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There’s really no spot for him now that they resigned Rodon.

You could fill a large lake with the water you carry for this organization. I am sold. They did their best. If we dont win the division or any playoff games this year. We can always have this.

Mets are about to sign Bauer and Sox fans are on the edge of their seat trying to find out whether Folty chose us. I am one of those Sox fans lol.

The Collins love on this site is incredible. The guy is not exactly a front line player. He is not great defensively and what we’re his stats in the minors? He is not that great. Neither is lecroy but he probably knows how to handle pitchers and is a smart catcher. Good depth for sure , nice sign. That’s it no all star no starter just good damn depth.

Long answer: no they have not Short answer: no

Man, if only the Sox could be the what the Padres were in the Machado saga to the Mets and Dodgers. Go screw yourself JR...

I hate the owner so much of this franchise.

"Down to 2" Sox and Mets are both the second teams in their respective cities. Sox are from the Second City. Bauer is signing with the Sox.

Idk, I think it’s kind of refreshing. Agents do it all the time. They even lie to reporters to get their clients more money. She’s been pretty transparent and I think it’s a good look. I’m not a Bauer guy but I don’t see the problem with her confirming that there are two teams left. Helps make the offseason less excruciating and kills nonsense rumors. But I’m not a peer or a GM like you so I digress.

With some quality baseball journalists being let go I have no idea why Bob has a job still. He’s is so unequivocally awful at his job.

So Collins is gonna have to prove he can ACTUALLY catch. This is a great depth/fallback move.

As opposed to Scott Boras doing a press conference or selected leaks to his favorite reporters?

lmao @ the luba hate, this is just absurd what's wrong with her tweet? It's quite clear that this is the 'end game' with all the national reporters reporting that it's down to mets/dodgers.

how unprofessional for Luba to tweet that. Seriously, if that is how she thinks she should do business...good luck.

1 mil a year for 69 years?

Using their ridiculously low payrolls at peak rebuild to suggest they spent most of the Machado money is poor logic. The reality is that money has not been spent at this point in time. However, if they can extend Giolito & Lynn and possibly add a few years onto Anderson’s deal I’d probably change my tune.

JR "Hello I would like to place a collect call to Hudson Hill 5-9975 please" Operator "What?"

Well not every teams Chairman calls Bob on their personal rotary phone.

He’s only accurate when it’s bad news for the Sox

Oh Bob

Scott Boras has turned free agency into a circus for decades, and he has done just fine. Let's see what the deal looks like and then we can judge the job that was done.

Wait, there's people on this board who still think we might sign Bauer? Wtf

I'm going to guess it's the team that didn't ask the free agent to bend over backwards to fit their plans and instead is the teams that respected the players value.

Truth.

Thank god we didn't sign Machado or Harper. Imagine trying to fill in the lineup/roster and keep the gold in the swimming pool filled. It would be impossible.

Yes it is. You're on the clock to win a world series . You got a free agent without many suitors who wants to play on a contender, likes your coaching staff, actually wants to be here, who is open to some kind of oddly structured contract, and the Sox, who tell you all about multiple championships and the money will be spent, look the gift horse in the mouth because JR can't spend more than last year because the poor owners lost so much money .

It was super frustrating, but it's a confounding draft class to me. I think I agree that it's likely sox had planned on some additional cubans to make the jump, but it was reversed by Trump admin. Sox may have had a bunch of extra budget at that point, the rest of players under previous agreements, so they just made sure they got Sanchez away from some teams in the previous year who still had money (orioles, etc). And the other part of it is that class has some really interesting pieces, moreso than many previous years. Bailey is the obvious, but it plucked a very interesting year as a 16 year old with really great K rates. Veloz was 18, but has chance to fill out and dominated the DSL that year. Christian Vera we'll see this year, along with Wilfred Veras. And then Tatis showed little, but keeps getting mentioned by sox. So maybe we'll find out this year that despite missing a real top 30 talent when we expected one, that it was a good class. I mean 2018 we had no idea would produce what it did, with Ramos and others.

