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depends how many times you mention him.

Then you stop ignoring the fact that this was completely unnecessary. $14M is not nothing. There is no fucking way that in 2 years time $14M is going to be the going rate for a utility infielder, as you have suggested at least once in this thread. Completely discounting the $4M in deferrals is also silly. $14M would have been good for 2nd highest paid player on the 2019 team besides...Jose Abreu. Its not nothing. No it is not franchise crippling, but it is $14M less to spend on that team, and one less roster spot to work with. It also really limits the Sox ability to add guys this offseason and next that will need to be DHs in the near future - Castellanos, Ozuna, trading for Martinez, etc. Frankly I don't want any of those guys, so I am personally not worried about it, but this move does without a doubt limit their options. I don't really see anybody having "countless overreactions" - some well informed posters find it to be stupid and unnecessary - which it is. There is no need for you to respond to each post saying its no big deal.

This deal is absolutely disastrous for the team. There is a high chance his last year is a complete sunken cost. This could be the difference between an ace and a low end starter. The difference between going to the world series and actually winning the damn thing. What a horrible, horrible deal.

Typical SoxTalk overreacting to something that’s not even a big deal. I think this was an overpay, but it’s not the end of the world like you guys are making it out to be.

If this somehow leads to a goodwill that allows the Sox to keep Moncada and Robert on the Southside long term, then OK. Abreu truly is a tremendously likeable man with both his teammates and the fans. Having great people who give back to the community like Abreu and Anderson just make it that much easier to root for the Sox.

Do not love that third year. 1) Jose is a 1B only and a shitty one at that. 2) Jose is open about hating DHing. 3) Jose's OBP is slipping these past few years. Had a big increase in counting stats (HR/RBIs) with the 2019 baseballs but so did a lot of guys. If they switch back the balls it could be kind of ugly. 4) We have the #1 first base prospect in all of MLB who could reasonably be ready for big league play at the end of 2020. Don't love it. Found it a bit unnecessary but of course am happy for Abreu and he certainly "deserves it" whether or not its the best move for the roster for 2020-2022.

Soxtalk was up in arms over the Sox being cheap when they couldn't beat San Diego's deal for Machado, but 50 million for the "face of the franchise"" over the past 6 seasons while the team has been horrible, who is as classy of a player as you'll get, who is also fairly valuable... and we complain they overpaid. Jesus Fucking Christ people.

Love Abreu. Ain’t my money. Hope we can make a playoff run with him. It’s not like it’ll hinder further signings.

Do people actually think Chisox378 is being serious? It's clearly a troll job. Probably best to just ignore his posts.

It was only last week that someone said that to me about Grandal.

You really think they’re that dumb where they didn’t budget out what a high-end starter will cost them? You’re just making up scenarios that are worst-case.

It's not 18 million for the 10000000000000th time. No matter how many times people post it to be critical, the White Sox are paying Jose Abreu 14 million dollars in 2022. If 14 million dollars at DH is going to impact their ability to contend then they never stood a chance. If a 14 million dollar sunken cost is the WORST thing that happens to this team in FA over the next 5 years, then holy cow they did an incredible job.

Player 1: Age 31 .246 Avg 28 HR .380 OBP .848 OPS 119 OPS+ Player 2. Age 32 .284 Avg 33 HR .330 OBP .834 OPS 119 OPS+ Player 1 gets 4 years $73 Mil. Average per year $18.25 Mil Great deal Player 2 gets 3 years $50 Mil. Average per year $16.66 Mil. Terrible deal

lol your takes in this thread are straight up comical. This extension is not the end of the world, and the Sox will be just fine. But there is a legitimate scenario where Jose regresses to a replacement level player in 21-22 who we are paying $17M AAV. Its just unnecessary, and based on how this team has operated in the Jerry Reinsdorf era, it is fair to suspect this could cause the Sox to cut corners in other spots on the roster when it should be competing for championships because we decided to reward a guy with a $50M deal he didn't deserve. Again, this isn't franchise crippling, but it is also stupid and unnecessary. If Reinsdorf has Ok'd payrolls approaching $175M in 2021 and beyond, then no big deal, but I'll believe that when I see it.

