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Luis Robert won't be on the next good White Sox team. Acuna and Pauley might be. It's basically that simple. The league just told you what Robert is worth. Holding him into the season would be insane. He'll be hurt again. He's unreliable and I'm glad it's over.

Time for a new banner methinks

If Getz was crazy for picking up the option then he can't also be stupid for getting a couple pieces in return for LouBob without paying LouBob any of that supposedly ridiculous money. Anyway, Sox can now take this money and work on finding an outfielder!

I’m just gonna post this and leave it alone because I don’t want to sound like the board police or some kind of dickhead, but in my opinion the constant bickering and frankly childish posting is damaging what this place could be. Every now and then you’ll see someone create a long, well thought out post and it’s quickly buried and forgotten by the same arguing in circles every thread. It isn’t a great way to encourage traffic from potentially new and informed posters. Again, in my opinion. Anyways, we’re all cheering for the same team. Except caulfield, and he’s banned.

The framing is absurd. You know what else would bring "financial flexibility"? 40 million more allocated to payroll.

It kinda seems like the same people who said he had no value are the most upset he had no value. Puzzling responses here. This move also doesn't indicate much else imo. I guess you can read into that JR is going to go out cheap as always, but what else? Not sure. We just have to wait until ST starts to see how things shake out. Only another month.

This trade has me bummed out. There is no way it makes them better in 2026, which means that they feel zero urgency to not lose 100 games for the fourth year in a row. The number of failed prospects they’re hoping to catch lightning with would be very appropriate on a AAA team. It seems like they are comfortable running out absolute crap teams for the foreseeable future as long as they can have one of the three lowest payrolls in the league.

JR is very happy tonight as the Sox payroll is hitting ridiculous lows. That being said Robert needed to go (a few years ago in fact...)

Maybe I am mistaken but Getz became GM with Robert coming off of the best season in his career. Getz immediately started another rebuild, waited too long to trade Robert, and watched his value diminish into that of a utility player. If Getz can get praised for the Crochet trade, he should definitely be dumped on for this Robert trade.

@caulfield12 what do you think about the trade?

Over the last 4 seasons, Robert missed 195 games. More than an entire season worth of games. The real question should be, who’s going to play CF if Robert was still on the team.

I may be in the minority but I want nothing to do with Bader, Conforto, or Hays

Guys, I can't take anymore Fuller will fix 'em MEMEs. My stomach is sore from all the laughing. Let's take it easy.

Rather see him than Cannon

Interesting turn...

How many times do you need to be punched in the face by these cheap, incompetent, dweebs before you stop thinking theyre coming in for high five?

Eh, I think unloading a huge contract to an iffy oft injured player on the downside of his talent after 2 sucky years is fine, but we did get garbage in return. It’s an expensive flyer for a cheap flyer. Hopefully they do stick Acuña in CF.

I mean, I get that. I'm in the camp that this is better than buying out Robert. Getz clearly made a fine decision there. But the return is basically nothing. Neither of these guys are going to contribute to the next good Sox team. Acuna would highly likely have been DFA by NYM before opening day and Pauley is more or less just a guy and it would be amazing development if he ever even reached a 40 man roster. I don't expect the Sox to be good next season, but they are considerably worse without Robert. I, for one, was looking forward to him having a smudge of protection and a watchable offense if he played well.

Master Bader ?

I would like Bader. He is a master.

Joke’s on them. The 2026 White Sox would beat a team fielded by only Kyle Tucker 7 times out of 10.

I'm really starting to believe you are John Schriffen.

I know it sucks for fans that this rebuild is just going to be a slow burn with Getz holding onto as much youth as he can because he's in a no win situation. Fans can't really do much except dream that JR might possibly allow a $90M 26 man roster and make up trades for Sosa and Quero while hoping every prospect turns into value. This is what we've been reduced to. I now hope Baldwin magically becomes a mini Mickey Mantle and becomes what we always hoped Robert could be while getting immersed on how to read the ball off the bat in the OF so his defense doesnt drag down what I hope can be 25 HR power this year. I have to hope Sosa keeps getting better and hits 30 HRs. I have to hope For Semien like defensive improvement from multiple questionable fielders. I have to hope Murakami and Colson give us 75 HRs between them. I have to hope all our top prospects live up to expectations sooner rather than later. I need to see at least a 10 win improvement this year with a lot of luck from acquired assets , development that gets a bit more upwardly linear from last years rookies and the coming classes of rookies. Any way you get the picture because I'm hoping so many things go right while knowing a change of ownership is down the road , a road I hope is not as rocky as it can appear in these remaining off seasons of Reinsdorf ownership.

We all recognized that Luis Robert had a career year in 2023. We all recognized that it was the first time Luis Robert had been healthy for a full season, outside of his 60 game COVID season, including the minors. What were the odds of Luis Robert being both healthy and productive going forward, when he had never done it before. Understanding that Peak Value Luis Robert was almost certainly after 2023, you also have to recognize that if Luis Robert goes back to injured and/or not productive, his value drops immensely, that even if you didn't get VaLuE for him in 2023, that this ACTUAL return was almost certainly going to be the best you ever got because at the same time you are expecting him to return to his career norms, he was also getting exponentially more expensive. Being a good GM isn't about keeping the masses happy, it's about being smarter than the masses. If Chris Getz kept Luis Robert because he was worry about people like me on a message board, he is in the wrong line of work. Who cares what fans would have thought if it was the smartest move, and on top of it all, he KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO BE A TERRIBLE baseball team going forward that would take half a decade to rebuild. That timeline only emphasizes the point to sell as soon as humanly possible on Robert. So while now we have to pretend to be happy about a halloween prank of a return because ThIs Is WhAt He Is WoRtH nOw, we could have done something years ago, and that can't be ignored.

