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Non tendering Tauchmann makes sense. Superfluous with Tucker.

Have you talked to Caulfield before? This is who he has been for the better part of 20 years now.

I thought the purpose of not trading him at the deadline was because they were gonna tender him and keep him around another season

“That’ll be $27 dollars your eminency.”

Getz really sucks at this

I was talking about the naysayers in general here more than I was Caulfield. Soxtalk in general does not chant "Development is not linear " over and over as a calming mantra. Future Sox was the one place in Soxtalk where more patient minds assembled until the rot invaded there too. One person got pissed when it was me not a moderator who reminded them of that but mods overlook people who are constantly kissing their ass and on the same wavelength as they are. Caulfield is so polite that I cant really be too hard on his wild theories like speculating Getz will give prospects he's acquired more chances than other prospects when theres been no indications so far of that. You'd think as an educator he'd be more CNN than TMZ. If you hire a bunch of coaches and implement data as a major tool for development and strive to make decision making more collaborative as a collective hive then his ego shouldnt be a factor. I dont think its Utopia but its not a KW or Hahn "multiple championships" ego as far as I can tell atm. I think higher draft picks will get more leeway than lower ones like resigning rather than non tendering Vaughn. That's fairly typical when you suck to give high draft picks a lot of rope.

What is Querro's value? A recent top 100 prospect who generated 1.2 bwar when called up. 22yo switch-hitter at premium position. Yeah he is slow, so are almost all catchers. The fact he didn't bomb when called up I would think adds to his value so I would be holding out for a similar young player with some success in the outfield or if getting prospects a top 100 plus more?

I’m kind of torn on Murakami. He feels like a guy who would come here and not live up to the deal for some reason

I mean what positions are you really trying to fill? Are people really that upset if they start the year with Teel/Quero, Meidroth/Sosa, C. Montgomery, Vargas, Bennentendi, Robert as the guys getting most of the playing time? Im just not sure who would want to play here and fits a position of need? Is Cody Bellinger interested in playing 1b or RF here? Is Schwarber looking to DH here? I mean I get people are upset they arent spending but they arent in a position to rosterwise where they can attract real FA's who require significant contracts. I'd rather watch all the young guys play everyday while they sort out the rotation with who can hack it from Martin, Smith, McDougal, Burke, Cannon, Thorpe, Adams, Schultz, H. Smith, Bush, Vasil.

I'm not really losing sleep over the Booser deal but there's no way to put lipstick on that pig either. Chances are that it winds up a draw but all the upside lives with the Red Sox now.

I don't think it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to observe an improvement in Vargas's play last season. As a Dodger: .201/.294./364, 81 wRC+, -0.3 WAR As a 2024 White Sox: .104/.217/.170, 17 wRC+, -1.2 WAR As a 2025 White Sox: .234/.316/.401, 101 wRC+, 1.3 WAR From April 23, 2025 until end of season: .252/.331/.438, 114 wRC+, 1.9 WAR And underlying Statcast data has always supported the on-field results (both when it was bad and when it was good). Wouldn't surprise me if numerical projection systems liked Vargas at the time of acquisition because he put up great numbers in AAA and his MLB numbers to that point weren't horrible. The Soxtalk projections were not nearly so optimistic

I'd rather the new guy Pereira play CF. Supposedly he's "slowed down" but still has the range to play the position. Hill seems worthless.

Maybe the rumblings about him were true

We aren't the most dysfunctional organization in MLB!

Ok

Because fans want to go to an MLB stadium where loud jets fly overhead every few minutes?

Vargas had a fascinating year. He struggled early, against rhp, and at home. It added up to a league average bat. On a contender, he would probably be the short side of a platoon, but there’s enough there to make you want to give him another year of development with Fuller. Also, I like his style of play. Personally, I would keep him, but I could see selling relatively high.

His big improvement? Huh. The guy put up numbers last year that were like 4% better than his projections when the Sox acquired him.

