept him as a rental and we should stay away. If sox decided they were not the sox, there is actually a very favorable market to be team to sign betts next year. Yankees unlikely, Dodgers possible (but I think they will go after rendon/pitching making another splash move unlikely), red sox unlikely if he gets to FA, nats unlikely, cubs unlikely, houston unlikely. Rangers, braves, padres are the teams it's possible go for spending at him. Getting this type of premium talent using the savings from cheaper young good players was kinda why I thought we did a rebuild. I think people are too concerned with making sure 2024-2027 keeps the ride going at the cost of the ride never really starting.

It's about that time. World Series is complete and the offseason shuffle is officially a go. James Fox has it all covered with a breakdown of the current White Sox 40-man roster and prepares you for the Rule-5.

Alex Speier of the Boston Globe released a book recently on the Red Sox called Homegrown. Detailing the end of Theo through the DD era. Lots of info on Moncada/Kopech in there and an entire chapter dedicated to the Sale trade. Hahn was asking for Benintendi ++ at the deadline. The week of the meetings, Hahn called and said they'd probably be trading Sale. He asked for Moncada. Then he called back the next day I believe the day for the meetings and asked for Kopech. They were in discussions with other teams too. Hahn pushed for Devers as 3rd piece. Dombrowski wouldn't do it because he knew nobody could offer Moncada/Kopech as headliners. When Hahn called back the night before the trade and asked for Basabe/Diaz, DD agreed basically instantly.

No.

Might make an interesting platoon partner with Avi.

Come on man, you are much better than this. There are a hell of a lot of options between going all in on Mookie in 2020 and only signing guys like Calhoun & Dickerson.

The better question if is Hahn and JR stop being penny pinchers and try and win out of the gate

Raiders looking like the huge winners in that deal

They aren't getting fired Jack. You can stop wondering until next year

Hell yea I'll take him. Will be 28 in about a week, has "military style" plate discipline which is what a scout described and has left handed power. Plus, Tim needs a new bat flip buddy.

I don't trust Haniger. Not enough of a track record. I don't think he'd be cheap and I wouldn't waste assets on him. I'd much rather try Tsutsugo, Polanco or Nimmo. The Sox could probably get Polanco for the same price as they got Nova last winter. I'd do that everyday.

I think yes. His arm is his best defensive tool, so you could even try hiding him in RF. He’s slow but his instincts are fine. It would be two notches better than palka. Spending relatively little on this as an upside gamble makes more sense, to me, than spending much more on the safer but middling RF options currently available elsewhere. Theres clearly elite pitching available right now, but not COF help. Gamble on a lotto ticket here; spend on the real deal in the rotation.

What will we do with Luis Robert with the great Billy Hamilton patrolling CF?LOL.

What on tarnation is this...

And then watch whoever we traded Mookie for develop into a well above average player making a pittance for 3 seasons, just so we could win 83 games in 2020! #totallyworthit #wheredoisignup #sofuckingstupid

I would be genuinely unhappy with Leury as a full time starter in RF. I would have few issues with him being a platoon player.

Can he play right field?

I'd be hard pressed to call any scenario that results in 94 wins a worst case scenario.

I get what you mean, and sticking with Collins would be ideal as long as he produces. My issue is that I feel like McCann's 2019 was a fluke and his second half numbers reflect that. Collins might improve at the plate, but we know he will never even be an average defensive catcher. McCann's first half was a mirage that is not going to be repeated. We need to be proactive and stabilize that position this offseason in Grandal. Grandal is available right now and would solidify the catching position with a plus player for the next few seasons. McCann could be the backup in 2020, or traded if the Sox want Collins as the backup. I want to avoid the nightmare scenario of both McCann and Collins having crappy 2019's leaving catcher as a huge void going into 2021.

Personally I'd rather be bold then try and incrementally get better through internal improvement. If being bold shortens the window of contention by a couple years but leads to a better chance of a title in 2020-22 that's something they need to consider.

I mean I imagine if we did trade for Betts that the Sox would be aggressive in trying to get him signed long term. That year or so of exclusive negotiation time is worth something since you don't compete with everyone else. Indeed, it's risky because there's a damn good chance he wouldn't sign. But it is bold.