I woulda loved hill.. Given him the 5th starter role until he gets hurt in his 3rd start, then let Rodon take over until he got hurt, then it's June1 and Kopech can come up.

Because it is fully believable.

If you look at Spotrac, you can see who the Sox have under contractual control over the next several years. Starting Lineup - SS Tim Anderson - 2021, 22, 23, 24 - 3B Yoan Moncada - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 - 1B Jose Abreu - 21, 22 - LF Eloy Jimenez - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 - C Yasmani Grandal - 21, 22, 23 - DH/1B - Andrew Vaughn - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 - CF Luis Robert - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 - RF Adam Eaton - 21, 22 - 2B Nick Madrigal - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 Bench - Utility Leury Garcia - 21 - C Zack Collins - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 - OF Adam Engel - 21, 22, 23 - Extra bench player??? There could be room for another player here. Starting pitchers - Lucas Giolito - 21, 22, 23 - Dallas Keuchel - 21, 22, 23 - Lance Lynn - 21 - Dylan Cease - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 - Carlos Rodon - 21 - Reynaldo Lopez - 21, 22, 23 Bullpen - Liam Hendriks - 21, 22, 23, 24 - Aaron Bummer - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 - Evan Marshall - 21, 22 - Matt Foster - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 - Cody Heuer - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 - Jace Fry - 21, 22, 23 - Jimmy Cordero - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 - Zack Burdi -, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 Transition Pitcher - Garrett Crochet - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 - Michael Kopech - 21, 22, 24, 24, 25, 26 2021 Payroll allocation - $123M 2022 Payroll - $116M - no arb 2023 Payroll - $86M - 10 arb 2024 Payroll - $85M - 7 arb ************ Assuming they exercise options: In 2022, they could lose: Garcia, Lynn, Rodon In 2023, they could lose: Abreu, Eaton, Marshall In 2024, they could lose: Grandal, Engel, Giolito, Keuchel, Lopez, Fry I did this little exercise to see graphically where the Sox stand over the next few years. In 2022, the Sox will probably look to extend Lance Lynn. He will get a lot more than the $8M he's getting this year. Leury Garcia can likely be brought back if they like him for a similar number. Whether Rodon returns is a wild card. In 2023, will the Sox let Jose Abreu walk? Not likely. But Eaton and Marshall will likely be replaced. But this is the year when 10 players could hit arbitration, when salaries will rise quite a bit. In 2024, Grandal and Giolito will be up. Giolito has to be the priority. Grandal will likely need to be replaced. Engel, Keuchel, Lopez (if he's still around) and Fry can be replaced. Overall, the Sox appear to be in tremendous shape through the next 4 years with the core of their young players growing together. If the Sox stay on this plan, their payroll commitment will naturally increase over those 4 years as young players get into arbitration years and the Sox need to extend their best players, like Lucas Giolito. If pitchers Garrett Crochet and Michael Kopech turn into TOR starters, the Sox will be able to move on from Keuchel and Lynn, but that's not likely before 2024. From this, I think you can argue that the Sox should spend more money and raise their payroll commitments from the $120M range to a higher platform. But you can also argue that the Sox have done a great job with the money they have spent. They don't really have any bad contracts, and they have a lot of really good ones. I'm just excited that the core of this team is locked up for at least the next 4 years! GO SOX!!!

I don't think Colome is likely to be "nearly perfect" next year, but I think overall during the year there's a good chance Hendricks and Colome are comparable in terms of save %age. A couple blown saves each, unless one of them gets hurt or falls apart. Where they're different is in the extreme situations. Tie game in extra innings, which one do you want coming in to pitch the 10th and 11th innings to keep things shut down? 2 runners on in the 7th inning of the first round of the playoffs and Bummer already used, which one do you want available for a 2.1 inning save to send you to the next round? You get to the playoffs with Bummer and Hendriks out there...games are over if you get a lead in the middle innings. Is that worth an extra $10 million this season? Yes, if you can get there. The question I still have is - if your starting rotation breaks down because you didn't provide enough depth, and you miss the playoffs by 2 games because one starter got hurt and the back of your rotation crumbled, was that extra $10 million well spent? Obviously not. That's what I mean when I say that RH made deals this offseason assuming he already had a playoff team, rather than trying to ensure he had a playoff team. We will see if that assumption holds.

