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Getz setting Paul Janish up to succeed. Novel concept.

Trading Bummer was never the problem. It was the return targeting guys who were approaching free agency and DFA status instead of trying to refill the farm system. The problem was Getz trying to get a few more wins in 2024 versus worrying about 2028 and beyond.

Sox hitters: "Wait just a darn minute here... you can hit the ball IN THE AIR?!"

Oh God, how dare they try to earn revenue to pay employees.

Yes I'm sure so many teams were beating down the door to trade valuable prospects for one year of a guy with a 6.79 ERA in 2023 who walked 5.6 per 9, and seemed to fold under any pressure. Switching out guys on the 40 man bubble for prospects would've returned marginal ones at best, and people would've bitched about that, too. GMs aren't going to overpay for performance several years out of date, nor are they going to just buy the "his FIP was so much lower so give me good prospects!" argument either. Soroka was a good flier to see if he could recapture some of his 2019 success. He ended up being a solid bullpen guy and I wouldn't mind seeing him back, though since he elected free agency that's probably not an option. Schuster produced 1 WAR in 73 innings as a long man/spot starter and should be an ok arb eligible addition going forward for a bad team. Lopez did what he was expected to - play good defense at a non-premium position and not hit at all. He was brought in to likely fill in a gap until the Sox felt guys like Sosa were more ready. If he's back I'll be really surprised. Shewmake sucks and likely won't be with the team. At best they'll stick him in AAA. He was a former first round pick, though, and is the type of guy the Sox should be running through to see if they can get anything out of them. Gowens was age appropriate for AA and pitched solidly. He also strikes out over 10 batters per 9. He'll probably be in AAA next season and could end up being a useful bullpen guy. Not sure he's a starter long-term, but we'll see. Bummer rebounded nicely with a team that could play defense and actually scout. His contract extension has no bearing on the value of the trade. Overall, the trade was fine.

I look forward to when the Sox release this guy and people have an an aneurysm when he goes to a decent team and has like a 3.95 era in 45 innings.

It's November, these are the types of moves they should be making. If he sucks or a roster spot is needed, he's an easy DFA. If he's any good, he's a flippable arm with control. Likely an inconsequential move, but nothing to be upset about.

So you’re mad that he hasn’t made a positively impactful move, correct? This is the type of move that happens all the time across all orgs. I’m critical of Getz’s player acquisitions and player personnel decisions, but I fail to see how this waiver pickup is a cause to be upset.

Making good hires on paper is fantastic. But he still assembled the worst team in modern baseball history believing it would be an improvement on the 101 loss team he took over. There is no sugarcoating how historically bad his roster decisions have been. He never should have been hired, and should have been fired at numerous points over the past year. His ineptitude will be forever etched in the record books, and nothing will ever erase that.

Lots of teams have this. It's not a minor league hitting coordinator. He's in charge of hitting for the entire organization. It's basically the same thing that Brian Bannister has been doing but for hitting. Fuller was their minor league hitting coordinator for years and coached many of their prospects as a hitting coaching in Bowie I believe.

Similar to the Venable hire, on paper this seems like a step in the right direction. Now keep doing more things.

In 1963 Dick Allen was the first black professional baseball player in the state of Arkansas. This might sound unbelievable but add in he did this at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. If you want to look at Allen's career stats and discount him because he didn't hit 500 homers or 3,000 hits, I think you have to understand the struggles he went through in Arkansas and then Philly for being born black and how that impacted hiss baseball career. if I had a vote Dick Allen would have already been in the HoF. Dick Allen's Journey - BallNine

Not a lot of 23-year-old, high-upside arms with 6 years of control and 3 options coming through the waiver wire.

Sun Times is 100% free, I thought. You just need to register for a free account.

You do realize the Hall of Fame's standards, generally speaking, are greatness in comparison to your era's peers, right? That's why you have guys like Edgar Martinez, Frank Thomas, and Trevor Hoffman in the Hall. Back when they were playing, there was still a lot of debate over if they deserved to be in the Hall because of their positions (DH = failed fielder; CL / RP = failed starter). The Hall's standards evolve with the game, so the whole "you need (x) wins to get in the Hall" is an extremely outdated notion.

This is literally proving my point. And now if we are going to use the Burger/Eder trade standard of hindsight, Shewmake was garbage and is a DFA candidate. Schuster was awful. Pretty much the only non-disappointment was the MiLB pitcher who isn't even a top 30 guy anyway. We literally got nothing of value for Bummer. We got more for Tanner Banks just by getting a single decent prospect.

So if you think those guys suck, then why would Bummer rebound here?

Obviously the solid pitching coach and development staff of Bannister and Katz, or so I’m told. It’s why the pitching performed at the level it did this season.

Getz has done more for the infrastructure of this organization in a year than his predecessor did in a decade +. Admittedly, the comparison is a ridiculously low bar, but I think the Sox will make the playoffs prior to Getz' year 8.