We have no idea if anyone is ace quality until it happens. We also have no idea if any of the hitting prospects will last as quality MLB hitters. As I have already stated its nearly impossible to field a successful team with just prospects without money which the Sox arent going to get from JR, without competitive balance help, which they dont qualify for , and to top it all off they will need either a new stadium or a new lease on the Rate. The Sox can't operate like a small market team because they aren't one. They don't get the same benefits as them. Getz' only job now is to pave the runway for the ownership change and not f*** things up. Just help the prospects develop and that's what he's trying to do. So far he's been able to get some results with Colson Montgomery ,Shane Smith , the Crochet trade ,made some good draft picks. He's garbage picking other arms and bats looking to develop talent lost in roster shuffles . After bottoming out as he was feeling his way through the mess I wonder if he had talks with Ishbia as well as JR about a prudent course of action to do as well as possible without much financial help. The Ishbia's seem like they want to be the next owners of the Sox but JR seems like he is calling the shots making sure his sons reap as much of a windfall as possible and leaving the Ishbia's with a stripped down franchise. But they accepted the terms so it would be great if they just let it play out and they eventually become the new owners. In the meantime nothing much happens while we all keep our eyes on the prospects. Anothe year like last year with guys like Colson , Shane Smith, Teel, Quero, Meidroth , Vasil, Vargas, Sosa Baldwin, Burke, Grant Taylor and Wikelman Gonzalez all having varying degrees of success when many had given up some of them for dead would go a long way toward fielding a team that can play more competitve baseball . Further improvement from the guys mentioned above and significant development of others could lead to another 10-20 game improvement. 75-80 wins may not seem like much but its not going backwards and brings us another year closer to new ownership and more prospects making their way up the ladder. We should get another top prospect no matter how the draft lottery shakes out in July. As much as people don't like veterans taking playing time from young players it appears to have worked well in 2025. Just eased some of them in without much pressure . Veterans performing adequately and providing an example of how to be good team mates and support each other made for a good culture in the clubhouse. Robert and Montgomery seemed to have a good bond. Lots of good stuff going on when you want to open your eyes to it. Hope is better than despair isn't it ? It's not exactly life and death . No reason for anyone to have to make up stuff to try to make everything about the Sox seem incompetent and support that narrative. Not every trades holds any significance no matter how you dissect it immediately.Things constantly change . Colson went from a great hope to a great disappointment to a great hope again. Some of us were right then wrong then right again. And we could still end up wrong again. We couldnt even speculate on Shane Smith's development because he was a Brewer prospect until he was a Rule 5 pick who became our All-Star representative while he was faltering only to rise again. This is one crazy wild , rollercoaster ride isn't it ? Sosa, Vargas, Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Grant Taylor, Meidroth all have seen their share of time on that ride too.

Of course he's drawing interest. Probably has a good investment manager

I don't see Vargas having the value to make him worth trading rn, to be honest.

I'd trade Vargas at any time. He has a very long swing. Decent defense at 3B isn't going to change that. I'm not saying he's a bum. He may have a season or two where he out peforms. I just can't see him being a core piece on a good team.

Let me add to this, A rebuilding team is in no position to be trading young prospects for unproven relievers, especially those over the age of 30. I know the plan was to be able to flip a guy like Booser for a better prospect but I’d rather have the certainty of a guy like Fjardo* in my system than take the risk of getting a better prospect

Tucker has a brother?

How do we know Pereira isn't in the plans to be the the starting RF or LF? Hill is fine as a 4th OF. He's in the 99% in speed and plays very good defense. If you liked Billy Hamilton then you should have no issue with Hill.

TBH, I don't think it's a great comparison. Lenyn is what I'd call "on the spectrum" for MLB defense. Maybe he's toward the bad end of that spectrum but he's an actual major league infielder. And I'm not so sure that he is that close to the bad end, particularly if he stops having s%*# for brains. And of course at the plate, they are rather different. Morel light tower power but shocking problems making contact in the zone. Lenyn has a strong contact tool (and surprising power) but an astronomical chase rate. Morel is a guy with physical problems (and gifts) while Lenyn's issues are ultimately all about decision-making on both sides of the ball.

Ok

Yeah, probably an overstatement. I think last year's team was really more like a 70 win team. They severely underperformed their run differential. I was feeling optimistic that they might be a 75 win team coming into the year, but they reduced their starter depth, their reliever depth, and now they don't have a rightfielder. Not great. They do have five young players that I think will help them this year (B. Montgomery, Antonacci, H. Smith, Schultz, and McDougal). Hopefully, they are clearing out space for them? Cuz I personally can't handle another year of giving 350+ at bats to AAAA players like Josh Rojas, Nicky Lopez, and, gulp, Derek Hill. But you're right. Even if they do that, they should still win more than 62 with the young guys they now have in the lineup.

I don't know if I would use the term "significantly worse" when talking about a 62 win team, but it also isn't good to see them dumping dollars already.

Hill is a nothing burger. He turns 30 next month.

For when Robert gets hurt again. They have no legit CF option. $900K is nothing.

Unless Tauchman's legs are really messed up and he can't play next year, I don't understand this at all. Best RF play we've had in quite a long time, even despite the time on the IL. And the cost is basically nil in the scheme of things.

I’d be interested in JJ Bleday for RF. f*** it.

Could be, but that possibility is why you trade a guy having a near career year at age 34.

It was so they wouldn’t have to relocate him while they had family helping out with his daughter or something.

