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Again, your strawman of the time this happened is just that, a strawman. This isn’t about it being handled in spring training. Consider us all surprised that Michael Kopech is behind schedule and might be on the injured list. Wow that’s just so surprising can’t believe westeddy has gotten me so good

A "BIG DAY" in the Poppysox household today. Canceled my MLB.TV subscription today. Between blackouts and JR's indifference... the only way I know is to cast a protest vote.

He should absolutely not be the opening day SS which is why I'm expecting he will be.

If they start trading guys like Burke with less than a year of service time, you're really looking at an endless rebuild. My issue with pitching depth is similar to getting even more second basemen -- there are not slots for them in the minors. If they get high-upside A-ball guys, great. Mid-rotation AA guys would be of no use because Birm and W-S are jam-packed right now. I am team Hold Robert to the Bitter End. You feel otherwise. I respect your opinion and you may be right. I just feel like they need to start getting players who project as 4+ WAR guys or they are going to suck forever.

If caufield was born 40 years later, the world would think he's an AI LLM chatbot.

And if you hit him with a snowball, he will then trade you for someone who can’t throw strikes

Speaking of Pham, if we hadn't been so insistent on giving him at-bats last year (and ultimately make him a throw-in), Fletcher/Colas/DeLoach could have gotten playing time and we'd have gotten a better assessment of them.

Did I say TJS don’t happen in March or April? That’s weird don’t recall that being any part of my overall statement that this org routinely does this exact same rest and rehab thing only to get burned by a TJS at the end.

The problem is, if guys like Sosa and Vargas and Baldwin and Fletcher, are so bad they can't beat out one year veteran deals. whether they lose 121 games or 118 won't matter much, because the loss total is going to start with a 1 for years. Where is the development? Where is the eye for talent if these guys can't play?

You’d be upbeat too if you were going to win 94 games.

That this is a team coming off of a 121 loss season and that it is more important to evaluate the players you have right now than to waste time on "flip" candidates who have no actual value like we did last year.

I don't like Fletcher, but it's a lot easier to sell a plan for the future if half the lineup is under 30.

Alternatively, Dominic Fletcher is Dominic Fletcher, but the prospect they get back for Taylor at the deadline can be anything. He can even be a Dominic Fletcher.

Bruce always takin pics where he looks like he is pinching one off

Sosa, Vargas, Ramos, Baldwin, Meidroth, Fletcher, DeLoach. I get that these guys don't all fall into the same "prospect" category and aren't necessarily on the same timeline. I also get that the majority of them are unlikely to amount to major leaguers. But if you're not willing to invest in them a bit and let them take their lumps in a season like this one, then it seems like you aren't ever going to do that. And I fully acknowledge that you need some veterans on a rebuilding team, but just like last year, this year's roster is shaping up to be curiously old for a rebuilding team. Why? To what end? I'm not necessarily advocating for any of them to be handed a job. I'm all for some spring training competition. What I'm concerned about is that some of the younger guys will make the opening day roster but be given sporadic starts, which doesn't exactly set them up for success.

I'm speculating. It's clear we don't want to eat money and NYM has no issues with adding salary. They also have some prospects at the positions Getz is looking for. Those prospects have lost some shine so Getz might be able to buy low on a couple of them

I agree that they’re trying to thread that needle, but the offseason moves don’t exactly scream “at least we’ll definitely be better than last year.” Basically they’ve put themselves in a position to potentially both stunt the rebuild AND be just as bad as last year. Which is an almost more impressive threading of the needle. Bravo.

I absolutely loathe the Sox offseason. It makes no fucking sense.

Even if, like me, you’ve decided that you don’t like playing service games any more, you still can’t make a solid case for calling him up based on his performance.

You actually had some to begin with?

I can't say you're wrong.... But considering especially how Colas has been lost in a netherworld, why are we keeping him and Fletcher around rather than cutting them loose and filling the roster spot with someone else, if we're already spending roster spots on a platoon to replace them?

Ok wait. 1/2 of February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. Maybe October. Without counting October, that's 7.5-ish months. March and April are thus 25% of the MLB year. So basically, TJS is effectively random for most teams. Out of the last set of TJS operations done for the White Sox on guys whose names I recognize: Guys who got hurt or did the surgery right around ST: Jimmy Cordero Garrett Crochet Matt Foster Davis Martin Jesse Scholtens Ky Bush Guys who had it at some other time in the year: Evan Marshall Liam Hendriks If 25% of the injuries are associated with Spring Training, and out of the last 8 big leaguers - 6 of the 8 White Sox had them in Spring Training or right after, that is a huge overconcentration. Might even count as statistically significant as an outlier. This pattern also does not continue back into the 2010s, because guys like Rodon and Kopech were having it mid-season. Edit: now that I think about it, Hendricks basically counts as a spring training TJS also since they rushed him back from f***ing Chemotherapy to the big leagues with only like 6 innings of work, no time for his body or arm to recover.

