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He’s not much more expensive than O’Hearn would have been with an incredible amount more of upside and flip potential. There is no downside to this deal, as let’s be honest, they’ve wasted 17 mil a year on 3 veteran signings most offseasons.

And there it is…never a fucking doubt

@Chicago White Sox

The adrenaline of pitching in front of sold out crowds at the Rate will offset all of that.

This reads like the kind of careful answer you give when you need to pretend he's not already your guy

How does every thread turn into the same tired Chris Getz fight? We’re on the verge of signing the Japanese Babe Ruth and half the board can’t stop bickering with each other over a bunch of non-sense. Let’s get fucking amped and stop with all the damn in-fighting.

Only posting this because Bruce misspelled both his first and last name.

What does any of this have to do with free agency? Lol.

This is exactly what I feel when people talk about the Ishbia's bad spending in Phoenix. GIve me failed effort over no effort all day, every day.

I want this to happen more for @Chicago White Sox than for the Chicago White Sox

Getz should get drunk tonight and sign an outfielder.

This is the best news they could have received from these meetings. I do question Getz referring to it as an honor. Dude, it pretty much means your team really sucks.

Pope Leo, please bless us on this day. Amen!

Also worth noting that while the Sox are putting out 40m total for this signing, I bet a sizable chunk of this comes back to them in the form of Japanese ad sales. Wouldn't be surprised at all see Japanese ads in the park for opening day, plus some specialty media deals.

Now do Tucker.

All credit to @Chicago White Sox who shitposted this into existence

I have forgotten what it’s like to root for a team that actually signs players you can expect to be good.

Getz keeps hiring awesome people somehow.

You know you suck when one of the most valuable things about you is you can be sent down.

28, poor k rate, poor BB rate,poor HR rate, but other than that, he's pretty good.

Not sure I understand why it should be sad or embarrassing that the Sox found value in their Rule 5 guys last year, when finding value that other teams didn't see or couldn't realize is exactly what they should be doing with their timeline and plethora of available innings/ABs? Basically every avenue of player acquisition other than drafting 1.1 involves your organization committing an amount of roster space, development time, draft position, money, etc. to a player that other orgs didn't think was worth it at the time. Is getting a surprise hit in the mid rounds of the draft "sad" because a player other teams passed on ended up outplaying existing options in your system? Or is it possible that being correctly ahead of the "market" on a player is a good thing actually? Maybe even key for a team in this position? Like sure, I guess in a dream world the Sox just have a rotation of 5 WAR aces with no room for Smith. In a world where the Sox aren't losing 100, he's not their "ace" or all star. But it's odd to talk like he's a bottom 5 SP who would never crack a single other MLB rotation. He was an above replacement level player on a team in dire need of them, so I don't get why we should be using the Brewers' particular 40 man machinations as a demerit against his production. Almost every piece of Rule 5 coverage leading into yesterday hat tipped the Sox for finding two objectively solid pieces last year, but on here nabbing a fine starter for $100k and a versatile reliever for free is a shame for the Sox because...they should have already had better players? Because another team was willing to gamble on leaving them available in a Rule 5 draft where few players get taken and even fewer stick? Improve the roster but also never acquire talent that other teams didn't see first is an awfully tough needle to thread.

Feels like it’s too early to trade for need. I don’t see the rush in dealing him.

I'm quite a Quero truther, so it would take quite the return to make me not hate this.

Good for everyone around Don’t get me wrong, there’s a chance the Jays absolutely regret this…but at least they are going for it. Must be nice

According to whom?

You always say that first line and it’s dumber each time.

This should be fun. Low downside, medium upside is how I look at it. $34M is chump change and not going to affect anything long term even if Murakami goes full 2011 Adam Dunn. Of course, if he's great, he's going to take off before the Sox have a real team. But that's a trade chip for you. His manager in Japan was Shingo Takatsu, by the way. Maybe Mr. Zero put in a good word.

Wow, this is great! Glad to see Ish paying dividends.

Why is Pritzker a clown?

Its funny how news of a hire with universal approval still results in the usual suspects trying to shoehorn in criticisms of Getz for 6 pages.

The foundational changes he has made should not be understated. He basically wiped out the previous group of international scouts and has built a brand new team under David Keller. He has modernized what was a terribly broken Analytics department and has integrated it throughout all major functional areas of the org. He has built a new, beefed up Acquistions group under Matt Grabowski to bring a more data-centric element to player evaluation alongside traditional pro scouting under Gene Watson in new position in that area. He’s invested in key technologies like Hawk-Eye and iPitch machines to enhance both our biomechanics and player development functions. He’s added designated leaders to oversee pitching and hitting across the org. He’s greatly expanded the size of the front office by hiring three Assistant GMs with specific responsibilities and has added other new roles including a Director of Major League Strategy and Director of Leadship, Culture, & Education. I’m sure there are many other changes & hires I’m not outlining above, but his efforts have been substantial and should warrant some praise from fans.

This is a home run fucking hire. I’m actually shocked the Rays did not promote him to GM after Bendix left, but their loss is our gain. And candidly speaking, our front office size was still light compared to others prior to this addition. Glad that Getz didn’t rush to add muscle and instead waited for the right guy to come along.

Kind of confirms they are landing Murakami. You don’t add an Assistant GM with lots of international scouting experience unless you’re planning a whopper of an addition in that area.

All else equal, I’d be hard pressed to take a HS prospect over one of the best college SS prospects in years. The latter provides a high ceiling without a ton of projection & development, which is what makes the pick so valuable in the first place.

Roch, Colson, Carlson, & Bonemer is going to be a fun problem to have.

The Pope!

With ABS being a thing next year, the value of framing will be decreased (although definitely not eliminated). Quero's biggest weakness is his framing, it cost him about 1.5 wins of value last year. I say we wait and see how his power develops and how the new ABS rules affect his value defensively as a catcher before trading him.

The Sox should be all over this IMO.

Worth a shot. I liked him a lot in the 2016 draft class. Reinvented himself in Japan after adding a 2 seamer. Feels similar to the Fedde situation/signing.

I mean two things can be true at the same time. Jerry Reindsdorf is embarrassingly cheap AND this is a bad contract.

Yep. As Sox fans, we've spent the last 20-30 years remarking at how certain free agent contracts have been terrible for that other team and that they're going to regret it. Meanwhile, the Sox have held the line at the $75M contract mark and have been one of the worst teams over the last 20 years in terms of making the playoffs and actually winning playoff games. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to pity these other franchises for their supposed stupidity, I'm going to ENVY them because we're stuck with the Sox organization's stupidity at how they do things.

Got PAID! Good for Cease.

And that's fine. BA suggests he could be put into the OF or 3rd.

Roch has to be the favorite but Grady Emerson is also a mega-prospect. Lefty swinging shortstop from the Dallas area who does everything well. One scout said the only downside on his card is that Emerson isn't quite as good at the same age as Bobby Witt Jr. So, good year to be picking #1.

We just injected a potential 30 WAR into the next 7 years at no real financial cost. This is a big deal. Don't screw it up.

No. But there's miserable people on here so now's a good time to take the good news and cancel it out by reminding us that the world is hell.