Jesus fucking Christ, the $4M in deferrals aren’t worth zero so please stop presenting it that way.

Ding ding ding. I've posted this 100 times. A 2 year, 28 million dollar extension is whatever. People getting up in arms about it makes no sense. Who cares? Fucking 2 years and 28 million. In 2022 that will buy you a utility player. The risk on that deal is so minimal.

He was praising it two pages back

Tough crowd if you go by his traditional baseball stats. Didn't he lead the AL in RBIs? 33 homers is a lot in my world. This is an early Christmas for fans like me. I always posted I thought he'd get 2 years and a third year option and total deal worth about 40 million. Frankly I posted that to not get kicked off the board. Of course I hoped he'd get up to a 15 mill a year average. Let's face it. Most people against this deal are advanced stat people or baseball age-ists who think 32 is old (for somebody that's on the current team, not a sexy unknown on some other team). To be fair, these people also see him as a doofus, a butcher at first base defensively. We just signed a 31 year old catcher to a nice deal, although to be fair this is his age 31 season coming up as Grandal turned 31 in November. The way a fan like me looks at this: We just signed Jose Abreu, my current favorite player. I personally feel if u wanna win a WS it helps to have a guy who has been with the team a long time and WANTS IT BADLY. He mixes in well with the younger guys, a leader. What's more, I am not of the opinion he will suddenly turn into a .199 hitter with 17 homers, 42 RBIs in 550 at bats. I guess that COULD happen. I'm not worried about it. To me, this gives us a guy who bleeds White Sox colors, wants to win titles and just might do it. Throw everything together: this team is better off with him (yes at this salary) than without him. If you held a gun to my head would I say he's overpaid a bit? Yeah I guess. But in my world, who cares? Not my monopoly money and with Jerry spending for Jose and Grandal and more to come, there's pressure on the front office from Jerry finally I'm sure to complete the rebuild fast and win now/soon. Obviously I love everything about the signing of Jose: it's the right thing to do. Time to start winning, folks.

One is an elite defender at a premium position and one is the exact opposite.

White Sox being loyal again. After further review, I change my mind on this one. What better than to have a player stay with the same team for 9 years of his pro career. The key is, lets hope he can continue to be Jose Abreu. If so, even better. Remember, it went Frank Thomas, Paul Konerko, and now Jose Abreu as faces of this franchise. The next couple of years we will see who takes the baton as face of this franchise but for now its Jose Abreu. And no better man and person is fit for this job right now. Lets bring home a championship Jose!

1 positive thing is this is probably the last sweetheart deal Jerry is able to hand out in his lifetime.

What business world do you live in?!?!?!?

I’ll be honest Ray, this is a completely lame defense and you come off as a company man when you can’t be critical of anything this front office does. I don’t even think this is a Hahn / KW thing, but there is real risk a 34 / 35 year old 115 wRC+ DH falls off a cliff and becomes a real problem for us both from a roster & financial standpoint. Saying otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous.

Not going to lose sleep over it.

Didn't seem necessary to give him a third guarantee year, would've liked to see 2 years with a handsome "buyout" which would be more or less a thank you gift. This whole contract seems like the thank you gift though. I get what he did for you, and at a bargain for 6/68, so if JR wants to throw him some extra money I can see that (as long as it doesn't come out of future budgets), it's not great business, but i can see that angle. But in no world is Abreu worth $16-17mm a year when Edwin Encarncion is going to settle for 1 year and like $8-10mm. This won't end up being a TERRIBLE deal, but it's definitely taking undue risk and paying over market salary. But whatever. If there's someone to have faith in work ethic in -it's Jose. He's going to try and earn every last dollar and put in the work, let's just hope he doesn't break down too bad. The man deserves a run with the Sox when they're good - hopefully he can be the 2022 hero with like a walk off home run.