If only he could hypnotize Jerry into selling, or spending. And himself into being able to evaluate talent.

I already covered this - in your best case scenario, there's little surplus value in a 3.5-3.75 ERA, 0.6 WAR middle reliever in August, when he'll be making $7.25 million + a $7.5 million dollar option in the next two years. His contract renegotiation helps to show this. They likely would've gotten a similar package, if not worse.

So what? These "career odds" don't matter when GMs are evaluating who they send out in trades. No one is going to pay 2019-2022 prices for him when his most recent year was so bad. There's also zero guarantee he was going to rebound on a team that was at best going to be slightly better than were the year before, and ended up being the worst team of all time with substantial player regressions across the entire roster.

Venable's replacement as Rangers manager-in-waiting?

Soroka was a fine gamble, like I said, and he showed some promise as a reliever. Lopez... well he sucks, but I get trying to fill a hole with him until guys like Sosa were actually ready. The only trade I can think of that is close to fulfilling what SS2k5 seems to want is Shields for Erik Johnson and Tatis Jr, but we don't have the luxury of making trades with Rick Hahn.

Yeah, and if Bummer had a 6 ERA for the Sox this year - and odds are he would've been bad on this team, since like 95% of their roster severely under-performed - you'd be upset they didn't trade him when they could get something for him. It's all hindsight.

All Glory to the HypnoGetz.

All anybody talked about for Bummer was ... maybe a prospect and a flier. Well, they got Gowens (prospect) and Shuster (flier). Soroka would have cost as much if they grabbed him on waivers. Lopez might have been a little cheaper. Adam Frazier was a free agent utility infielder - signed for $4.5 million. Nicky Lopez was $4.3 million. So, maybe the Sox could have waited out waivers and free agency, and have gotten Nicky Lopez for $100k cheaper? I think people are complaining about the Bummer trade just to complain about it.

Yes, actually. He really preaches hitting the ball in the air and swing decisions, etc. The Orioles "struggled" in the second half offensively and went out early in the playoffs and both hitting coaches took the fall. To me though, this type of role fits this guy much better than big league hitting coach.

You just said Schuster, Shewmake and Gowens were fine as pieces of this deal. Three "fine" pieces plus two throw ins at the major league level sounds like pretty fair value for a reliever who had a 6 ERA at that time, and after a good season still renegotiated his deal for far less money in 2025.

He was recently fired as the co-hitting coach of the Baltimore Orioles. My guess is that he's essentially "in charge" of hitting. He'll be the offensive equivalent to Brian Bannister.

They have been free for a long time.

Never should have been hired in the first place and he hired a guy who had never managed before so the book is still out on him. Easy to buy out Moncada when JR is cutting costs. What else has he done? Getz still blows. Fire him.

What's upsetting is this is the same type of move that fueled the worst season in baseball history. I couldn't care less about Penn Murfee, but it would sure be nice to see my favorite team take some swings at anyone who could possibly have a future here one day.

I'm less inclined for a change than I was six months ago. I think he's having a good of season reimagining the organization. Now we'll see if he's hiring good people to fill those spots.

I can see the rationale behind Soroka and Lopez, and I’d bet they were basically free. I doubt Getz turned down anything useful to take those guys. Could they have instead gotten a low minors guy without any success so far that their scouts/analytics loved? Probably. I also don’t trust those guys at all. Not yet, anyway. Hopefully we can build the infrastructure to start making those kinds of deals with some confidence. Overall, if we want to say that Getz’s trades have all felt a little light, then I can agree with that.

Yeah, this is one of those acquisitions that I really have no idea why people would be upset over. If the Sox were making this acquisition out to be some franchise-altering signing worthy of a press release with someone else's signature, that's one thing.... but this is literally a waiver wire pickup of a lottery ticket. Big f'ing whoop.

More than likely this guy is DFA’d at some point this offseason.

So he had TJS in June of 23, which means his about 15.5 months out of surgery. He should be at the stage where he is somewhere between ramping up throwing and throwing a max effort depending on if he is the 12 month, or 18 month recovery type. It also means he will be past his 18 months by spring training. At it's core it is a low mileage arm with a ton of cheap control for a bullpen that will need like 20 arms this year. You hold him, and if you want to DFA him for something better, no biggie.

There's also a lot of guys in the Hall without 300 wins in eras where it was "easier" to get it https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_pitching.shtml

Collin Fuchs for me.

It's a little weird to grab this guy aggressively with a roster spot now when he's coming off TJS, so basically you won't actually get to see him do anything before you decide whether you need the roster spot. In terms of churning, this is a little off - unless they just really like the guy.

Sounds like either an accounting firm or a golf equipment manufacturer...

You gotta be seriously invested in the role to complain about waiver claims.

Absolutely relevant

No fan has seen a home run until he/she sees a Dick Allen home run.

I'm still going crazy over DVD players.

One big bat out there..

Should I drop by and give Getz a summary of what Soxtalk knows he should do?