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The Orioles won’t include Mayo or Basallo in a Cease trade. They have to headline with one of Cowser/Kjerstad though with Norby/Ortiz as a 2nd piece. Then the rest could be a pitcher (Povich) and maybe like Max Wagner. If Orioles aren’t willing to do that, they likely aren’t getting Cease. If Sox realistically want more than that, I doubt anyone acquires him.

After reading through the Orioles board a couple times in the last few weeks, I want him to get traded to another AL East team, win Cy Young, and have the Orioles miss the playoffs. They probably wouldn't care so long as the Norfolk Tides dominate AAA.

You better clear your search history.

Um, no. There is nothing about this that makes me smile. In any way.

I’d love for someone who covers the White Sox for a living to figure out who it is

Also, to add to this, this is a problem that only exists because of Reinsdorf. I'm going off of Spotrac's estimates here. fWAR in parentheses, but I'm using 2022 for Stassi and omitting Fedde since he reinvented himself in the KBO. Maldonado (-1.2), DeJong (0.3), Lopez (1.1), Soroka (-0.4), Stassi (0.0), and Fedde will cost roughly a combined $25.75M. Their combined fWAR: -0.2. Now, fWAR isn't an end all, be all and maybe Bannister turns around a healthy Soroka (a big if) and Fedde's KBO reinvention makes him a #2-#3 MLB pitcher (which would be amazing). But if the Sox are gonna be awful as we expect, do we need $26M committed to them, which Jerry will stomp and moan about with a cratering attendance, when the AAA guys can battle for the backup spot behind Stassi and Lenyn/Popeye could make a play for second? Obviously best case scenario is good performances from the vets (where their defense aids pitchers) and minor leaguers and they keep or trade Soroka (being 26), Stassi or Maldonado gets traded and the other is the vet mentor, Montgomery sends DeJong to a contender, the aforementioned Lenyn/Popeye, etc.

THE MONEY WILL BE SPENT!!!

Getz likely knows what he needs minimum to make a trade and hasn’t circled back yet. This is worrisome but I still think he gets moved. Value will never be higher. Agreed but I’m not sure Baltimore has offered this. Sox wanted Cowser/Ortiz/Beavers at the deadline and Baltimore balked. I hope they enjoyed Jack Flaherty

You continue to assume every one of your prospects is going to pan out. Even 70 FV & 65 FV prospects bust and many of them underperform. Assuming a kid will be a 6 WAR player is absolutely wild. Don’t get me wrong, Holliday is stud prospect but the key word there is prospect. There are no guarantees. And sure, Robert hasn’t been a beacon of health, but we just saw a small built Japanese pitcher with quite a bit of mileage on his arm and who hasn’t thrown a single pitch in the majors sign the largest pitcher contract in baseball history. Luis Robert is an absolutely insane athlete coming off a 5 win season in the most broken org in baseball and with little protection. Given he’s due $67.5M at max over the next four years (with two options to boot), he is a top five asset in all of baseball and there really isn’t an argument here like with Cease. You may feel he has durability concerns, but I can assure you most GMs would give up their first born to get their hands on him despite his past track record of health.

This is what the Sox have always done. Spend 15 million spread out over 5 guys instead of one guy at 15 million.

I’m not sure Kendall Graveman had that much of a market to be overly picky on the return. And regarding the 40 man, it’s hard to imagine we’ll be pushing the limit on spots this year. I think it’s simply a minor trade that likely won’t end up providing us with any value but was worth a roll of the dice at the time.

Right and they're both worlds better defensively than what they've been running out there the last 4 years. They're both going to tremendously help the young pitchers.

It’s basically $5 million total for two veteran catchers. It’s fine

I feel like you have told this story about your niece multiple times and it’s weird every time

Now imagine you’re Dylan Cease who was coming into the year ace of the staff, year prior you came in 2nd for Cy young in an LONG 81-81 season, 2023 have been struggling with your mechanics all year, the clubhouse is a complete joke, the entire organization is being dragged about everything and anything, Giolito, Lance Lynn, ReyLo Graveman have all been traded, it’s deadline day your team is 25 games under, your name was being thrown around all day to be traded to a contending baseball team, your hyped ready to go only to stay with your dog crap team. Next day you face the Rangers, he looked like he had no intention of trying to pitch and It’s no surprise his August stunk, the fact that he turned it on come September tells you what you need to know about him. He’s gonna be a Cy Young candidate wherever he gets dealt. The price should be high, Chris Getz should not budge.