Come on guys lets let the offseason get to january before we claim this signing is limiting us

I'm not defending the deal. Again, I'm saying it's a slight overpay but it doesn't matter. That is my position and theres really no real risk/downside. People acting like the sky is falling are the people I disagree with.

I'm using abstractions and conditions in arguing future events which granted some people struggle to comprehend. There is a non zero chance a 35 year old Jose Abreu is replacement level in 2022. I'm not arguing there is a 100% chance. I'm arguing there is a chance. Probably about 1/3 given historical aging curves for similar players. Given that the club has never, ever shown a willingness to cut bait on "franchise favs" historically it's a very real hypothetical situation that they will be stuck with a bad player they won't move on from. You misrepresented my position on Jose as I was quite happy when he accepted the QO. The risk isn't the AAV it's the years. Amazingly they didn't even manage to lower the AAV and handed out the years. It's an irrational baseball move you can't defend on baseball terms and everybody in this thread knows it was an order on high from JR to lock this guy up and have him retire a Sox.

Widget industry? I work in as about cutthroat of an industry as exists. What does anything you said matter? It doesn't. No GM in MLB gets to make every final decision for a ball club. Period, end of story. To call him a cuck because he didn't fight his owner about a signing is comical. No matter what the industry, the owner (CEO or whoever) has authoritative power over the executives underneath them. I can make as thorough of a case as possible for why I don't agree with a direction, but at the end of the day I'm not signing the checks so I don't make the final decision on everything. You made an immature distasteful post, that wasn't very logical, and now you continue to defend that post.

Every take you have that includes a personal anecdote from your widget industry is dumb and you should feel bad for it. MLB teams don't operate in any comparable way to other large corporations. For starters, name another industry where you're guaranteed a profit just for being in the protected club? The Mob I guess. It's a legal cabal. The economics are not applicable to your industry or any other.

Pederson will be much more expensive than Castellanos?

Yes, I expect the Sox to bow out of the Cole/Strasburg sweepstakes any minute now as a result of this oh-so-crippling contract.

This is pretty much how I feel, except that Jose hating the DH should not matter. When Vaughn is ready, he'll be the 1B and Jose will DH. It doesn't matter if he doesn't like it. There's no way that we would let Abreu play 1B when we have a better option in the middle of our championship run just because he hates being the DH.

And one less position to worry about filling. Look, I don't love the move (I preferred to go year by year), but I really don't think it's going to affect our ability to compete for a championship at all.

Friggin Jerry Reinsdorf trying to guarantee himself another World Series game ball...bastard!!!

Hahn the cuck. Hey you get this title of GM but you don't have 100% say on baseball ops you get the owner to hand out overpays, you still want the gig? Sure.

JFC. Cult of personality.

So he's projected to be worth 1 less WAR than they should expect and you're crying and whining about how terrible this is. Good stuff.

Just sign Wheeler ASAP so we can talk about that instead.

This is absolutely a Jerry loves Abreu thing.

Aren't we really just talking about one year of potentially sunk cost, in a contract that isn't producing? Are some of you that concerned that he won't be good. over the next 2 seasons? I'm sorry, but I just don't see this as a potentially crippling deal, regarding J. R.'s finances.

Ridiculous overpay nobody was going to pay him that

Even this guy gets it.

As long as Jerry looks at it as “Jose’s money lives outside of whatever salary cap we are targeting” I’m good with this. I really love Abreu and always have.

Anyone else feel like this is a Jerry move more than a Rick move?

Just when I thought they were behaving like an intelligent organization .....

Told you all he was getting 3 years.

There is more to judging hitting besides WAR. Watching the players at bats is worth alot. Even though Moncada had a better WAR he is not a better hitter than Benintendi. Benintendi had a down year last season. I predict Benintendi to be a borderline Hall of Famer when its all said and done.

I’m literally dying right now.

Moncada is hyped.