Brain Bannister has been with three different orgs that have had Gregory Santos, and each of those orgs have traded away Gregory Santos lol

How many season tickets will that sell? Actions speak louder than words. Nothing happens without actually opening the wallet.

My wife and kids have gone the last couple of years. It was apparently good at the time, which is why I think it’s just kinks getting worked out on the first night. But it was seriously embarrassing.

Don’t worry, Cholowsky incoming 😎

It is what it is. Just build the foundation and opening the avenues for acquistions home and abroad and with more open paths for talent acquisition in the DR and perhaps Asia too, then results for those efforts will start bearing fruit in a few years. By the time the Ishbia's take over there should be trickles of higher end talent from the DR making its way through the farm system. This never was going to be a fast rebuild. JR provided enough money for Getz to build a better foundation and infrastructure and a winning culture in the minors. That's the complete opposite of all his other years as owner when the focus was on the 26 man roster. Maybe that will translate to being much more competive in the division once theres also money to spend on the 26. There's no reason that the Sox can't make the playoffs on a more consistent basis in a division filled with small market teams with the Ishbias than they did under JR's miserly ownership. It's difficult for the fans because we cheer for the 26 man roster. We don't cheer for new coaches or minor leagues championships, new computers and software ,new scouts and front office personnel , slo mo cameras, new DR facilities. and Trajekt machines. The Sox haved shared those plans with the fanbase and it gets a collective sigh of "Yeah right we've heard BS like this before." Unless the changes result in consistent appearances in the playoffs we're arent interested because we have no idea how long just 1 playoff appearance will take. All we want to hear about is how big is the player payroll going to be. What else could they possibly share with the fans that's not obvious already ? Do you really think they'd hold a press conference to say the Sox aren't ever going to add any significant amount of money to player payroll while JR is still the owner.

Do you have figures to back up your wild claim? Kind of hard to spend on the 2026 and 2027 rosters right now without having players with multi year contracts but rest assured they will have 26 players in each year making at the very least the MLB minimum of $760K x 26 =$19,760,000 in 2026 so x 2 for 2027 would be another roughly $20M . So were looking at a minimum of close to $40M that will be spent in 2026 and 2027 ( a strike may change the figures) on the MLB rosters and likely much more since all 26 players will not be making minimum wages. What's your figures for international spending so far on guys years away. Give me players names that have already received money from the Sox for the 2026 through 2030 international classes along with the amounts they have received. .Officially the Sox can't even say they've reached agreements let alone provide monetary amounts yet you can ?

I'm not expecting a breakout but FFS at a certain point this isn't OOTP and you just sorta roll with a solid young player that has like a 15% chance of a breakout. He went true talent wise from like a replacement level player to probably weak starter, he's 26, pre arb and you have nobody banging down the gate at his position in a year you ain't contending, the f*** you doing looking to move him? edit: man really annoyed I had to get the edit tag on this post because I had to change role to roll.

Bingo. That'd be a terrible location for a Sox stadium. I'm not sure why it keeps getting suggested as a new Sox home. It would be a traffic nightmare and it's a 20 minute walk to the nearest L stop. They'd also need to put at least a retractable roof on the thing with those ice-cold winds blowing right off the lake in the early part of the season. That could add a few hundred million to the price of the structure. Not much night life around it and the Friends of the Park would never allow an entertainment district to be built next to it either. They'd be much better off staying at 35th & Shields than moving to the Soldier Field site. If Ishbia is really going to bankroll a new stadium, it's either going to be at the 78 or on the site of Old Comiskey Park with an entertainment district around it. If he's really going to privately finance a new stadium, I'd have to think the 78 site would be his first choice. But we'll see, it's not my money.

Oh, this is Scott Merkin taking fan questions, and weighing the pros and cons. Of course they have to listen. I'd assume that Teel, the two Montys and Shane Smith are the only untouchables at the moment. But for the way Vargas gets talked about as a clubhouse leader, and unrealized potential, I'd think they'd have to be blown away by a package to move him.

I mean you have to listen.....doesn't mean you have to trade anyone. we are not in a position to hug .230 hitters.........If other teams overvalue him and want to over pay then why not

It’s kinda wild that our owners are telling the pope of future white sox plans, lmao. I’m not a religious fella but I understand the meaning and importance of the pope and having one with a direct connection to Chicago is crazy, and to see the overall reaction to him has been equally as crazy.

Sounds like he'd be happy to: https://chicago.suntimes.com/pope-leo-xiv/2025/11/19/justin-ishbia-pope-white-sox-stadium

Chicago Pope, hater extraordinaire 😂

https://soxmachine.com/2025/09/white-sox-touting-early-international-gains-after-working-to-fix-broken-process Fegan dropped a nice nugget in this piece today. 2029 class so a ways away yet.