This is exactly the point I was getting at when I posed the hypothetical Eloy question earlier in the thread. People have an idea of what a player should turn out to be based on how highly touted or highly ranked they are/were as a prospect. The guys who are higher ranked should get a longer leash, in their minds.

Burr and Lambert back throwing too.

Money talks. Why would he kneecap himself negotiating with 1 team when he will be negotiating with most of the league next year? Here's the plan: come at Boston with a solid offer. Put the ball in their court. Get Betts into the fold, win the division, and resign him.

I don’t see how 1 could have this opinion and then also pencil in Cease to start the year in the rotation. I don’t know your personal stance on Cease, just a general statement. Makes no sense that we gave so much leeway to Gio, Yoan, and now Cease, but Collins gets less than a 1/4 season? I’d say let’s see what we have over a solid 300 AB’s before any decisions are made either way

A little surprised to see this take from GreenSox, the lover of fringe prospects. Frare and Ruiz are going no where. Frare still has 2 options and Ruiz 1. Both have great arms, and while they both were terrible in 19, they are good AAA insurance. Palka is a dead goose - he'll be gone soon. Medeiros is probably a coin flip at best to survive the offseason. Profiles decently as a lefty reliever, and did OK once transition to that role full time in 19, but LOOGYs are less valuable now with the new rules, and he's behind Bummer, Fry and Frare. So going to be tough for him him to crack the MLB pen, but he does have 2 options, so that helps. Vieira is out of options, so he's probably the likeliest to go of this crew after Palka, and the fact that the Sox didn't call him up in August probably shows how they feel about him. But he did pass the first round of cuts, so they clearly like him enough to keep him around for now. His arm is electric. Oh and Mercedes....no one is going to take this guy in the R5 draft. Keeping him off the 40 man is fine, and probably the easiest way to retain him for now.

That play where Cohen was running down the sidelines and had like three steps on a LB should have been a big play. Trubisky threw it to his back shoulder and out of bounds. He has some of the worst accuracy to sidelines I have ever seen.

I am not defending that trade, but Semien was still terrible defensively with Oakland the year after the trade. He really didn't become a plus defender until 2018, after 1 season of being one of if not the worst SS in the league, and another 2 seasons of average at best defense. Could he have made that same progress with the Sox? Impossible to say. But its not like Oakland transformed him overnight.

The difference was that the A's employed Ron Washington who worked with Semien and focused on his defensive craft. He is doing the same thing with the Braves young players. Whomever is doing this for the whitesox is failing. Its sad really. Through the rebuild phase we should of focused on defense as one of the aspects of fundamental baseball. Tim Anderson should of been an absolute priority.

He can definitely hit enough for a starting catcher if you give him time. The problem is that the sox don't seem to see him as a catcher as does longenhagen. So if it is a DH the bat is Still ok, but the question is if if it is more than average. His OPS was super high but often the milb ops of super high walk guys who lack either power or hit won't hold in mlb because pitchers there throw strikes unless you force them out of the zone. Tyler white is a good example of this. Slightly different hitter (more hit, less power than collins) but also a guy who posted 900+ ops regularly based on astronomical walk rates (coupled with like a 270 avg and like 15-20 bombs) and this didn't hold in mlb. Still think he will be an 800+ ops guy in mlb but the value of that depends on if he can catch or not.

It's Wednesday is the deadline for eligible rule 5 players. They need to be put on roster or they can be selected in the draft in dec

I like David Peralta as a stop gap option. 1 year of control - should be around $9M in final year of arb. Plus defender. Left handed bat. Career .346 OBP. There is talk that Peralta is a non-tender candidate, so I imagine the Dbacks wouldn't want a ton besides the salary relief. I think he's a good fit to cover RF in 2020 without a long term commitment, and then revisit a year from now. Hopefully by then Adolfo is ready to take over, but if not, then would be an appropriate time to back up the Brinks truck for Mookie.

Why not just sign Edwin Encarnacion for just money to DH?

I read that Hahn asked for Moncada, Kopech, and Devers for Sale.

There is an article on Murphy in today's Purple Row, saying that he is indeed available. Financial commitment is $8mm in 2020 and $6-12mm in 2021. Age 35. He can still hit, strictly a DH. Available for next to nothing.

Ok gotcha, I didn’t know if you were referring to Kopech as a mini Thor or something like that.

Third piece

From what I’ve read, he calls a good game and has a good arm, but his receiving and framing are the problem.