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I'd rather they waste $4.5 million than trade for guys like Booser with a 19 year old prospect.

Yea this whole discussion has gotten weird. It's clear posters here want to make a trade for the sake of making a trade. Sox have the worst outfield situation in baseball even with him and he is certainly not even close to blocking anyone. Nothing good can come from him leaving the roster. If there return is great, then whatever, but the thought process above is just really dumb.

It’s mostly just due to no success on international market. I don’t really agree on the reaching part and the “punting” is necessary to spend on premium talent without extra picks.

I know he has a lot of concerns about swing and miss, but I still can't believe the White Sox signed the two time NPB MVP who hit 56 homers in a season during a deadball era to play first base and bat left handed.

I would rather sign Mune, but that said, O’Hearn is gonna help Pittsburgh. With their young pitching, a average offense makes them a playoff threat.

Yeah I'd rather gamble on Murakami for like $10 million more. Pirates were in on him as well.

lol gotta love that reporting. If it happens, could be this week. Could be after.

Is Getz competent? Because he is actually making moves a competing team like the Cubs should be making...

Wow, love this move. He’s been pretty mediocre for the past few years, but made significant changes to his repertoire last season and the results show. This really strengthens the left-side of the bullpen for us. Still think we should add a legit high leverage guy to the mix.

Nice addition to the pen.

Get CWS on it!

If those top guys are all 50 FV's, the White Sox are in a world of trouble. That would basically mean that Schultz and Smith are #4 starters.

Kepler gives me 2021 Adam Eaton vibes in terms of being cooked.

Kepler is a perfectly fine bridge for Braden. His BA and WOBA last year were below his xBA and xWOBA so there may be some positive regression. For 1 yr and 9m or so, that would be solid.

I have no idea where you guys come up with this stuff. Getz literally listed off like four or five needs at the Winter Meetings and said they were focused on addressing them via free agency. A $90M payroll is literally nothing. We were spending that much or more every single year since winning the World Series outside of 2018 (peak of previous rebuild). And even then, our 2018 payroll would be over $90M in current dollars. Point is there is zero reason to think we are going to be below $90M in payroll. I get we have accumulated losses in recent years per Forbes, but we also had gains during the past rebuild and brought on the Ishbia’s to a greater capacity to help address their debt. No way the payroll is going down or staying flat vs. last year after finally getting a TV deal in place and having some second half momentum, which means any minimum floor should somewhere above $80M and a realistic one would be closer to $90M.

This. They weren’t planning on doing much, if any spending. Murakami fell into their laps and it was a good opportunity to get a potential power hitting star at their price.

Surely nothing worse than the US, step-poster?

Yeah, I don't know if it's conditioning or whatnot, but I think Getz just wants to move on from that era, which is fine.

Why?

Fangraphs is quite conservative with their FV grades. Last seasons final update to The Board started the 50 FV tier at #24. I think we'd all be encouraged to see anyone currently in the system slot into that area on a top 100 list.

More shocking to me is the “women only” train cars to hedge against groping and that every cellphone has a clicker sound on the camera to hedge against upskirt photos. Weird place.

Having 6 guys they rate as 50 FV tho is quite encouraging. I'd rather have this then the Hahn era of two or three 55 guys then nothing after that. FWIW I saw most scouts were giving Cholosky a 60 at this point. He'd immediately be a top 10 prospect in MLB and vault our system into the top 10, maybe even top 5.

I won't stand this Big Nashville propaganda!

Sounds like Colome when he was the closer here. I loved following Colome on the gamethreads because people would freak out with his tight rope acts but damnit he got out of most of the jams he got himself into.

They don’t have anywhere near enough pitching to compete if they kept Robert. None of this is about 2026.