Pick your jaw up off the floor then and stop acting clueless. It happens in sports of all levels and even in job professions. Not sure how a Sox fan who has likely lived through Ozzie quitting on the team, Sox players quitting on LaRussa, and Sox players quitting on Grifol is acting ignorant to this. Who are you kidding?

It’s wild that a board of Orioles fan can understand how pitching last season in a s%*# environment could impact Dylan’s result whereas as a Sox fan who should have witnessed this s%*#-show firsthand finds it incomprehensible.

Us Sox fans have one of these can’t miss “elite -6 war type guys”... Yoan Moncada

I have no clue what names have truly been discussed and neither do you. Period.

*insert Tim Robinson in hotdog suit clip* ”We gotta figure out who did this!”

Am I missing something? From what I have read, Joey Ortiz is a 25 year old 5'9 middle infielder with below average speed who may have average power but is a utility guy if he doesn't. Right? If so, he can't really be the centerpiece of a Cease deal except in the delusional fever dreams of a bunch of guys who sound like Sgt. Wayne Jenkins from that HBO show.

Korey Lee has the same skill sets as the others. Defense should be decent, power, doesn't get on base much, has a pitchers batting average. But he's at the age where you usually improve, these others are on the downslope. I think one would be fine, but 2 is strange to me.

Lee first got to AAA in 2021, spent all of 2022 and 2023 in AAA aside from short stints in the big leagues, has played nearly 200 games at AAA and has 841 plate appearances there. Maybe if he gets 1200 PAs and 300 games at AAA he might be ready then? In terms of being around some seasoned vets in Spring Training, he was with the Astros the last 2 years. The Astros catcher the last 2 years, the seasoned vet he got to be around was..."Martin Maldonado". Gosh it's a shame he couldn't learn anything from that seasoned vet the last 2 offseasons, maybe 3rd time is a charm? I literally can't come up with a better example of how dumb this concept is, "Gosh he needs to be around some vets to learn from them, maybe we should put him with exactly the same vet he was with the last two years and see if something magically different happens". Seriously, if you're not going to play Lee this year, just release him. You're better off with the open roster spot for a releiver somewhere. He has 1 option left, if he stays buried at AAA this year there's no way they're going to give him a big league roster spot next year. May as well churn the spot and see if someone else sticks.

I get what you’re saying, and you’re not wrong. And it’s a symptom of them not shelling out big money for FA’s so they spend on lower tier guys, but for the reasons I stated above, I don’t have a problem with it this offseason given where the team is and the tremendous amount of work Getz has to do to totally re-do this team (and the chances are incredibly high he can’t pull it off)

I think Maldonado will come to spring training, and will take all the catchers in the organization out to a steak dinner at some fine Scottsdale steak house. Maldonado will wear his world series ring, and over some prime ribs, he will teach those young catchers the secret of how to win. Michael Soroka will do the same thing with pitchers. These are two great acquisitions that will pay dividends over and over. Pedro Grifol will disguise himself as a waiter so that he can eavesdrop and check his own notes on winning. He will make the proper corrections, and will then know how to win.

I agree. You want to improve the culture? Develop, sign and trade for better players, and hire a manager that can handle the job. Not a guy who is afraid of veterans but will make strange examples out of rookies.

Im going with Alexander. Was with Bannister in SF last season, and was with, of course, the Royals when Pedro Brown nose was there.

At least we won't be getting Sal Perez. So there is an upside.

It's not really good for the clubhouse when said clubhouse guy is cut on June 1st.

No, they're blocking young players now. Note how no one complained about Stassi being picked up, it was reasonable to have 1 veteran who plays maybe 1/3 or 1/2 the time to go along with a young catcher acquired last year in a trade. Even if the young catcher isn't good right now, maybe that catcher picks up some things with a year+ of experience, and the guy you're paying to go along with him is making under $1 million. This move is the one that has us annoyed, because now the young catcher gets buried in the minors, now there are two crappy veteran catchers who will eat up all of the available big league innings, none of the young catchers get any big league experience where they might even be able to learn enough to be backups, and we drop $5 million on top of that. $4 million of that didn't need to be spent at all, and there's a vesting option thrown in that the guy probably has a good chance to hit if he's healthy. Oh, and not to mention how they could have just kept Zavala last season - thanks Chris. This is classic White Sox behavior. Wastes a little money - "Oh it's fine they have money to spend, that never comes back to haunt us." Blocks players or gives up on them "oh it's fine that guy isn't going to turn into anything anyway, that never comes back to haunt us". Hahn did this at the catcher's spot repeatedly, and it wound up eventually turning into a money pit.