We agree on this. I think it’s a terrible idea. Go to Charlotte and earn the promotion

Or cash considerations...

Crochet and Fedde were two of the better pitches in the league. Yes the bullpen was bad last year, and I don’t see much in the way of improvement there either.

Today we are paying for a complete lack of player development ever since the last time we had a top ranked farm system. Ordinarily, most teams can back fill a roster that will lose 110 games without needing help from the outside to get up to that few of wins. The Sox don't have that right now.

And we got zero for him.

Sosa and Vargas need to play as much as possible this year. If they still suck, then move on after 2025. Baldwin should be the utility player heading into the season.

If the rest of the league does that except in the case of a significant tear then it's borderline malpractice. There are plenty of cases where they won't do it right away. Rest and rehab is the proper protocol. Surgery is always the last resort. In this case he will be ready for spring training either way. Even if they did it right away, he wasn't going to be ready for 2025.

I've seen enough videos from a trainer on Twitter to know that Zavala will have a 1.000 OPS this year.

Truthfully I don’t really care how many games they lose this year as long as these younger players show some type of progress. At least there is a potential benefit to losing now unlike last year.

This part right here. NONE of the guys we signed this winter will be around when this team hits .500 again, let alone when we might start to think about the P word again. It would be different if we actually invested in real flip candidates this winter, but we didn't. We invested in aged trash. Outside of injury, or ugly prolonged Maldonado type slumps, there aren't realistic scenarios where most of this guys provide any value at all to this franchise other than filling off days and injuries. Odds are most of these guys will have in the system won't amount to anything anyway, but the possibilities are way higher than any of the dumpster dive signings from this winter. Plus those guys actually have 5-6 years of control, vs zero for the rest. Even if you one of those three ends up as a bench player, that is SOMETHING answered for this franchise going forward.

Leave Krusty the Clown alone…

At lease when they lose this year, they have a chance to be rewarded.

If they prioritize giving at bats to veterans instead of the younger guys in the name of a marginal improvement in the W/L column, I'd say that is stunting the rebuild. I understand it's just an "If" at this point, but I think it's a real possibility.

How would they be stunting the rebuild?

With the limits on total players and the depth of the Sox system right now, I'm not sure that a couple 40+/45 players are that much better than nothing. If you get Tibbs, with the depth of the W-S OF, he likely plays 1b/dh. The last thing they need is depth starting pitching. I think the only upside play is keeping Robert. Best case scenario, he is capable of down ballot MVP votes. If you can't get at least one player whose FV is in that tier, I don't think the downside risk is that great.

Regardless of what the Sox say publicly, this move screams a Robert trade, especially with it being a guaranteed contract. If Robert does get traded, and Taylor is our starting CF, it will be fine defensively, but offensively...yikes.

Also, gun to head, I will say Robert will not be on our opening day roster. And my real concern is we are going to sell him for pennies on the dollar.

These guys weren’t even league average when playing half their games at Charlotte last year. I’m all for giving the young guys a chance, but Colas appears to be a bust and Fletcher & DeLoach appear to be massive pro scouting misses for us.

Sure it does, they have no idea what they’re doing. When you view it through the lens that the entire organization is clueless…it makes sense

True, but he’s the only one with the potential to put up big numbers and carry the team for a week or two. If he’s traded, this year’s roster makes last year’s roster look solid.

If they don't let the younger guys like Sosa and Ramos and Fletcher play, because they would rather play these re-treads, and eventually any of them wind up decent players, they have stunted it. But, you may not like what Getz was able to get for Bummer. You may not like what he was able to get for Cease. You may not like what he was able to get for Pham and Fedde and Kopech, but wait until you see the haul he gets for Tauchman, Booser and Slater. He may become the first guy to win Exec of the Year with a triple digit loss team.

You trade him because your afraid of him getting hurt again and he brings you nothing like Moncada. The Giants have some interesting pitchers and lets face it it's not like the league is knocking down the Sox door saying "take all of our best prospects!!!"

Even if did happen in September, if he rehabs for 2 months on the fast end and decides on surgery, the earliest he would be back is the end of August, more likely Sept/Oct. He misses the season even in the best case scenario. Having surgery now, he is still ready for spring training next year. Either way he misses 2025.

I don’t disagree. I’d rather see the Colas and DeLoach’s of the world get auditions than waste at-bats on Michael A. Taylor and Austin Slater. I think last year was so bad that Getz is almost overcorrecting too much from a depth standpoint on the position player side.

They have other bodies to play and see what they have in them.

Every player the White Sox have signed this offseason were candidates for the Atlantic League

I can’t really blame them for not wanting to get cut open. Makes sense to see if rest and waiting can help.

Does Cohen care that much about saving money? Would that be fair to Marte to sentence him to the Sox after last season?