Chicago White Sox Top 37 Prospects | FanGraphs Baseball Rk Name Age Highest Level Position ETA FV 1 Caleb Bonemer 20.2 A+ 3B 2029 50 2 Noah Schultz 22.4 AAA SP 2026 50 3 Hagen Smith 22.3 AA SP 2027 50 4 Christian Oppor 21.4 A+ SP 2027 50 5 Braden Montgomery 22.7 AA RF 2027 50 6 Tanner McDougal 22.7 AA SP 2026 50 7 Billy Carlson 19.4 R SS 2030 45+ 8 Jedixson Paez 21.9 A+ SP 2026 45 9 Jaden Fauske 19.1 R LF 2030 40+ 10 Sam Antonacci 22.9 AA 2B 2026 40+

Kepler is toast. Giving him an $8 mil severance package would be a very bad idea. Tauchman is considerably better at this point.

I’d rather have Bader than Kepler. I’d rather have Austin Hays than Kepler too.

Sounds like the Sox are willing to eat half of Robert’s salary per Wittenmyer. If so, how would you feel about this series of moves: CF Luis Robert + $10M cash for RHP Chase Petty and 2026 Comp B pick Sign RHP Pete Fairbanks to 2/$18M contract Sign OF Max Kepler to 1/$8M contract Should put the total roster right around $90M in payroll and would leave you with this: Lineup : Meidroth, 2B Teel, CA* Montgomery, SS* Vargas, 3B Murakami, 1B* Quero, DH# Kepler, RF* Benintendi, LF* Baldwin, CF# Bench: BC: Lee IF: Sosa OF: Pereira OF: Hill Rotation: Smith Martin Kay* Burke Petty Bullpen: CL: Fairbanks SU: Taylor SU: Leasure MR: Vasil MR: Newcomb* MR: Alberto MR: Gilbert* LR: Paez

Bad defender and base runner who doesnt carry the iso value to trust sustained success as a hitter only imo. Lost some bat speed already last year, getting older, and just think that iso and bat speed continues down from here. I also just dont trust thet he's suddenly hitting lefties.

Knew he was going to get overpaid. $40 million for Murakami after the posting fee is a better gamble for a potential star. O’Hearn is 32 and definitely not that guy.

Just a fantastic signing. You hope he does hit and could possibly extend him as a key piece of the core. If he flops, you're on the hook for one more year.

Schultz as a 50 FV prospect is something. Fully disagree on that. And Paez as our #8 prospect over numerous guys is also something.

"We wanted to establish a presence in the [Pacific] Rim and that starts with hiring a scout, Satoshi Takahashi," Keller said. "Once we were able to get him on board, I think that's where those conversations became more real." "Got Jerry [Reinsdorf] up to speed on the reality of bringing in Mune," said Getz, using Murakami's preferred nickname. "The more he was hearing from me, and Brooks as well on the marketing front and the international impact that it can have in bringing in someone as significant as Mune, led us to get to the finish line. A lot of that was support from Jerry in the end." That is both promising and pathetic.

Haha, had two windows open and must have replied in the wrong one.

This is Soxtalk. Is there such a thing?

Well, it reinforces that Longenhagen doesn’t see a superstar in the system. I suspect Bonemer might end up being very good. Lotta ceiling for Oppor as well.

If we don't get Fairbanks, Dominguez is still available. Taylor Rogers is also available, but he's pretty washed. The Cubs even left him off their NLDS roster.

1.7 fWAR last year in 92 innings, which is a lot for a reliever. I think he was a multi inning opener for Boston. BABIP was .344 and he still put up good numbers, so this wasn't all just a lucky year. Definitely came up out of nowhere last year, but it's a great signing for $4.5 million.