It’s playing with fire

Great changing the culture, then leaving after 1 season. I find it hard to believe one guy can change a culture moving forward in that span of time, especially with a roster that isn't going to be there in a couple of years either.

On what? Say they spent that on one player. Who is it going to? And what difference is that player going to make over the next 2-3 years? Are they the difference between 72 and 75 wins? For what? This team is SO far away, I just can’t get too upset over a move like this. It's clear what Getz is trying to do this offseason. Flush out the clubhouse, change the culture and in the case of MM, provide a veteran catcher that can be an anchor for a pitching staff, specifically one without a ton of ML experience. Is it a move that will win them more games in 2024? Good chance he has a negative WAR, but I believe there will positives that he provides internally. At least that’s the hope. And given there is literally zero chance this team competes this year, or probably next year, I don’t think it’s a terrible strategy from Getz

I think he moves because taking him into the season isn’t worth the risk. That’s my assumption. I think Sox want both.

Fangraphs has Seby better defensively than Maldanado each of the past 2 seasons, and he got DFA'd.

What I hate about this is that this organization continually goes down the path of a handful of guys that aren't even good instead of going for one guy that is good. Between Stassi, Maldonado, DeJong, and Lopez you're looking at approx. $10 million spend. There is better ways to allocate that money.

Korey Lee still has plenty to show in AAA. He was such a classic Hahn trade, getting googley eyed because he used to have a high ranking on a prospect handbook. That the Astros gave him away should be all you needed to know. I thought there would be more of a celebration to shut the book on the Salvador Perez talk.

GetzMagic. You better trademark that.

We're talking child molestation here, not a fatal car accident. Franco is certainly never going to play again in the MLB.

Actually a little surprised at the response here. The Sox are going to be terrible this year, obviously. Signing Ohtani wouldn’t have changed that. We heard rumblings the last 4 years the pitching staff hated Grandal, there wasn’t trust, etc. As someone else mentioned, good chance Cease is moved for young pitching, some of which may see ML time in 2024. Additionally, a lack of any sort of leadership or preparation was cited by numerous players who departed the Sox organization over the last year. Maldonado seems incredibly well liked by teammates and is by all accounts is very well-prepared and can comfort a pitching staff. Hate sounding like a meatball, but those are traits not measured by FanGraphs and do hold value in MLB. If this was stopping another signing or blocking a key prospect who was ready, I’d light a pitchfork. But I don’t think this is a terrible use of resources from Getz, after understanding what has gone on the last few years.

I don't think Lee is capable of .150 let alone .190. Everyone here has been complaining about the culture of this team and by all appearances, Maldonado and several other new additions will be great changing the culture moving forward. There seems to be very specific attention being paid to the character and preparation of these incoming players and I'm interested to see how it goes. Look at Maldonado as a player/coach.

Max Stassi hasn't played since 2022 and Maldonado isn't good defensively anymore. That's the problem.

Good God this Titanic of a team keeps hitting more icebergs

I feel like Maldonado or Stassi will be cut by the end of May after hitting .150 and one of Hackenberg, Lee or Perez will be called up. I really don't get it.

Yas is actually better than 4 players in MLB. This clown is one of them.

I would understand this move if Maldonado’s defense didn’t decline drastically this past season. I’d also understand it more if they hadn’t already traded for Stassi. How many old catchers who can’t hit do they need?

I doubt this guy ever plays another MLB game. He seemingly fled to the DR to avoid charges in Florida, didn’t he? His career is going to end faster than Addison Russell’s.

Martin Maldonado can’t be bad because people have always said he’s good and that never changes so I don’t need to listen to anything that says he was. Logical. Flawlessly logical.

He’s exactly the kind of guy who will praise Maldonado when a pitcher has a good game and rip the pitcher when he has a bad game. Watch.

I'd say "stick a fork in him" but all my forks are currently in Benintendi, DeJong, and Stassi.