Well hard to say the Sox lost what they never really had. That said, we wasted a lot of words here on what ultimately was a nothing burger. Robert is clearly valued as a 1.5 WAR player on a bad one year deal. I don't really blame Getz if JR wasn't willing to pay any freight. At least they got something, even if the upside is a few years of a mildly useful Leury like utility guy.

Say last june, Chris Getz decided to do something more his speed and become a ski instructor leaving the White Sox GM job open and JR to have to actually interview candidates. You have an interview and he asks what you would do with Robert. You say you would have to pick up his option, you may be able to get Luisangel Acuna for him. JR later looks him up in BR. I'm guessing you wouldn't get another interview.

Starting pitching please. So I don't have to see Burke.

I think there is potentially more than meets the eye with Acuna. He was clearly rushed to MLB IMO and that can make the development trajectory a little wonky or at least less predictable. He showed a profound lack of power production in MLB last year. Yet I can see on Statcast that he has some seriously respectable bat speed. In his debut he was moving the bat at the Soto/Springer/Rooker/Tatis tier of bat speed. It dropped a tick last year along with his production. I have a feeling that he was getting a message about plate discipline or contact that was not resonating and it led to him allowing the ball to get deep on him and swinging a relatively flat bat. I think these are the marks of a player in survival mode. Maybe he'll never get out of it. In spite of absolutely putrid production in MLB last year, he still had a positive WAR in both major systems for calculating WAR because he's such an asset on defense and on the basepaths. So you can perceive a kind of high floor here as an overall baseball player despite the floor being clearly rather low at the plate. I'm envisioning a sort of Adam Engel/Leury Garcia hybrid. But if you could get him swinging the bat differently there might be more in the tank. He just doesn't pull or elevate at all. Some guys don't do that because it's hard to do it. But I'm not against seeing what he's got. This isn't like saying you want to see if Chase Meidroth can start hitting for big power if he just starts turning and burning...the Meidroths of the world (to be clear, I love the guy) don't move the bat fast enough to hit the ball hard consistently. Acuna has that physical raw power ability that makes me wonder if lightning might strike. Of course, I am prepared for the reality of a lot of chopped ground balls.

I miss the bears

Well because acquiring two players is better than paying $2M for him to go away???? Not saying this is a good move, but it's >>>> than not picking up the option.

Payroll sits at 67 million. Lowest in baseball. We had a higher payroll 22 years ago, for reference.

I guess Getz was lying when he stated on multiple occasions just how much the White Sox wanted Robert to be their CF. I guess the opportunity to acquire Acuna with little power, low OBP and the ability to play 2B was too good to pass up.

But but but, I thought getz wasnt actually trying to trade him unless he was blown away. This team picked up an option to trade it to save money when they have a historically low payroll lol.

This. Would you rather have Murakami or Robert? I think the answer is pretty easy. I wanted Robert gone, and I never expected anything of value in return. Hopefully Getz can utilize some of that $20M to make an addition or two. I won't miss Robert's grimacing face every time he hits the 1B bag running out a grounder.

No, Getz turned a diminished asset into a younger 84 RC+ version of himself. I'm not sure how to express that as an anal sex metaphor.

Getz is to blame for not trading Robert sooner. The Sox were never going to be competitive with Robert on the team. He waited long enough for Robert’s value to be at its lowest and to have a $20 million dollar salary and a $2 million dollar buyout. Getz has also been with the Sox long enough to know that the owner rarely, if ever, sends money in trades to improve the return.

I was in the minority wanting to keep him. My screensaver is Robert hitting a homer at the 78. Oh well, deep down i knew this was coming. Brooks Baldwin step on up!

Robert was scheduled to be at Soxfest. So Jerry also saves two nights at a hotel and minibar charges. He’s gotta love this deal.

I smell the 2026 Marketing campaign.

Ronald Acuña is a free agent in a few years (as long as options get picked up). We’re just back on the friends and family plan trying to bring him in at the time.

This is such a D list operation.

This! Also I want nothing to do with Bader/Hays/Conforto, just let Acuna, Baldwin, Kelenic, and Pereira play as much as possible. Hell I’d rather Bryan Ramos get playing time out there too. The team isn’t contending so I just feel like the Bader, Hays, Conforto would just be taking ABs from the younger guys.

Mets are in Chicago Aug 21-23. Can't wait for Luis to have like 3 HR 10 RBI and a GG catch just to spite us

I think they’ll sign a starting pitcher and outfielder now. Nothing exciting though

So this was the package in which Getz was holding out, At least he got his guy that can play second base. Again, I don’t understand picking up an option if you are just going to salary dump it before you even play another game.. The while thing was dumb. I will say, Robert not having to be the obvious star of the team might be good for him, but chances are he will still miss 40 games. The Sox were going to be bad with Robert. Now they will be a little worse, but with $20 million off the books, JR probably has already locked in a profit. Bravo.

Hopefully in a few years JR is gone, Getz is fired, and this organization is finally run like a real baseball team.

Should have traded him after 2023 when the plug got pulled. What a colossal blunder. Never in a million years would I have thought he would end up in an awful salary dump trade one day.

"Nothing" seems like a pretty accurate description of the return.