Ryan, I Hardly Knew Ye WHILE going the road to sweet Athy, Hurroo! hurroo! While going the road to sweet Athy, Hurroo! hurroo! While going the road to sweet Athy, A stick in my hand and a drop in my eye, A doleful damsel I heard cry: “Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! “With drums and guns, and guns and drums, The enemy nearly slew ye; My darling dear, you look so queer, Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! “Where are your eyes that looked so mild? Hurroo! hurroo! Where are your eyes that looked so mild? Hurroo! hurroo! Where are your eyes that looked so mild, When my poor heart you first beguiled? Why did you run from me and the child? Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! With drums, etc. “Where are the legs with which you run? Hurroo! hurroo! Where are thy legs with which you run? Hurroo! hurroo! Where are the legs with which you run When first you went to carry a gun? Indeed, your dancing days are done! Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! With drums, etc. It grieved my heart to see you sail, Hurroo! hurroo! It grieved my heart to see you sail, Hurroo! hurroo! It grieved my heart to see you sail, Though from my heart you took leg-bail; Like a cod you’re doubled up head and tail, Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! With drums, etc. “You haven’t an arm and you haven’t a leg, Hurroo! hurroo! You haven’t an arm and you haven’t a leg, Hurroo! hurroo! You haven’t an arm and you haven’t a leg, You’re an eyeless, noseless, chickenless egg; You’ll have to be put with a bowl to beg: Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! With drums, etc. “I’m happy for to see you home, Hurroo! hurroo! I’m happy for to see you home, Hurroo! hurroo! I’m happy for to see you home, All from the Island of Sulloon; So low in flesh, so high in bone; Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! With drums, etc. “But sad it is to see you so, Hurroo! hurroo! But sad it is to see you so, Hurroo! hurroo! But sad it is to see you so, And to think of you now as an object of woe, Your Peggy’ll still keep you on as her beau; Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye! With drums and guns, and guns and drums, The enemy nearly slew ye; My darling dear, you look so queer, Och, Ryan, I hardly knew ye.

From July 12th to the end of the season, here were the leaders in K/9 with 40+ IPs pitched. Again, this reflects Burke’s final 10 starts as a rookie: Sean Burke = 12.33 Shohei Ohtani = 12.29 Jacob Misiorowski = 12.05 Dylan Cease = 11.97 Blake Snell = 11.69 Freddy Peralta = 11.68 Brandon Woodruff = 11.51 Paul Skenes = 11.48 Logan Gilbert = 11.23 Sean Manaea = 11.13 To say a rookie who was able to post the highest K/9 in baseball over the final third of the season “doesn’t have much of a ceiling” is absolutely wild to me. The other nine pitchers in this group are some of the best strikeout pitchers in the game…the only guy who even possibility stands out as an outlier is Manaea who completely abandoned his sinker last year and ramped up the usage of his sweeper. @Look at Ray Ray Run - What is your theory on the above figures? How did he go from a terrible K rate to start the season to best in baseball by its end? Obviously it can’t because he got better or developed as the season progressed, that is not possible for rookies or young players, so is it just random performance variance and/or the benefit of getting to face the Guardians one extra time?

Great addition for not alot of money.

The point on Thorpe is we don’t know what he is. To say he “stinks” completely ignores his minor league track record & prospect pedigree and over-indexes on his first eight major league starts. He’s obviously got a unique profile with less margin of error when it comes to command, but I’m giving him a much bigger runway than that first cup of coffee with is before making such declarations. He may end up busting, but I liked what I saw from his change up when he was with the Sox and his minor league numbers show a dude with impeccable command and an ability to generate weak contact. I remain cautiously optimistic for now.

They can buy low on Petty in a trade with the Reds. He had a rough start but didn't we like him before? Bannister could work with him

I really love this aspect of the signing, can never underestimate how these signings can create new fans and renew old bonds:

You know much more about advanced stats than I do, so I have some questions for you. I’m curious how much the run value stats you cited predict future success. I’m also curious if they are more results based like ERA, or if they are more like FIP? I decided to look at Cannon’s page. In 2024, he was in the 47th percentile in fastball run value. In 2025, he was in the 3rd percentile of fastball run value. So did his fastball get that much worse? Or is there some luck involved there? I then wanted to look at an elite pitcher. I chose Tarik Skubal. In 2021 (his first full season), he was in the 20th percentile in pitching run value. Then he jumped to 78th in 2022, 93rd in 2023, and 100th in 2024 and 2025. Is that kind of jump after a rookie season extremely rare?