Seeing Mets, Brewers and Rays in on Rich Hill... Was holding out small, small hope we'd be on that list. Seems like a small price/risk to take and can fill a role the rest of the back of rotation -- I woulda wanted to throw him in there with Rodon, Crochet, Stiever, Kopech, Hill, Cease and let them all battle it out for innings. Losers get multi inning bullpen roles this year. Also if the Rays are in on someone means there's something there. It's almost the coop can fix em from 2004-2008

or a couple guys, They need some depth in triple a.

Then let's hope for a rainy spring. A rainout every 5 days through April and May.

Well...that's why God made extensions.

He doesn't have massive power for a 1b but he did hit a lot of bombs in college. His statcast numbers in the minors point to like 55 grade raw power but the ability to get to all of it due to his hit tool. Scouts do expect him to hit like 30 bombs. He probably is not a nelson cruz who hits 45 bombs at his peak but 30 bombs with a 290 average and 370 obp is really nice. It will also be interesting what approach he chooses. If he goes for power and pulls the ball a lot he will hit some more homers but take a babip hit and hit probably more like 270 (basically what konerko did). But he could also use an all field approach and maybe hit high 20s homers with a 300+ average.

fast forward to 2:13

Dunning’s “natural” stuff is nowhere near as good as Cease, whose stuff can compete with anyone in baseball. Right now though, Cease’s stuff is useless. He needs a lot of work. Dunning, on the other hand, does not need a lot of work. He already has great command, and knows how to use/locate his pitches. Back to Dunning’s stuff, it is extremely underrated. While he showed flashes last season (not sure some of you even noticed), his stuff was not peak. He was recovering from TJ in a weird season hiding in an independent league stadium. His arm was not at full strength and it showed. His fastball and breaking pitches looked awesome in his debut, and that wasn’t even his full arsenal. After that first start when Renteria pitched him too long, he never regained that fastball or snap on his breaking pitches. His command also seemed to suffer from limited arm strength/durability. Check out his BB rate in the minors. Cease does have ace potential. But he also has an very low floor. Dunning has a pretty decent floor, but don’t get it twisted, he can be more than “only a 4/5.” It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Dunning be a top of the rotation pitcher for a period of time.

If > 110 WRC+ is not a realistic expectation from Vaughn, then the Sox shouldn't be handing him the keys at DH and should be signing or trading for someone else.

The infusion of not one, not two, but three elite, blue chip talents into the team this year with Vaughn, Kopech, and Crochet set to join the team is nothing short of truly exciting. The Sox really do have an extraordinary amount of terrific, young talent. The next several years is going to be some kind of ride!

I agree. Even after this move they have a lot of work to do with the bullpen. They could lose Romo as well.

Would they give up a year of service time for two weeks though? I calculated in another thread that two weeks of a sub replacement DH vs a solid one costs about .2 wins for two weeks. Is .2 wins worth a year?

For everyone that says every outing was an adventure - I'm going to plainly state he was an excellent closer for the White Sox. Flat out he converted saves at a high level. Whether I bet on him being able to maintain that balancing act, maybe not - but at $5M this was a great use of resources for the Twins.

The money is getting spent folks.

I think Collins is a much better catcher than Yermin

Wow, interesting Sheets write-up SCOUTING REPORT: Sheets used the coronavirus shutdown to get in better shape, and the White Sox saw enough athleticism to try him in left field at instructional league. Outside scouts who saw him at the position believe it is a legitimate option. In the box, Sheets continued working to utilize his lower half more in his swing, and the results are some of the best exit velocities in the organization and a newfound ability to pull offspeed pitches with authority. He does better on pitches in the upper half of the zone, and working to do damage on pitches in all parts of the zone will be his next step.

Good luck Nick. One of the nicest guys on the baseball field. Easy to root for this guy!

Better that than a Capitol-invading member of the Gravy Seals.

.... and the Diaz brothers, f em all!